Katelyn Brooke

Ella’s Birth Story

2018-08-28T14:48:11Z

As I’m writing this, it’s been almost two months since Ella was born. I know it’s cliché, but it feels like she was born yesterday and yet life without her seems so long ago. I’ve been wanting to write down the details of the day she was born but it’s been tough to sit down and type and while doing the new mom thing. I’ve loved reading these kinds of posts in the past so I hope you guys enjoy this as well!

As I mentioned in my last pregnancy recap, even though my due date wasn’t until July 7th, I was pretty over being pregnant as the month of June wrapped up. However, for weeks beforehand Brian was worried that she would be born on a specific day: June 28th. He had a crazy day at work and was really anxious that I’d go into labor and he wouldn’t be able to get coverage. Since he was anxious about it I decided I would hold off on implementing all the old wives’ tales that I’d read about until after then. But you better believe I was reading up on every possible thing I could do after that. And I started walking like crazy because I felt like that didn’t really count.

June 28th came. It was a productive day. We usually have our house cleaned the first Thursday of every month and I just had a feeling it would be better to get it done a week early, so I had our cleaning lady come that day. I went to the office to fill out some paperwork that I’d needed to get done, and joked with a coworker about how that might be the last time I was in the office before baby. I went home and cranked out 17 thank you notes that I’d been putting off for weeks. It sounds silly but those had been hanging over my head as one of the last things on my to-do list, and I felt like I’d accomplished something big. Everything else on the to-do list could wait.

Brian got home from work and we decided to go out to eat to kind of celebrate that he made it through his crazy day at work. As we were getting ready to leave, I got this pain that felt like the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d been having for weeks, but this one actually hurt. I just laughed and said to Brian, “wouldn’t it be funny if I went into labor tonight?” We headed for dinner and I didn’t really think much of it.

As we ate dinner, I had a few more of those pains. By then I told Brian I thought they might actually be contractions. I still thought this was hilarious and was giddy at the idea that I could be going into labor soon. We went home, took the dog for a walk (still having contractions the whole way), and I started timing them using an app that I’d downloaded weeks before. Finally we called Brian’s parents to come over and get the dog to stay at their house overnight, and though the contractions weren’t particularly painful yet, they were pretty close together.

I called the doctor’s office at midnight to tell them that my contractions were five minutes apart, lasting a minute. She could tell from talking to me that I was able to talk through them. She said even though the timing was right, that until they were painful enough to take my breath away, I might be better off at home. I was all about staying at home as long as possible, so that’s what we did. I bounced on an exercise ball, tried to sleep from 2:00 – 3:00 (with little success) and generally just waited while watching TV.

By 5:00 AM things were painful and I called the doctor again. They told me to head to the hospital, so I woke up Brian. The drive to the hospital was so pretty – it was sunrise and the moon was big in the sky. We were both tired and quiet driving there. It was so crazy to think that our baby would likely be born that day!

We got there and they put me in a triage room to check me first. My contractions were really painful at this point, and it didn’t occur to me that we might be there too early. Getting checked itself was super uncomfortable, and then we got the bad news that I was not close to being dilated enough to be admitted. They told me I could either go home and then go to my regularly scheduled appointment at 10:30, or I could stay in the hospital and walk around for a few hours to see if that did anything. I opted to go home.

I was super cranky at this point – I’d been up all night, hadn’t eaten anything in hours, and was told to basically go home and suffer without drugs. I went straight to bed to try to sleep, which didn’t really work. Brian made me this cute little breakfast, which I ate and then promptly threw up from the contractions. Finally, it was time to go to my doctor’s appointment, which was in the opposite direction of the hospital. My mom came with us, and the whole way there I was having horrible contractions and I basically made everyone stop talking while they were happening. The time in between being discharged and my doctor’s appointment was by far the worst part of this whole process and I was super fun to be around, I’m sure.

Once we got to the doctor’s office, they told me they didn’t think I was coming because I’d been discharged from the hospital that morning. However, they took me back and checked me right away. The nurse practitioner gave me the best news – I was 4 centimeters and could go ahead and head back to the hospital.

We drove back to the hospital, and even though it was still a while before I felt better, I at least knew we were heading in the right direction. It took a long time to get my epidural at the hospital, and the nurse asked me a million questions that I swore I’d already answered when I preregistered, but I knew pain relief was coming soon so I still felt much better than previously. Once the epidural was in I became a much nicer person.

