Each January 1st we find ourselves reflecting on the year that just past. The highs, the lows, what worked for us as a couple and as a business, and what didn’t. Thoughts of what we would change and talking about what we were fortunate for in 2017, as well as our hopes for the new year are usually what makes up our breakfast conversation each new year. We try not to put pressure on ourselves regarding resolutions or big goals, but we’re always looking to improve…how can we be better to ourselves, focus on self-care, take care of each other better, and feel the best we can each day…but hey, I guess that’s just life in general, right? We’re all trying to figure this thing out.
JANUARY
-Took things slow and started planning out our home projects. (The photo above cracks us up, because this room looks SOOO different now.)
-Went to Disneyland with friends and spent a weekend soaking in the new year!
FEBRUARY
-Tackled our first design project in our house with the help of one of our favorite companies, Parachute. See our small but charming bedroom reveal here.
–Spent some time in New York with family and planned more for the year that was ahead of us.
-Celebrated our 13th Valentine’s Day together and it felt just as special as the first. 🙂
MARCH
-Spent two amazing weeks in Paris and fell completely in love with the city! Check out our posts on where to stay and what to do, including this beautiful flowershop we had the pleasure of attending and the Sézane librarie.
-Created a super fun video with our friend Breea, sharing a peek into a day in our lives here in Phoenix.
APRIL
-Had our home featured on one of our favorite home decor and furniture sites: Schoolhouse Electric
-Celebrated four years of marriage! Woah – that went fast!
-Shared our kitchen remodel and love for open shelving.
MAY
-Finished our master bath remodel and hallway bathroom remodel.
-Went on a cruise with friends that stopped in Copenhagen, Oslo, Berlin, Norway, Helsinki, and more! It even snowed in Sweden! See part one and two here. Don’t forget about formal night too!
-Went to the Cannes Film Festival and felt like we were living two other people’s lives for a few days.
JUNE
-Kicked off the summer with designing our new patio space with the team from Havenly.
-Celebrated the launch of a new West Elm in town.
-Took a trip to Sedona with Rob’s family and enjoyed some time outdoors. We stayed at the beautiful L’Auberge and Henry got a feel for hotel life.
JULY
-Had quite the obsession with culottes.
-Shared my skincare journey and what has helped keep my acne at bay.
-Battled some design challenges that came with a 1930s home, ahem, no entryway.
-Explored more design choices and decided to go bold with our new living room, and add some wild printed chairs.
AUGUST
-Kicked off the month with our annual summer trip to Palm Springs, with Henry by our side. (More posts from Palm Springs here and here.)
-We started to get the plans for our guesthouse and decor choices in order. It’s been amazing seeing this whole thing come together.
-Explored all the beautiful architecture SF has to offer through a fun walking tour.
-We got our backyard area prepped for the cooler months and shared the second part of our patio makeover here.
-Took a ferry ride in NYC to a special dinner on Ellis Island.
-August was a fun month for us overall, but we were excited to finally relaunch our site and gave NewDarlings.com a new look and feel.
SEPTEMBER
-Escaped the warmer temps in Phoenix and made San Francisco our home for a week.
-Spent a crazy few days in London with the Jo Malone London family, explored an enchanted forest, and took our first helicopter ride!! More of our favorite places in London and recap of where we ate and what we saw here and here.
-Put a big focus on creating a joyful and mindful home for ourselves.
-Attended our first blogging conference with Create & Cultivate in Seattle and spoke on a panel there too. It was so inspiring hearing from others in this field, sharing stories, making friendships and digging deeper into how and why we started blogging.
-Put our dining room in order and shared our minimal design choice and furniture picks.
-Had a fun date night to see some our favorite bands, Fleet Foxes and Beach House perform here in Phoenix.
OCTOBER
-Attended a very special design event with Delta Faucet and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, with some very talented interior designers and visionaries. Our love for home and design just grew more and more this year.
-Shared our home office and decor choices for the space.
-Enjoyed the coming of fall and finally being able to spend time outside in Phoenix! Took our bikes out for a spin or two and shared the first part of our Phoenix City Guide.
-Spent many weekend mornings at our local farmer’s market.
-One of the biggest highlights was probably meeting Diane Keeton (!!!!) at the Pinterest headquarters, in celebration of her new book.
-In true October fashion we went pumpkin picking…once in Arizona and then in New York, while visiting family.
NOVEMBER
-Went rock climbing in beautiful Ojai and explored more of California.
-Enjoyed an outdoor picnic, because fall in Arizona is like Spring everywhere else. 😉
-Finally went to the Arizona state fair and ate cotton candy bigger than our heads!
-Celebrated Thanksgiving and a birthday all in the same day!
–Visited Costa Rica and learned about coffee farming from the farmers themselves!
DECEMBER
-Decked out our bedroom and living room for Christmas in true Home Alone fashion.
-Tried out new recipes at home.
-Celebrated the holiday season with a Christmas date to see The Newsies.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here’s to 2018! Thank you so much for following along and sharing in this adventure with us. It means so much to have an online family to share everything with and are so grateful for the friendships we’ve made along the way! Can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for us. 2017 was a real doozy! 😉
I love reflecting on the highlights of each year. So much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to this upcoming year! Here’s to an eventful, kick ass year!