Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A birthday list...


My birthday came and went, quietly again, like last year.  I guess that's what birthdays do as you get older.  Of course, no birthday of mine is complete without a list of lofty goals and ambitions for the coming year. 

I make a list every year and I feel like I tend to add things that are maybe just a tad bit unobtainable, maybe I'm too optimistic about the future and what I can realistically get done with my current schedule.  Last year was a total fluke because I had no idea what life was going to be life after having a baby and seemed to think maternity leave would allow for all kinds of free time...ha!  This year I have tried to set extremely realistic expectations for myself and have even come close to obtaining several items on the list already...yay!

1. Work out and get into shape
        - Getting there, almost all the baby weight is gone and now I'm working on getting my stomach flat again
2. Create a photobook of L's first year
        - Hoping to have this complete for her birthday party
3. Take a trip with Mike sans baby
        - Scheduled for the end of next month!
4. Pay down a good portion of our debt
5. Set up a short term and long term savings account
6. Go on a hike
        - We are visiting Vermont soon and hoping to get in a couple of hikes with the baby!
7. Visit Morocco
         - This is tentatively set for March
8. Plan a trip to Paris with my mom
9. Spend a couple of days hanging out in London
         - Hoping to do this en route to Morocco in March
10. Create a cute holiday card this year
11. Implement my new business plan
12. Hang up all the artwork in the house
13. Create a family wall and hang more pictures of us
14. Bathroom renovation
15. Refinance our mortgage
        - This is in the works now
16. Make plans to attend Brimfield
17. Invest in the stock market again
18. Stop eating out so much
19. Put more time and focus into the vintage shop
20. Finish the wall of cabinets in the kitchen
21. Make/sew something
22. Make a photo/coffee table book of our best travel photos
23. Start taking family videos
        - We shot 3 this weekend!
24. Meditate at least once a week
25. Completely finish decorating a room
26. Make more time for myself
         - I'm scheduling a day to myself sometime in the fall
27. Clean and organize garage and keep it that way
28. Work on an outdoor/backyard project
29. Drink more water
30. Have people over to the house and entertain more, spend more time with our friends. 

Monday, June 10, 2013

Reclaimed wood shelving

I've become obsessed with a new (to me) design show on DIY Network called A Bryk at a Time.  Have you heard of it?  It features Danielle Bryk, a stay-at-home mom who is going back into the interior design business after spending the last 15 years at home with her kids.  It's super cute and feels more like a reality show then a design show as it features her kids, her actor husband Greg and other various family and friends.  It reminds me of the Novogratz family but with less kids. 

I've been getting a bunch of ideas for my own house from things I've seen in the show.  The one thing I'm obsessing over are these beautiful reclaimed wood shelves.  I first spotted them in her kitchen, then I saw her make something similar for a client's bathroom.  I've been looking for a shelving option for above our bar.  If you can believe it, we still haven't unpacked everything from our renovation last year.  This means that all of our bar ware is hanging out in boxes in our second bathroom when it should be hanging out on really beautiful reclaimed wood shelving, don't you think?

This weekend we went to an architectural salvage store and picked up some old oak planks from a Kentucky horse farm and we plan to build some shelves soon.  We're sort of stuck on brackets right now.  I really like the floating shelf look but that really limited us in terms of wood thickness.  The hardware for a floating mount requires a certain thickness that we were having trouble finding when shopping for wood.  I also believe that you are limited to how much weight a shelf can bear when it isn't supported by brackets.  Not really an issue for glasses and bar ware but I didn't want it to be a concern down the road. 

I really love this option.  It's more ornate than most but it adds some interest to the shelves and I think you can get away with something like this when you are using a really beautiful aged piece of wood because it draws attention to the shelf and also gives it a more modern feeling. 

I like these brackets for their simplicity.  Their functional and don't draw a lot of attention to themselves allowing the shelving to really stand out.  With our navy paint color, the brackets would probably blend right into the wall.


Here is the floating shelf option from Danielle Bryk's house.  The picture really doesn't do it justice - it's absolutely beautiful.  She has mounted some wine glass hanging racks to one side of the shelf which you can't see here. 


These brackets actually look like a very simple track system that you might find in a closet.  Not something I would ever gravitate towards for open shelving but I really like the way it looks here. 


I actually love this bracket but Mike isn't a fan.  I think it gives the shelves a modern, industrial look.  These are probably totally out of the running but I thought I would share it anyway, you know, for posterity's sake. 


So those are my choices.  Anyone want to weigh in?  I'll keep you posted on what we finally decide on.  Ikea has a lot of great bracket options so I'll be checking in with them to see if anything stands out as a must have.