That whole afternoon is a blur to me. I was really tired, there were people coming in an out, and I was just waiting but overall in good spirits because I wasn’t in pain anymore and one way or another I knew this baby was going to be born. My doctor checked me in the afternoon and I was only 5 centimeters or so, so they put me on some Pitocin to get things moving. I asked him when he thought the baby would be born, and he guessed somewhere between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM. Of course, to me that seemed like a long time to still be going without food… always my main concern.

At some point the nurse told me I should try to sleep to rest up for pushing later that evening. She got me set up with a peanut ball (it’s like this exercise ball that’s shaped like a peanut that they put between your legs, it’s supposed to help things get in position) and I napped on my side for like an hour and a half with that thing. When I woke up it was 8:30 or so, and the nurse checked me. Getting me off of my side was interesting because I couldn’t feel my legs AT ALL. I was really surprised when she said, “oh, you’re ready to go! I’ll go get the doctor.” Big fan of that peanut ball!

My parents had gone to the cafeteria at that point, so Brian texted everyone to tell them that the doctor was coming in soon. He was in the room fairly quickly and soon we were all set up an ready to go. When he sat down to get started, the first thing he said to me was “oh my gosh, the baby has so much hair! And it’s long!” (If you’ve seen photos of Ella you won’t be surprised that her hair is the first thing the doctor noticed about her – that’s pretty much still true for everyone she meets.)

I always envisioned that the pushing part of labor would be the most difficult and painful part, and that I would be easily annoyed by others during the process – that’s usually how I feel when I’m in pain and I tend to want to take it out on whoever is around me. It wasn’t like that at all. I couldn’t feel any pain, and the mood in the room was light. We were laughing and making jokes, and my doctor and the labor and delivery nurse were both awesome. Brian was amazing and somehow stepped into his role as “coach” and did exactly what I needed the whole time. Pushing was hard work and it took a lot of effort, but it didn’t hurt.

From start to finish, I only pushed for about 35 minutes, and then she was here! She was born at 9:55 on June 29th. The look on Brian’s face when she was born was something I never want to forget. They almost immediately put her on my chest and it was so surreal to see her and hear her crying. The nurse took our photo a few minutes after she was born.

As they were cleaning her up and the doctor was working on me, I could hear my mom laughing from the hallway. The nurse went out and shooed everyone away because it was still going to be a while before they could come in (turns out all four grandparents were standing out of the door listening the whole time.) Once we were ready, the grandparents came in and each took a turn holding Ella, and then the other family members that were there came in and took a peek. My sister brought me some late night Wendy’s. We were all exhausted at that point, so everyone left fairly quickly.

We didn’t get to our room and get to sleep until around 1:00 AM. The nurse took one look at us an offered to take the baby to the nursery so that we could get some sleep. I remember going to sleep feeling so grateful and relieved that I wasn’t pregnant anymore, everything went so well, and Ella was here.

Overall, I had a really positive birth experience. When I was pregnant I remember reading women saying that having their baby was the best day of their life, and I would always think, “how?? Giving birth sounds painful and miserable.” And while there’s definitely more pain and discomfort involved than say, getting married – there’s something so special about the day that you get to meet your baby. It’s a day I’ll remember happily for the rest of my life.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! Hoping to post about our early days with Ella soon!

Notes on the Third Trimester

2018-07-23T20:38:51Z

Hey there! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that Ella was born almost a month ago. I had great plans of blogging during my pregnancy, but my to-do list and lack of energy got the better of me. But even though it’s over now, I still want to document the last trimester just to have it for future reference.

Photo by Marla Thach Photography

Highlights

28 weeks – we went to California for our babymoon! We visited friends in L.A. and then went to Palm Springs for a few days. We hung out by the pool, ate out at every meal, and spent a morning in Joshua Tree National Park. It was a great trip!

30 weeks – my family and friends threw me an amazing baby shower, it was so special to celebrate this time in our lives with everyone.

31 weeks – we had maternity photos taken! Marla and I went to the same high school and she’s done work for me in the past, including the branding photos for Homes by French & Co. We took them at a local park and I LOVE how they turned out! I’m excited to put one in Ella’s nursery.

36 weeks – I’m a real estate agent and my husband is a real estate attorney, so our colleagues overlap a lot. Our coworkers threw us a joint work shower, which was so nice – we’re so lucky to work with such a nice group of people.

