Christmas House Tour

Well, if you didn't know yet...Christmas is coming. It's currently 16 degrees outside where I live. I'm sitting by the warm fireplace in a sweater and boots. Right by that exact fireplace above, actually. 

I kind of feel like Christmas has been almost here for months. Not because I'm one of those weird people who count down the days til Christmas all year...but because Christmas music started playing where I work around ehhh November 1st (way too early I'm sorry)...and also because my mom, sister and I finished decorating that Christmas tree many, many moons ago. The tree was only up early because we were part of a Michaels' Dream Tree Challenge. You know...those tree challenges where your Christmas tree has to be up and done before Halloween. Blog life.

Anyways, I'm really just here to share my family's Christmas house tour with you today! It's been up on The Inspired Room for a few days now, but I thought I should invite you all to come see the tour too! I put a few of my favorite shots here on my blog, but there's way more to see on the full tour.

We had so much fun decorating this year. Our goal was for the decor to be simple, pretty, and natural, and to just have an overall 'wintery' feel rather than being over the top Christmas themed. We love how it turned out and can't wait to enjoy it together the rest of December.

Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour! Don't forget to head on over to The Inspired Room to see the full tour and more details!

It's Been Awhile {Catching Up}

Well hello! It's been awhile. And by awhile, I mean since March.

So for those of you who have been waiting on my blog for the past 7-ish months clicking refresh waiting for a new post to appear and wondering how long I'm going to have a weird post about foxes at the top...this one's for you.

Since my last post I have:

-GRADUATED from college with my interior design degree. Hallelujah.

-Created my portfolio showing off my favorite projects from design school...which I will be sharing here soon!

-Started a job that I love as a designer for Restoration Hardware!

-Continued to work for The Inspired Room, which is the best.

-And on that note, hung out with some of the Better Homes and GARDENS crew while shooting a photoshoot in our kitchen that we designed together! The coolest! I think we'll be in the January issue...so look for us! :)

-Made a little Rifle Paper Co inspired recipe box for my art class...and have yet to become a master chef. Shocking.

-Turned 22, and been outgrown and outweighed by my 13 year old brother.

-Had the time of my life in a mathematics class...as well as a biology class...and have now changed my career goal to be a scientist with an emphasis on mathematics. #PSYCH

-Found out that a former bachelor from Emily Maynard's season is one of my neighbors, and added him on Facebook, so there's that.

-Made lots of music with some of my best friends in our little band called Friends of Friends.

-Traveled to Canada for the first time for work in Vancouver, then met my family in Victoria for a lovely little vacation! It was a treat.

-Continued to ferry to Bremerton every weekend to help with the church my family and I started, and to work on The Inspired Room projects. Although ferrying every week, I've yet to see a whale leap out of the water by the ferry. But I remain hopeful. And I love Seattle a little more every time my ferry pulls back in.

-Added this little fluff named Lily to our household as Jack's little sister.

-Grew by 11,000 followers on my Pinterest...for reasons that remain a mystery to me. But I'll consider it a gift from the big dogs at Pinterest.

-Watched all the Harry Potter movies for the first time, so that I can now be a real true part of society. Favorite character: Nagini.

-Read the book 'Quiet' by Susan Cain and became even more fascinated by the differences in introverts and extroverts. Whether you're an introvert or extrovert, seriously read it!

-Laughed/cried/died at Kyle Mooney's videos, all day everyday. Videos such as this one.

-Went on a wonderful girls business/fun trip to Georgia with my mom and sister! While there, successfully helped remove a salamander from the depths of my mom's suitcase. After us all carefully pulling the suitcase outside with kitchen tongs, removing clothes with said kitchen tongs, and screaming.

And I think that covers it for now! Be back soon. Maybe sooner than 7 months this time.

The Thing About Foxes...

You know, it gets a little ridiculous how often the 'latest trendy animal' changes. Actually let's take a step back and consider the fact that there is even such a thing as a "trendy" animal. Why.

Back when owls were the top dog (haha...dog) in the world of animal trends...I always joked about what would be the next trend. We had the birds....the owls....what could be next? Weasels? Caterpillars? Muskrats? Slugs?

I don't even know if foxes are the most current trend...I think it's hedgehogs now or something but honestly I don't even CARE because there is an abundance of cute fox things out there whether it's trendy or not. This little round up is just a FEW of the precious, glorious, foxiest fox things found online. 

To see more fox goodness...check out my sister's post here  and my mom's post here!

1) Birthday Party Fox Embroidered Stationery 2) Gold Fox Necklace 3) Fox Locket Necklace 4) Arctic Fox Ornament 5) Knit Fox Pillow 6) Fox Love Artwork 7) Fox Sparkler Onesie 8) Fox Nursery Print 9) Fox BlaBla Sock Doll

Design Internship Update

Graduation is swiftly approaching, and while there is definitely a slight uncertainty about the details of what's to come for me, I am feeling more excited than nervous. 

