Heal your gut. Heal your life.
Yesterday during a massage, the masseuse asked me, “You’ve been here almost a year now, right?” I replied, “Yes. Exactly one year tomorrow (today).” She asked, “Have any regrets about moving back to Minnesota?” Without giving it a single thought, I said, “No regrets, and absolutely zero things to regret about making the move from California to Minnesota.”
Yellow is probably my least favorite color, so when I picked up this Yellow Orchid on Friday, I never thought I’d find it so beautiful.
Today we are moving to our forever home….home for the holidays. It feels a little surreal.
Without a solid foundation, everything else eventually crumbles. The story of this foundation is one that came full circle.
I have a little kitchen nook that’s my favorite spot in our whole house.
It happens to be the spot where I spend a large chunk of time, too, at the kitchen sink because there is no dishwasher in our rental house.
I ran across a cute little post from Miss Mustard Seed called gaining space & resourcefulness in mid-January. This was right around the time we were moving into the rental, and there was just something about the way she draped a string of artwork hanging under cubbies that I found charming (Image credit: Miss Mustard Seed).
I looked at my kitchen nook and thought how similar the shape (of the area directly above the faucet) resembled her cubbies.
I hit “save” on the blog post, and kept coming back to it.
Click HERE to save this post for later.
I wanted to attach a string like she did, but wasn’t sure what I’d hang on my string that would look cute and make sense.
One day when my mom was over, I showed her the blog post, and she said, “You could hang Samarah’s school artwork there.”
Perfect. It was the best idea because a 4-year-olds artwork is enough to steal my heart during the dreaded dishwashing time.
I also had to fill the space right above it. I didn’t want cubbies like she had because it was already blocked off in one large box, but I wanted something that felt simple, farm-ish, and true to our family home style.
So I did what came most naturally – jars filled with food. Functional and practical just like the DIY Mason Jar Table Centerpieces (that we still have on our table).
I had gotten those jars a long time ago in the dollar section at Target. I filled them with:
(Lotus Foods, by far the best out there)I also set out the little espresso pot Ceci got for us, and a huge jar of local honey – Hannah’s Honey (if you’re in the area, buy your honey from her). I grabbed one of my wire baskets and filled it with other food items we eat on a weekly basis. Things like sweet potatoes, baby red potatoes, avocado, and squashes (pictured here is spaghetti squash, but I always typically have a kabocha in there as well). Sitting right in front of it all is a little, baby succulent because I find them adorable and the perfect match for my other favorite plant, the orchid.
And last, but not least, one of the best parts of my kitchen nook is the lamp. The shade broke on it, so I don’t currently have one, but this was a lamp (I actually have two) that came straight from my Grandma Josephine (where Samarah gets her middle name). Every single time I look at the lamp, I think of her.
That, my friends, is our kitchen nook, my favorite space in the whole house.
When we move, I will not miss the fact that I don’t have room to do the things I want in the kitchen, but I will absolutely miss this nook.
What my kitchen nook has taught me about change is that, when given time and a vision beyond cosmetic appearances, something endearing is possible to emerge.
p.s. I’m no decorator – that would be my mother – she’s amazing at it. But I do like to make spaces unique and custom to Ryan, the kids and I and our (oftentimes “different”) style. Do you like when I share posts like this about how I decorate? If so, in the coming year I can share much more because I’m going to be doing it 24/7.
Xox,
SKH
If you don’t have time to read these posts daily, but don’t want to miss them, be sure to follow via Bloglovin’ and/or join my personal e-newsletter HERE. I am doing my best to send a once per week email recap of prior week’s posts.
These posts will all live under “Wellness+Lifestyle” and also tagged with “101 Days of Blogging.” The 101-day series runs from Monday, January 8, 2018, through Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
If there is a topic surrounding change that you would love for me to include in this series, please just CONTACT ME.
It’s been several months of new spaces for us, and yesterday I entered yet another.
Back in January via my delish 3-Ingredient Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake recipe, I shared that I was looking for an office studio space. I mentioned,
So today, and last week, and every single day until I find it…..I am officially looking for office studio space – a working environment away from the home where I’m able to have a better balance of “work” time then “home” time because it’s something I have not had for years.
Recently, I shared that I had found my space, but that I wasn’t ready to share it quite yet.
I’m glad I chose to wait because the spot I had picked out ended up not completely working out. Not “completely” because it’s not the spot I wanted, but I’m still working with the same owner, and that was also kind of important to me.
Anyways, my original spot was one large open room. It needed work and a lot of clutter removal. I was totally cool with it, though, because the space itself came with charm.
It didn’t work out, and that’s probably okay because the new office studio space I got is much bigger, perfectly clean and ready to move into (today!), and has everything I’ll need for all pieces to my business (clients, photography, styling, other content creation, designing, copy, and then, of course, this blog + the very limited health coaching I still do, and Beautycounter).
Yesterday I got the keys to the new place. It’s a 2 bedroom apartment, complete with a full kitchen and bathroom, and it even has a dishwasher, which I find to be hilarious because our rental house doesn’t even have that.
I went yesterday just to stand in the apartment and soak up my vision for what I want to do with it, and how I want to fully utilize the full space (if I’m paying for it, might as well use all of it).
It’s hard to imagine if you’re not there, but these pictures give a rough idea of what the place looks empty.
Here is what I’m going to do with it:
I might try to make this my office desk. I always knew that once we moved from California, I’d take it for myself, but I wasn’t sure how. I’m hoping it works as my desk. My office will have all the things I need for day-to-day business like an office would have.
There is this little space in the kitchen for a small table. I’m going to get a table of sorts for this space. Why? Because it can be dual-acting: prepared food extras (for when I need to grab ‘n go for styling) and also for when I want to invite someone over for coffee or lunch. Seriously. It’s going to be quiet in there (which is what I’ve needed), but my plan is to make it cute, cozy, and invite-able.
I am creative, but when new spaces feel cozy and charming, I’m inspired and the creativity runs wild.
Basic. Like any other 2 bedroom apartment in rural Minnesota.
But I finally have a space that’s all mine to separate work and home (and produce, produce, produce!), and I could not be more excited about new spaces. Once it’s all set up (at least structurally, I’m guessing it will constantly be a work in progress), I’ll share what it looks like.
p.s. via a private Studio Spaces Pinterest board, I’ve been saving some ideas, but I’d love yours, too! Do you have your own office space? Where did you find the stuff for it? I’m craving a big, beautiful color wheel, for starters.
p.s.s. Speaking of new spaces, moving into our “new” house is getting closer and closer. I can’t wait to share it with you! In the meantime, I keep adding new ideas to two Pinterest boards you might enjoy: Our New House (I started this one a long time ago, but the recent pins are most relevant) + Kid Rooms (Why do I have only one board for all 3 of our kids? Because I’m not doing any woo-woo “themed” rooms i.e. princesses. I want all their rooms to be a classic, classy, mostly neutral and clean look.)
Xox,
SKH
If you don’t have time to read these posts daily, but don’t want to miss them, be sure to follow via Bloglovin’ and/or join my personal e-newsletter HERE. I am doing my best to send a once per week email recap of prior week’s posts.
These posts will all live under “Wellness+Lifestyle” and also tagged with “101 Days of Blogging.” The 101-day series runs from Monday, January 8, 2018, through Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
If there is a topic surrounding change that you would love for me to include in this series, please just CONTACT ME.