Observations and Feelings

My feet and hands started swelling at the beginning of the third trimester. I traded in my usual wedding rings for a set that I bought from Everly rings – love them! My shoes quickly became limited to my Rothy’s and sandals – luckily it was warm enough to stick to those for the most part.
The surprisingly killer thing for my feet and ankle swelling was sitting down. If I sat with my feet up or was walking around, I did much better, but just sitting in a chair or riding in a car was a recipe for serious swelling. By the end of my pregnancy I couldn’t even go to a restaurant without putting my feet up.
I had been going to OrangeTheory since February 2017 and canceled in April. It was just tough to do as I got bigger, particularly the rowing. Once we got back from California I pretty much only walked for exercise after that. This was TOTALLY not what I intended to do pre-pregnancy – I always wanted to be one of those pregnant women who kept up their workout routine, but when I was actually there I felt it was more important to listen to my body, and my body was not into it. As I got closer to the end I upped the amount I was walking in hopes that it would make me go into labor. Emmett and I logged a lot of steps on the trails in our neighborhood.
By the middle of the third trimester I had outgrown a lot of the maternity clothes I bought at the beginning of my pregnancy, which was frustrating. All those sizing things where they’d be all “buy your size pre-pregnancy” totally didn’t work for me. In the end, I gained over 50 pounds, but I stopped weighing myself the last couple of weeks. The heavy hitters in my wardrobe were definitely the LulaRoe pieces. I had 4 Carly dresses that I pretty much wore on repeat. One of them in particular I’m pretty sure I wore every other day the last two weeks I was pregnant – I even wore it to the hospital.
Brian was definitely the driving force for getting everything on our to-do list done. I just didn’t have the energy at the end. Everything that really had to get done miraculously did get done. I still have art to hang in the nursery, and a few other “extra” things that would have been nice to check off, but honestly I’m impressed that we accomplished what we did considering how unmotivated I was.
Somewhere during the third trimester I discovered that I could take Zantac for my acid reflux / indigestion and it was a GAME CHANGER. My only regret was that I didn’t realize I could take that earlier. Side note: if you’ve seen any pics of Ella, you will note that the old wives’ tale about hair turned out to be true here. Girlfriend has a ton of hair. And I had a ton of indigestion.
Probably the only “positive” pregnancy symptom I experienced was that my skin was pretty flawless after the first trimester. Like I maybe had one zit the entire time. That was pretty great.
My mom went on vacation the first week in June, and when she got back I was able to step back from work a little and primarily work from home. That was so helpful, I don’t know how most women go about their normal day-to-day at the very end. I was so tired and not firing on all cylinders.
I slept pretty well all the way through my pregnancy until about the last week or so. The last “regular” night of sleep before I went into labor I only got like 4 hours or so, which was really unfortunate.
On my other posts I included a section about eating habits, but I feel like they didn’t really change much in the third trimester – I just avoided acidic foods and splurged on all things fried. I guess maybe my sweet tooth increased during this time?

By the week that Ella was born, I was so over being pregnant. I know every woman says this, but I was really, really done. I was doing everything in my power to get that baby born early, and well… it worked out! I’ll share more about that in my next post about her birth story.

Notes on the Second Trimester

2018-04-15T15:28:09Z

Saturday marked 28 weeks which means I’m officially through the second trimester. So crazy! In some ways, because my nausea continued well past my first trimester, I feel like this pregnancy has been divided into two phases instead of three. But I guess I haven’t hit the third yet, so we’ll see! The beginning of my second trimester was SO different than the end, and it’s hard to make generalizations about what I’ve been eating or craving because it has changed so much.

Overall, the second trimester has been so much better than the first. Still not great at documenting everything (the photo above is from Easter haha) but I’ve taken some notes along the way and put them below!

Highlights

15 weeks: think I felt the baby move for the first time – it’s hard to tell at first!

20 weeks: had what might be our last ultrasound, everything looked good and we got to see her wiggle around.

24 weeks: Brian got to feel the baby move for the first time.

25 weeks: first heartburn experience! So fun. Luckily it hasn’t continued much, crossing my fingers that I don’t encounter much of that in the third trimester.

