Looking Forward to 2014

Yesterday I shared my favorite blog posts from 2013 month by month. Today i'm thinking about 2014 and what's ahead for this year. I'm not much a resolution person, but becoming more of a goal setter. Click here to read my goal list from 2013, on the personal side and home goals I did pretty good....of course some things didn't happen so they'll be rolling into 2014 :) My personal theme this year is organizing, not just our belonging and our house, but also my time. Time is precious and I know that keeping myself organized and living with intention will allow me to focus my time on doing what I truly love: creating, decorating, exploring in the kitchen, drawing & painting....and of course blogging. 

Be So Good Print via Etsy store The Motivated Type 
Personal Goals 2014

Continue drinking lots and lots of water
Let go of self doubt 
Follow my heart, and just go for it! 
Host a Cocktail Party or Two?
Attend a live music concerts (seeing one in Feb)
Gain more confidence using larger power tools: miter saw / wet saw (pretty much all saws)
Invest in myself: take a photography class 
Throw a Early Spring Housewarming! 
Have a Girlfriends Brunch this year 
Cook with my kids
Learn More Sewing Skills
Make things more from Scratch: Breads, Pizza Dough, Pancakes etc 
Invest in myself and my personal time to create: draw / paint / read & write more
Have individual mom time for Avery & Tabari: Movie dates, dinner dates and playing 

Home Goals 

Fill Our home with things we only absolutely LOVE 
Create an Organized Mudroom & Laundry Room
Print Pictures out and Enjoy them!
Park My SUV in the Garage 
Organize our kitchen cabinets from top to bottom 
Create a creative and fun bedroom for both my boys
Make our bedroom a relaxing retreat
Make a stunning master closet space 
Make our Living & Dining areas feel warm and cozy 
Install Crown Molding throughout our home - even in the laundry / mudroom 
Plant a Garden an small Vegetable & Herb Garden 
& Much More

Do you have a personal theme for 2014?

Looking Back at 2013

Last year was a both a stressful emotional year and exciting and happy you for my family. If your new to my blog in the Summer or 2012 our home caught on fire and we lived in an apartment for a year while our home was been rebuilt. I spend the first half of 2013 working with contractors on our home, deciding on all the details right down to where the plugs on the wall would go. I really enjoyed working with our contractors, I love design and helping design for my family was both exciting and heartbreaking under the circumstances. In addition to dealing with contractors, working with the insurance and mortgage company (both making sure the money is going into the home repair) was exhausting. A few days shy of the anniversary of the fire, we moved back into our home, and love it more than ever just like the saying goes you don't know what you got until its gone. 

 Words can't even begin to express how good it feels to be back in our home again and have it feel like home. One of the many things I love about blogging is looking back though the year and seeing all the projects we've worked on, for me a lot of my blogging in 2013 was really therapeutic. Sharing our journey or rebuilding our home with all my dear readers was really special, I loved getting all your feedback and encouraging words throughout the year. I truly thank each and everyone of you. 

 A day into the new year, I was feeling a little down about not having a home that felt a little more finished [so many blank walls, and projects not yet started] When I started looking back though the achieves of 2013, I reminded myself how far our home has come in a year. And how it takes time to create a home for you and your family and friends to enjoy. I've went though my 2013 archives and picked and rounded up my a few of my favorite posts from each month. 

With the construction beginning on our home, Hasani and I were eager to start looking at sofa options for our home.



1. Door Shopping 2. One Year Later, Still Cable Free

 With our kitchen an official blank slate and completely gutted, I started drawing kitchen ideas how how I wanted our space to look. Our kitchen today looks exactly like the drawing I did almost a year ago, love that my vision came to life. 
1. Our Home: Busy Week 2. Lighting Ideas: Great Outdoors

After looking at a rendering of our master bathroom addition, I realized the original placement of our bathroom window in the shower,  threw off the 'look' of our french doors. Thankfully we were able to change the placement just in time and decided our new location for our bathroom window. 



1. Front Door Color Inspiration 2. Freshly Painted Home 
 In April we had the huge task of deciding on our Hardwood Floor stain color. I love that we were able save our original hardwoods and have them refinished. 


1. Thrifty Finds 2. Everyday White Dinnerware

Our homes old front door was a cheery classic red, while I love red front doors I wanted our new door to be fun bright shade that didn't take its self to seriously. I thought a pretty shade or aqua or chartreuse would look amazing against our dark grey home. We ended up going with a shade of Chartreuse its the color we loved the most and also sacred me to go for it! To this day so happy we went with our gut. 


1. There's No Place Like Home 2. Rainbow Birthday Cake 

 For most of the year I was a in a cooking slump, until I came across The Mom 100 Cookbook which really inspired me to start making new to us home cooked meals. I put together a collection of cookbooks I plan on adding to my home. 
1. Twin Sofas 2. Our New Not Typical Houseplant

 In July, I shared our House Tour before we officially moved in. 



1. Our backyard Pergola 2. Painted Campaign Dresser

In August, I finally shared my mini dream kitchen, which was almost 'done.' 
1. Growing Lemons 2. Toddler Art Caddy

I fell in love with this chartreuse fabric for Avery's room, and transformed basic white roman shades into custom roman shades for Avery's twin windows. 

1. Our Bedroom Progress 2. Toddler Room in Progress

In October I made back tab drapes for our drapes for dining room.
1. Making a Rug with Flor 2. Prepping for our Thanksgiving 
Project wise, November and December where quieter months around our house, but I was happy I was able to refinish our vintage dining room table, just in time to host Thanksgiving. I love how how the table turned out! 


1. Our Modern Thanksgiving Table setting.

For Christmas we skipped our usual decorations colors of aquas and whites and decided to have a color-filled Christmas. Our tree was full of multicolored ornaments and we hung colorful felt garland from our windows. 


Wow that was a long blog post! I hope you all enjoyed looking back at Chic Little House in 2013. I'm already looking forward to working on new projects around the house and getting more settled now that were home. On Wednesday, I'll be sharing my goals for 2014. 

 Do you have any favorite projects we worked on last year?