New Year, New Goals and Home Improvement Projects!

Hello barbies and happy 2014!  Hubby and I rang in the new year in Lake Charles, Louisiana while driving back from a trip to Texas to visit hubby's family. Unfortunately, NYE wasn't much of a party for us because we were amidst an 18 hour drive - with dogs - and Ross had come down with a case of the particularly bad 2014 Texas flu bug. I've never seen him so sick. I'm pleased to report that he's now feeling 100% and my young, Italian Bob Villa is on his feet again!

Instead of picking one big resolution this year, I made a list of some lifestyle changes that I want to make that had been on my mind a lot lately. As we begin thinking about having kids some time in the next few years, I really wanted to make sure we're getting the most out of our free time as young, professional, child-free adults, because from my mommy friends it has become very clear to me that personal time and your own extra curriculars become endangered species when your little bundle of joy comes along. With our jobs and social media, I also find that hubby and I are both constantly glued to our phones, which is sad and I really want to change. They say your chances of keeping up your resolutions are significantly higher if you write them down, so here are a few of my top big picture goals for 2014:

• Be more present in the moment
• Put the iphone and ipad down
• Swim more (I've already put some work in on this one in 2014!)
• Learn to play the piano (hubby got me a beautiful antique piano for Christmas!)
• Spend more time outdoors (traditionally not my thing, but I see its value)
• Eat fewer processed foods
• Spend more time volunteering (I already do a good bit with the swim team, but I want to get into some more traditional charities too)
• Make getting to Europe in 2014 a financial priority
• Use our Hasentree amenities more (since we pay generously for them every month and hardly ever take advantage of them)
• Be less focused on material things
• Spend more time with the ones who count <3

 

Here's a photo of the new piano. Didn't he do a great job? It's a Betsy Ross Spinet. Major thanks to the Fenlon boys for coming over to help get it inside (it's HEAVY)!

 Out with my girlfriend Sarah for her birthday. Happy birthday Sarah!

We also identified a list of home improvement projects we'd like to complete at the BDH this year, many of which we've already started working on!

• Build wine cellar shelving (obviously this is a Ross thing, not a Whitney thing, so I'm at the mercy of his schedule)
• Finish the only room in our house that is still undone, our media room (in progress - photos coming next week - I'm so excited!)
• Build or buy built-in shelving for around our TV in the family room (done!)
• Build or buy wall of book cases and rolling ladder for the library (this will need to happen soon because we're overflowing with books now! #lawyerproblems)
• Finish the dining room curtains
• Install a backyard fence for the dogs
• Print enlarged canvas prints of our travel photos (already working on this one!) and hang them
• Ross plans on building a rotating TV mount, so our bedroom TV can rotate between our master bed room and master sitting room
• Paint or wallpaper our first floor powder room - I would love a gold damask paper in there!
• Do wainscoting for a couple rooms that currently don't have it
• Improve our landscaping
• Improve our outdoor living spaces
• Improve our Christmas decor storage situation (done!)

What are your resolutions and plans for 2014, dolls?

Stay tuned for a tutorial from Ross on how to build from scratch a weather treated outdoor bench! He built one for my parents for Christmas to replace one they had that broke and it turned out beautiful! Also, we'll be sharing before and after pictures of our media room next week and a VERY handy media room-related tutorial from hubby that saved us hundreds on our space! Lastly, be sure to check out A Glimpse Inside Blog, a fun site where I guest posted earlier this week. I gave a tutorial on how to make this chevron, burlap bow picture frame for under $5!

Thanks for reading barbies!

xox