Observations and Feelings

For the first half of this trimester my bump seemed so much bigger at the end of the day than when I’d wake up. I don’t get it, but it was like that for weeks!
The period of time where people aren’t sure you’re pregnant but you already feel like you’ve “told” people is weird. Not that I can’t keep telling people, but for neighbors or coworkers I don’t talk to often, it’s just weird when you feel super pregnant but people don’t want to ask. At our sales meeting last week a lot of my coworkers were like “oh, you’re pregnant! I thought you might be!” That was 27 weeks. So funny, definitely not something I was expecting.
For years I’ve seen women complain about people touching their bellies and I didn’t really get it. Now, I get it. I don’t mind if people ask, but the way people act about it sometimes is so weird to me. And I make it more weird by laughing or making jokes about it. The bigger my belly gets the less it bothers me, but at the beginning it seemed like such a personal space invasion.
I’ve come to really enjoy the baby movements, at first I felt like it was making my nausea worse but now it’s a fun little surprise throughout the day, and crazy lots of movement when I go to bed and when I wake up.
Somewhere along the way I’ve come to feel like my entire life is all about researching, shopping, prepping for baby. I’m not mad about it, but it seems like if I ever have any downtime that’s what I’m reading about.
In the last couple weeks I stopped worrying about pregnancy stuff and kicked it into high gear thinking about when the baby is actually here. I’ve spent a lot of time obsessing over where she’ll sleep and if I’ll ever be able to relax while she’s asleep or if I need to buy one of those hi-tech monitors that tells you the baby is still alive so that you don’t obsessively check on them and wake them up.
Towards the end of this trimester I’m feeling all the feelings (see above haha.) It’s hard to describe but I just feel more vulnerable somehow, like I’m a sitting duck for something sad to happen to me, so I imagine bad / sad things happening all the time. Trying to just focus on staying present, not worrying, and appreciate the good things.

Eating Habits

Bagels with all the cream cheese.
All things citrus. Obsessed with grapefruit, lemons, and oranges. Around week 26 I decided to try to avoid these and I feel much better when I do, even though they sound so good – just have to sit out acidic things from now on.
Homemade queso, in the microwave.
String cheese and cottage cheese.
Raspberries. They are normally my least favorite berry but their stock is rising.
Lots and lots of carbs (still.)
Vanilla things – love Nilla Wafers and Golden Oreos.
Avoiding tomatoes when possible. I’m sometimes okay if it’s just sauce accompanied by pasta and cheese (cough LASAGNA) but otherwise it’s just best to avoid them if I don’t want to feel icky.

Even though I’ve heard the third trimester can be uncomfortable, most of the fun things that are associated with having a baby seem to be concentrated there (babymoon, baby shower, maternity pics, getting ready for baby, etc.) so I’m honestly really looking forward to this next phase!

Nursery Inspiration

2018-04-09T20:15:19Z

One of the the big things on our to-do list was to get the nursery cleaned out and painted. Well, at the end of March I got rid of a lot and this weekend Brian painted! We went with Behr Swiss Coffee. It’s the same color as my office which is across the hall. It’s a soft white and I love how it feels when the sun is streaming into a room – and when it’s not it’s still a soft, cozy color.

I’ve been dreaming about designing my child’s bedroom since I was a kid myself, so while I was looking forward to picking things out, it was also a little overwhelming. So many people have asked me if I picked a theme for the nursery. My initial thought is always do I have to?! I knew that I wanted to stick with a lot of neutrals and then add some pops of color, but narrowing that down was tough. I didn’t want all the elements of the nursery to be baby-ish, knowing that toys and books would bring that to the room on their own.

When we found out we were having a girl, some specific nursery colors started coming to mind. From there I started scouring the internet for what seemed like FOREVER, but I finally found a few things that go together that can serve as our jumping off point.

Floral print by Yao Cheng Design || Mermaid art by Iviebaby || Positano print by It Began in Paris || Scoot crib by Babyletto || Peaches and cream changing pad cover by Iviebaby

These are all things that I’ve either registered for or bought, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the room goes from here! I really want to get a glider for the nursery, and a rug of some kind. It feels like I’ve looked at every pink rug on the internet but now I’m thinking I might go with something neutral to add more texture. We’ll see! Now that I’ve got something established I’m having a lot of fun with this part.

Do you have any favorite stores that you shopped when decorating a nursery? I feel like I’ve exhausted all my options but I know I’m missing some!