I do think that the nervousness would outweigh the excitement if I didn't have my internship with Kelie Grosso of Maison Luxe. I've learned so much about the design industry through this internship and I feel so much better prepared now than I did as a freshman (although I know I still have much to learn!). Being in design classes teaches you a lot of critical information, but nothing can top real life experience...and I'm so grateful for that!

Kelie and I joke about the 'oh so glamorous' life of a designer...usually as we're risking our lives hauling massive boxes down flights of stairs, or running around Seattle to see just how damaged the table is that was shipped, or finding a replacement for the cashmere that looks nothing like what we ordered (oh the drama!).

It's a little crazy to think back on how I dreamed of an internship where I was working for a designer in a beautiful office downtown. I started to think that idea was a little out of reach, and that I should lower my hopes a bit. But somehow I hit the jackpot with this one. With a view of THIS nonetheless:

Right now Maison Luxe is heading into a new exciting chapter, starting a retail shop in a cute little town in Seattle! I'm really excited to continue helping Kelie with design related things, as well as being involved in this store. And who knows, maybe I'll start a store of my own someday! (My sister and I's secret dream. Oops, secret's out!)


I'll miss this beautiful office but I'm super excited for what's next. I'm also excited to not pay for downtown parking anymore...although I'd say it's worth paying for parking when you're working in an office that looks like that :)

Cheers to new exciting things ahead!

PS: Can we talk about how many times the word 'exciting' or 'excited' was used in this post? Actually let's not talk about it. I didn't have my thesaurus handy.

Oh Whales.

I've shared with you guys that I'm a fan of whales...

(first here and then here) and you know what, that love remains.

While continuing toward my interior design degree and working at my dream internship this year, I have been loving being a contributor/design assistant for my mom's blog, The Inspired Room! So fun. In our most recent Gather post, we gathered up the cutest whale items from around the web. 

So, fellow whale fans, enjoy!

Sources are listed here!

Residential Studio Project {A Modern & Natural Home}

Well, it's winter quarter of my senior year as an interior design student. When on earth did that happen?! Yikes. Wasn't it just a day ago that I was a baby freshman getting started with my interior design degree? Also when was the last time I did a blog post? September 30th? And when is the last time I had blonde hair? Last year. Oops...I suppose I have some catching up to do on this little blog.

For now, I wanted to show you some pieces of my completed project from my Residential Studio class. I really enjoyed this project and was really happy with how it turned out in the end!

Our goal was to design a home for "The Westerley Family". Each student in my class was assigned a different architect and furniture store--which were to represent our client's favorite inspirations, and would be the basis for each of our projects.

I was assigned the very modern B&B Italia as my client's favorite furniture store, and then Alvar Aalto as their architect inspiration. I loved the idea of blending the modernity of B&B Italia with the natural elements that Alvar Aalto loved. We were asked to pick the majority of our furniture from our client's favorite store, which made it a bit of a design challenge for me because normally I'm such a big believer in picking items from many different places--both new and old. 

So I rebelled a bit against picking everything from one place. That just isn't interesting design to me. I always justified it by saying to myself that "The Westerleys said I could." (They didn't ha). But you know...I was happy with the mix in the end. And that's all that matters when your clients are fictional...right?

Once I nailed down the style of my "clients", I started gathering images of spaces that represented the general feel I wanted to create. I also compiled some words that encompassed the style: modern, casual, natural, eclectic, organic, airy, restful, clean, and simple. How's that for a style description?

This project was quite intensive, and consisted of a lot of hand drafting. When our professor first emailed us about the class, he was sure to let us know that "we cannot afford a SINGLE day of slack", so I knew we were in for a crazy quarter.

I don't think I could possibly describe to you how much time went into this project. So many hours were spent in the drafting lab drafting away...while watching movies consecutively on the projector screen. So that helped. Sometimes they were even Disney movies. Sometimes it was til 4:30 AM. One time from 5:45 PM until 3 AM. Cheers!!!!

We reworked the entire floor plan, moved the staircases, and made the house work better for their needs...

Drew up finish plans...

Reflected ceiling plans, electrical plans, a million and 10 other things...and THEN we formally presented our project at the end of the quarter, complete with digital color boards and one physical color board. These were my digital color boards:

To see all the sources I used for this project, 

check out my Pinterest board!

Now I'm in Commercial Studio designing a hotel in Kenya! I'll show you that too when it's done.

I'll try do a separate post talking about what else I've been working on lately because clearly it's been a busy year...but so productive and fun!

Hope you're all having a great week!