Our 2020 in Review

This time last year, we all probably felt so hopeful! We were all living in complete new year bliss ;) Then in March things took a turn, as we well know and probably don't care to discuss, but not everything in 2020 was bad. There was plenty of hard stuff, but there were also little rays of sunshine, too. I thought I'd share some snippets of our 2020 here:
JANUARY: - I had the pleasure of designing and coordinating one of my sweet friends' weddings! - Another friend and I threw one of our best friends' gender reveals. She had her boy in June and I love him to pieces! - We got winter cabin fever and decided to book a Florida trip for February.

FEBRUARY: - We had our traditional Valentine's Day breakfast -- oven pancakes -- and instead of going out to dinner to celebrate, we decided to save the money since we were going on a short vacation a couple days later. - We enjoyed the BEST 4 days in the Florida sun. You can read about our trip to Ft. Meyers and Sanibel Island here! - This month I got invited to the big Beautycounter conference happening in March. I was so excited to get the invite!

MARCH: - I planned a trip to visit my family in California because the Beautycounter conference was in the Bay Area where they lived AND my Grandpa's 90th birthday party was in the same timeframe. I thought "how perfect!" and then when I got there, both events got cancelled due to Covid.  - Since it was still new, my mom and I did get to take a wonderful trip to Carmel by the Sea and enjoyed the day on the beach and some shopping! - Fear started setting in while I was on this trip because I was worried I wouldn't be able to fly back to Michigan. I remember telling McCann to go get toilet paper and some non-perishables at the grocery store. He thought I was crazy because it hadn't hit Michigan yet, but by the time I got home a week later, he was SURE glad I had him do that, because everything was gone!! - We settled in for our "two week shelter in place" order, which as we know turned into months. At first I was okay, then I started to get very anxious and sad. - I started offering 1 and 2 hour virtual interior design consultation packages. I was so thankful that I could still work from home in this way. - We finished our dining room decorating. - Our tulips started sprouting up out of the dirt and this reminded me once again: good things come from dirt. Spring is a promise! 

APRIL: - We started going on biweekly walks around a nearby lake and that really helped us get out of the house and get some exercise.  - Trips to the grocery store always put me in bad moods because it was just so depressing to see people in masks. It really made my fear set in that, holy smokes, the world is so different. Will we ever get through this?! - I started noticing signs of spring!! Trees started budding and temps rose just a bit. Enough to offer some hope! - We started plans for our new backyard deck! - We celebrated our first lonesome Easter. I decorated our front window, made half of our Easter dinner and traded for half of my friend's dinner. I made and delivered cutout cookies to our nieces and nephews. It was certainly different, but we made the most of it! - Our tulips started really growing and blooming, but most fell captive to our resident deer and bunnies. It was fairly devastating, considering it was all I had to do while stuck at home ;) In all seriousness, when McCann came in to wake me up one morning and tell me the tulips had all been eaten, I did actually cry and go back to sleep for a couple hours. This might of been my lowest day. - My husband's company went down to 50% hours and pay. We were grateful he still had a job, but obviously nervous about this change. - I struck up a sweet friendship with some neighbors!

MAY: - The time had finally come: we started on our deck!! I'll never forget this because the weather was so crazy. The first day my husband started work on the foundation it was so cold they were out there in gloves, coats, and beanies. The next weekend when our brother in law came back to help, it was in the 60's! Oh how a week can change things ;) - The deck was completed and I started working on the landscaping for the rest of the yard. I went to a huge local nursery with my two friends and got all the plants we needed for the yard. (Here's to hoping the survive the winter and come back this spring!) - I painted our little outdoor shed a crisp white! It was a much needed facelift. - It was this month that I finally was able to meet with clients in their homes again, so a couple of my projects that were on hold were now up and running!