Halfway There

2018-04-08T18:57:51Z

It probably seems crazy since I just posted about being pregnant on here last week, but we’re actually halfway to baby! I’m 20 weeks as of last Saturday (tomorrow I’ll be 21 weeks!) which means that we have more of this pregnancy behind us than ahead of us, assuming she comes on time. In some ways this period of time feels like forever, but mostly it seems crazy that we’ll have a baby in just a matter of months.

Hitting this milestone has made me realize how much we have to accomplish before she gets here and how quickly that time will go by. Today’s post mostly serves as a little to-do list for me to wrap my brain around what needs to happen in between now and then.

Register. Turns out creating a baby registry is a huge undertaking! There is so much to research and a lot of options to consider. I’ve always thought it would be fun to stroller shop but I’m not going to lie… I’m a little overwhelmed by all the choices. Overall, definitely enjoying this part and taking my time!

Secure child care. Apparently this can be tricky! I haven’t started looking into it yet, but I know that once the baby gets to a certain age I’ll want child care 2-3 days a week so that I can have some focused time to work on real estate during the week without baby in tow. With my unpredictable schedule I’m thinking a daycare center will offer the most flexibility, but we’ll see!

Choose a pediatrician. This seems like a big task, but I’m hoping once we start looking at options one of them will emerge as a clear choice.

Sign up for a class. Our hospital offers childbirth classes, and I feel like we should take them… but I’m also a little skeptical at the same time. I’m excited to take a hospital tour, though! If you’d like to weigh in, I’d love to hear about experiences with or without classes!

Maternity photos. I don’t want to skip these, but at the same time being in front of the camera isn’t my favorite right now. Trying to get better about taking bump pics (see exhibit A above!) When is the best time to have professional pictures taken? Still need to look into this one, since we’re having a girl and I’ll be pregnant during the spring something with blooming flowers seems like it would be fun.

Plan for Babymoon. It was really important to us to get away one last time before the baby comes, so we booked a trip to Palm Springs in April! I went for Designer Vaca in 2013 and I’m really excited to take Brian, I think he’ll be into the desert vibe. I don’t really have maternity attire that will be appropriate for that climate so that’s going to be a whole other project!

Nursery prep. We plan on painting the nursery, but before that I have some serious stuff to purge. Since we bought our house in 2015, our third bedroom has been lovingly referred to as the “stuff room,” mainly because in a house without a basement or a garage, we don’t have tons of storage. That needs to change to make room for baby and all of her stuff!

Home projects. We have some things that we’d like to get done before the baby comes because we know that afterwards, things will be just a little crazier. I’d love to install a pantry organizer, some closet organizers, blinds in our bedroom… those sorts of things.

So… just a few things to tackle. If you have any advice, I’m all ears! Thanks for reading!

Baby On Board

2018-04-08T18:57:51Z

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today I’m documenting the first part of our journey with our newest family member. We’re due with a baby girl at the beginning of July! I already broke the news on Instagram, but I have been really wanting to document more of my pregnancy and for some reason analog isn’t really cutting it for me lately (I can’t seem to read a book or write in a journal to save my life.) So here I am!

As I’m posting this I’m in the middle of week 19. I’m feeling a lot better! Still not 100% rid of the nausea, but it’s manageable right now. The first trimester was really rough so a lot of this post reads somewhat negatively. It’s silly how guilty that makes me feel! And it makes me realize why so much of this came as a surprise – I felt like I should have been way more prepared for pregnancy than most based on how many mommy blogs I’ve read over the years. But truthfully, I was not AT ALL prepared for how hard it is to be pregnant. And I’m guessing a lot of that is because women feel bad focusing on the bad parts of pregnancy. So here are my notes from the first trimester, the good and the bad.

First Trimester Recap

4 weeks: surprise! We’re pregnant. And it was truly a surprise – we had planned to start trying a few months later, but things turned out a little differently than we’d planned! We were both thrilled and I was pretty nervous.

5 weeks: one day I went to the grocery store and bought ALL the root vegetables. The next day I started to not feel so good… I proceeded to not be able to look at the squash that I’d bought and continued to be turned off to all that stuff for weeks. I started feeling nauseous every day, usually starting between breakfast and lunch and continuing until I went to sleep anytime I hadn’t eaten within 10 minutes.

6 weeks: had our first doctor’s appointment! Overall pretty anticlimactic, but we told our parents after we got the official confirmation (well, I told my mom the day after we found out – we work together, it was too hard to keep it a secret!)

