I have my money wiz, Katelyn Magnuson, dropping some finance knowledge for you! Investing in her was one of the best business decisions I made in 2019. I’m looking forward to crashing my financials goals with her by my side this year.

Our winery tour in Sienna was absolutely magical. In fact, it might be one of my favorite memories from the trip. We had spent the last four days dealing with travel nightmares, and we finally got the chance to enjoy the culture, wine, and food of Italy at La Lastra. We booked the experience through Airbnb.

I’ve been wanting to share this story for a long time. Andrew and I met on a double date. And no, we were not there with each other. You see, I was engaged to be married and Andrew WAS married when we met.

One thing they don’t tell you when you get engaged is just how many white dresses you are going to need! Your wedding gown is NOT the only white dress you will be shopping for. Between the engagement party, bridal showers, and rehearsal dinner, there are A LOT of white dresses to be worn. I had way too much fun little white dress shopping for my wedding.

This year, I decided to create a template of my own to reflect on 2018 and plan for 2019. When I first created the template, I wasn’t sure if I should separate business and personal reflections and goals, but after some thought I kept coming back to the fact that the two are truly intertwined.

Last year, we were moving into our home during the holidays. We came to Michigan with barely any furniture or decor, let alone holiday decor! I picked up just enough last year to make it feel like the holidays. This year, I had the time to add a few things here and there and we learned that our bay window deserves a 10ft live tree! I wanted to keep the Christmas color pallet black & white. Welcome to our home at Christmas!

A year ago, if I heard the term “mindset” or someone mentioned “life coaching,” my eyes would roll so far back into my head that they would get stuck there for 48 hours. I’m an extremely analytical, realistic, straight forward person that relies on a dose of intuition. All of this “find your inner-self” shit seemed like a lot of fu-fu fluff. The universe works in funny ways my friends. Early this year, I brought on a life coach as a Thoughtfully Designed client, and we instantly hit it off.

Check out this minimal, black and white Christmas decor inspiration. It’s very modern, but still cozy!

If you have been following me on Instagram for awhile, you know that we have been trying really hard to reduce the amount of waste generated in our household. It’s been a slow process. We tried to go cold turkey, and found that wasn’t realistic for us. After that, adding back in products with wasteful packaging felt defeating, BUT I wasn’t giving us enough credit. It’s all about progress, not perfection and that goes for you, too! You don’t have to be an extreme zero waster to make a few small changes that can have a big impact on your waste generation, so here are some waste reduction tips for people who are NOT zero waste! 

Check out how I transformed our entryway on a tiny budget using thrifted treasures and what we already had around the house!

I’m head over heels for the black metal bed frame we ordered from Wayfair. Every time I post our bedroom on Instagram, I get tons of questions about it! It goes out of stock all of the time, so I wanted to share my other favorites with you!

Check out this moody, tropical, bohemian wedding mood board.