JUNE:
- I finished planting our very first cut flower garden. This was one of my biggest 2020 joys!! - I got to watch our little plants GROW.  - We stained our planter beds on the deck and strung up market lights. - We celebrated McCann's 31st birthday and he got the solo stove fire pit for the yard which we enjoyed many, many times this summer! - We had our first of many beach days. What a sweet escape! - My bff had her baby boy!! A couple weeks prior, we did a little drive-by diaper drop off for them with a bunch of friends.  - Lots of fun progress on a couple client design projects, including a lake home. - I launched my newly designed interior design website home!

JULY: - One of my bffs baby girl's turned 1 and we celebrated with an outdoor party!  - My cut flower garden really started taking off at the end of July. Our grass finally started coming in in the backyard so we finally revealed our backyard! - My clients building a lake front home asked my husband and I to come for a boat ride with them. It was so fun! - We threw a cute, intimate "sip & see" for my friend who had the baby boy in June. Since she didn't get a baby shower, this was really special! - I had so much fun walking around the lake with my girlfriends (and Lincoln!) this summer. We usually did it a couple times a week and it was SO nice, since gyms were closed or required masks (I can barely work out as it is, I can't pay money to work out in a mask ha!) - My grandma turned 90 and I was devastated not to be able to fly to CA to celebrate with her. I really missed family!

AUGUST: - We started thinking about our plans for the basement renovation. We had our realtor over to tell us what he thought was most important in finishing off the basement, in regards to resale, so we had a great idea of what to focus on, how much to spend and how much we could expect to get out of the basement. - I saw tons of progress on my design projects and had so much fun checking in on them each week! (I can't wait to share with you soon, two are almost ready to be photographed!) - I encountered a personal hardship that was really draining for me emotionally. My husband was so supportive. - We made some fun future plans-- it was really special to dream together!

SEPTEMBER: - I hosted another friends' baby shower in our backyard! (She came in October!) - We celebrated 4 years of being married with a little trip to Northern Michigan and Mackinac Island. - McCann sprayed our basement ceiling black and built the laundry room from scratch! - We enjoyed a nice Labor Day trip with two of our closet couple friends at an air bnb on a lake. Thankful for this time and friends. - My first dahlias bloomed from my cutting garden!

OCTOBER: - Our basement became the main focus. This month we painted the space, painted bar cabinets, installed cabinets, sink, backsplash, flooring and some other details. - We enjoyed a beautiful fall with a couple campfires out back!  - We took a trip to the apple orchard (would fall even count if we didn't?!) - I had to take out our cutting garden, as we had our first frost. I learned a lot (like this year I want to get everything in the ground sooner so I have longer blooming time!) and I had to plant some daffodil bulbs out front that'll come up in the spring. Don't worry, deer usually don't like these ;)

NOVEMBER: - I turned 30!! I had 6 of my closest girlfriends over to celebrate with my favorite Mexican food takeout (since restaurants closed again) and ice cream cake (my fave!) It was perfect! - Our basement carpet got installed! - We unexpectedly contracted Covid on Thanksgiving and were down for 2 weeks.  - I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the first time ever. I also decorated our tree alone on Thanksgiving since my husband got sick before I did. It was sad, but we got through it. I was just thankful it wasn't worse!
DECEMBER: - We recovered from Covid, but with some lingering side effects (my ears haven't been the same since and I had a really slight cough for at least a month and I still can barely smell anything, but my taste did come back and my husband is fine!) - Since we got the virus, we were able to travel to CA for Christmas with my family. Honestly, this felt like a Christmas miracle. We are SO THANKFUL. It was a high of the year for sure! - We got to hike and walk along the ocean, see family (safely of course), play games, and we had the best time. - When we were home visiting, we got to go to our wedding venue (it happened to be open!) and it was so fun to relive those memories with my husband!

Where we got married!!

That was our year!
As with most years, but it's probably safe to say more this year than past years, joy and hardship coexist. No matter what 2021 brings, I'm hopeful that we'll still be able to pick out glimmers of hope and joy among the hard, and that we're armed with a lot more compassion than ever before.

xoxo

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