7 weeks: first ultrasound, got to see the baby’s heartbeat! It was such a relief as I’d been worrying a lot, and such a surreal moment to see that little nugget in there! And there’s definitely only one baby in there! For some reason I really thought we might be having twins at the beginning.

11 weeks: we had our ultrasound screening at a more high-tech facility. It took forever because the baby wasn’t very cooperative getting in the right position, but it meant that we had 45 minutes of getting to watch her (didn’t know that at the time!) move around. So crazy the difference a few weeks can make, we got to see the baby move and wiggle around and it started to really sink in that we were looking at our baby in there!

12 weeks: we decided to wait to tell our extended family so that we could tell them at Christmas. This was also the time period that a lot of people told me most women start to feel better. We announced our news to my mom’s side of the family on the 23rd, but morning sickness took care of the rest of the plans. On Christmas Day I made it to brunch at my parents but spent the rest of the day on the couch. I threw up for the first time (MERRRRY CHRISTMAS!) and proceeded to get sick many nights that week. I had horrible indigestion and was generally miserable. This was definitely a low point for me. I could not have been more excited to say goodbye to the first trimester!

General Observations and Feelings

Though I was super grateful that we had no trouble trying to get pregnant, having it happen when we hadn’t been “trying” made me feel even less in control in a situation where you already have almost no control.
Before I started feeling nauseous, I felt like there was a 50% chance that the tests were wrong and this was all some kind of joke. After I was nauseous it seemed unlikely that I was somehow not pregnant, but then I started to feel nervous – what if something went wrong? Before getting pregnant I read a lot about infertility and miscarriage which definitely didn’t do me any favors in those early months.
I almost instantly found that I had way more congestion than usual, and that is still going strong. I go through a ridiculous amount of tissues, it’s annoying.
I didn’t want to tell people too early but it was also hard to be around people without telling them, so I found myself being a hermit for most of November and December. I can handle being antisocial for a period of time but after a while I start to feel pretty down about it.
So much fake drinking! My mom and Brian learned to drink for two by sneakily swapping wine glasses with me, and I learned that Moscow Mules (sans alcohol) are a great drink to order at the bar – you can’t see what’s inside, and the ginger beer and lime combo is perfect for nausea.
I had some spotting early on (right before that first ultrasound) so while I had been going on short runs with Emmett before that, I stopped around then and then felt like too much time had passed to pick it back up again. I didn’t really start working out again until the second trimester. I always thought I’d be one of those women who ran throughout their whole pregnancy, but between nausea, fatigue, and being a nervous first-timer, that’s not in the cards this go around.
I never wanted to be one of those pregnant women who worried about gaining weight, but between not exercising and carbs being the only nausea relief I could figure out, it was hard not to be concerned when my numbers didn’t align with what I read online. I really hoped my regular clothes would get me farther in my pregnancy, but I quickly realized that most of my regular pants were not going to cut it for long. I’ve been relying on a few pairs of maternity pants and leggings for the most part.
I found myself feeling less than thrilled at various times due to how I was feeling and then I’d feel guilty for feeling that way. I felt like I should be so grateful, which I was and am, but at the same time some of the symptoms of being pregnant just suck.

Eating Habits

Carbs. Like every carb you can think of. Preferably with cream cheese.
Egg McMuffins! We call the baby McMuffin a lot because of how many I’ve eaten during this pregnancy, probably 2-3 per week at times (I’ve cut back a little in the second trimester but still definitely get my fair share.)
Eggos with Nutella are life changing. Haven’t been as into chocolate as usual, but this is the exception. SO GOOD.
A lot of white cheddar Cheetos.

Thanks for reading this if you got to the end, I’m excited to share more of this journey on here as it unfolds!

2017 In Review

2018-01-04T14:31:30Z

Hey there! It’s been quite a long time since I wrote on here. Almost two years, in fact. In 2016 I wrapped up my last web design projects and decided to focus on real estate full time. Though I miss some of the creative aspects of my old career, the variety of what my day looks like as a real estate agent really suits me and I’m totally in love with what I’m doing now.

I feel like a lot needs to be said about why I’m here now, but I also feel like there is a window in which you can talk about the previous year and I am in danger of missing it. Don’t worry, I’ll unpack it later. I have plenty to say.

It means a lot to me to be able to look back on these year in review posts (2016 was the first year that I didn’t do one, but I did a pretty good job tracking some of the highlights in my bullet journal) and since we’re only a few days into 2018, I want to start here. My overall feeling for 2017 is that it was a pretty scary year on a big picture level, but it was my best year yet in my career and writing this post has made me realize how many great personal moments happened along the way. I’ve gotten out of the habit of documenting my life in photos for blog content, so my apologies if the words and the pictures often don’t match.

Brian and I kicked off the new year by watching Harry Potter miniseries-style (we watch like an hour a night until we’re done.) We do it every year, it’s the best way to curb post holiday / winter blues. Around the middle of January we got on a plane to visit dear friends in Los Angeles, and when we got back Brian bought a new car.

February was pretty crazy with work. But we managed to squeeze in some fun, like a trip to Lucketts, a winery for a friend’s birthday, and the Spy Museum.

In March my mom and I hosted a client appreciation event and attended the conference in Richmond that we attend each year.

We headed Dominican Republic for a trip Brian won through his job for a few days at the beginning of April. It was Brian’s first time leaving the country! And my cousins visited from Chesapeake.

In May we got a lot of winery time (between Mother’s day, a bridal shower, and a work event) so enough said, it was a pretty good month. Spring finally happened and I actually made it to the Lucketts Spring Market in Berryville.

In June we had our hall bath remodeled, we made it to a local fair, a Nats game, and a U2 concert, and two of my best friends had babies!

One of my childhood friends got married in July, and we tagged along with my parents to Bethany Beach (where we were struck with terrible food poisoning, sadly.)

In August we attended my 10 year high school reunion (then had a mini friend reunion with babies later in the month), saw Coldplay in concert, fenced in our backyard, and visited a local sunflower farm.

September was all about getting ready for our trip to Italy! We decided to start painting our cabinets on Labor Day weekend… still not done. And we saw Arcade Fire!

We flew to London and then Italy for a trip that’s been on our bucket list for years. I celebrated my 29th birthday on the beach (a first for this October baby) and then needed a lot of recovery time when we got home from our trip. We were The Sims for Halloween and got some exciting news at the end of the month! (More on that later.)

In November our kitchen started to look a little more functional again, we saw Lore live, and we saw the Shins in concert. We split Thanksgiving with our families, and got in a Friendsgiving as well.

December was busy in all the usual ways, but we got in lots of down time as well. And we had an early snow this year!

Thanks for reading if you made it to the bottom! Here’s to more blogging and reconnecting in 2018!

If you’re curious, here are my year in review posts for 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.

Moodboard 15

2016-01-06T13:15:35Z

Happy New Year! If you’re anything like me, you might be a little bummed slash depressed now that the holidays are over and you realize that we have a long, cold winter ahead of us. I finished this moodboard forever ago, and had meant to share it last summer (during The Great Blogging Rut of 2015) BUT today I’m glad that I didn’t, because these colors are making me happy.

This moodboard is for a photographer who loves whimsy and all things colorful. We’ve been hard at work on her site, I’m excited to share that soon as well – stay tuned!

Image credits: birthday cake || ferris wheel || little girl on quilt || macarons and flowers || girl’s room || invitation || tulle skirt

2015 in Review

2015-12-31T20:23:45Z

This year has been an all-time low for blog documentation, so for the first time ever, a lot of these pics are appearing on the blog for the first time! I haven’t been a big sharer in general for the last several months, so along with the post I published at the beginning of December, this should help flesh out what I’ve been up to in 2015.

Northern Virginia’s winter game was strong in January. I blogged about some of the things I hoped to focus on for the year. We visited family in Chesapeake and I signed up for my online real estate licensing course.

February was largely a waiting game as we moved through the process of buying our first house. I started several design projects, and we house sat for family friends for the second year in a row. And still snowy, obvi.

At the beginning of March, we closed on our home the day after a big snow storm. I helped host a bridal shower for my sister-in-law and attended a real estate conference with my mom for the second time.

In April we hosted my family for Easter brunch at our house, which was when we announced that we were officially adopting a puppy! At the end of the month we did an overnight in D.C. for my sister-in-law’s bachelorette– so fun!

May was a big month. Besides Mother’s Day and the usual 10k that we run, the big event of the year, my brother’s wedding, happened the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. Afterwards the bridal party followed them to the beach for the weekend. A “frieneymoon,” if you will.

My dad and I got to see Florence and the Machine (real up close) in June. We also welcomed my puppy-niece, Nala, into the family. And I officially got my real estate license!

In July, we went to Vegas with friends and then drove through Utah to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Later in the month, our air conditioning went out for a week so we lived at my parents’ while they were on vacation.

August is always bittersweet as summer dies down. We did some local exploring, had lots of time in the Puppy Patch, and Brian and I managed to sneak away for a weekend to visit family.

September was about launching a lot of web design projects. I also painted my office, and we ran our first half marathon!

I turned 27 this October. I went to Cincinnati for a second time with my mom and grandmother, and then headed to Savannah for Halloween for a friend’s bachelorette weekend.

This November was oddly warm and beautiful. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of it feeling under the weather. We ate a lot of Thanksgiving food, as usual, and then on black Friday we went to Annapolis for my aunt’s surprise 50th birthday dinner.

December brought about our first Christmas season in our new house. Brian did a lot of baking, and I spent forever on our Christmas cards. We managed to squeeze in a lot of other fun things, like going to Meadowlark to see the lights (complete with milkshakes afterward.) We headed to Pittsburgh for a friend’s wedding. Christmas itself is always crazy, hopping amongst our families, but overall it was a good year with lots to be thankful for.

Fun Facts:

Most read post: 4 mistakes I was making on my about page (and how to fix them!)

Biggest traffic month: January

Top referral site: Pinterest

Twitter: 2,600 followers (519 more than last year),

Pinterest: 15,572 followers (3,343 more than last year), 6,196 pins (that means 463 this year) and 59 boards (only 1 more than last year!)

Facebook: 1219 likes (244 more than last year)

Instagram: 90 posts this year, 1825 followers (205 more than last year)

If you made it this far, you deserve an award! Thanks for reading, today and always. Seriously. Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

Let me know if you wrote a year in review post, I’d love to take a peek! Here are my year in review posts for 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.

The More of the Story

2015-12-01T22:59:13Z

This year I’ve kinda danced around the fact that I’m not on here as much. If you’re looking closely, it’s not just here- it’s pretty much everywhere online.

I’ve hinted that there were other, perhaps more pressing, things that I needed to focus on for now. But I haven’t told you the whole story. Or really any of the story at all.

The story is important to me. It’s kinda the whole reason I do this blog thing to begin with. So let’s do it.

Over the course of this year, I’ve gotten my real estate license, and am now working as an agent on a team with my mom. She’s been in the business for almost 15 years, and I’ve been there pretty much every step of the way. We’ve talked about it for years, but 2015 was the year it finally happened.

I’m still working on web design projects and plan to take on new projects in 2016, but I will be taking on less than before. Ultimately this will allow me to dedicate more time, care, and creative energy to each client. Turns out that I need to get out from behind the screen so that I can enjoy my time in front of the screen.

Now that I’ve gotten the nuts and bolts out of the way, I want to take a minute to talk about my capital F Feelings. It’s taken me so long to tell you guys about this for a reason. That reason mostly being afraid of what People would think. “People” being you.

I didn’t want you to think that I was a quitter. Or that I was less legit of a web designer for not spending 110% of my time in front of my computer. Or that I failed at this and had to move on to find something else. Or that I’ve been untruthful and super shady by not telling you sooner. And I didn’t know how to tell this story without the possibility that someone might think those things, mainly because over this long process, that little voice in my head has told me each of those things at one point. Even if it was only for a second.

But after a while, I got tired of things online not matching my real life. Keeping things separate basically sucked out all my desire to share online, anywhere. And I like to share, so that kinda… sucked. That’s ultimately what drove me to put my big girl pants on and show up here today.

I’ve been closed off online for a long time, but I’m ready to open up again. I want to talk about my day-to-day, about what I’m learning through this process, and about personal things like what kinds of curtains I’m considering for my office. You know, the really important stuff.

I have some behind-the-scenes work to do around here. But in the coming months, I hope to slowly come back. Maybe in a different way than before, but I hope to inject more of myself into this space than I have this year.

In the meantime, if you want to hear more about this process of change (the what, why and how) or the business-y end of things, I plan on sending my first biz nugget since this spring sometime this afternoon. And if you’re a small business owner and you’d like to work with me on your brand and site in the new year, I’m currently booking a spot for late January.

And if you’re in Northern Virginia (or anywhere, really!) and are interested in this new venture I’m working on, here’s a peek new real estate website I’ve got in the works.

And finally (because I don’t say it enough!) thank you for taking the time to read the words that I put on this space. It means a lot to me!