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Goals for 2019 – The First Six Months

January 1, 2019 by jessica Leave a Comment

 

New Year's Resolutions for 2019 on Bedknobs & Baubles

I love the start of a new year, especially the fresh slate and sense of optimism that comes with it! But as I was reflecting on the past year and thinking about some of my goals for 2019, I realized that I seem to forget what were my priorities midway through the year! This year, I’m looking at things in six-month increments. It’s enough time to actually work toward some of my goals, but having a midyear check in will help keep me accountable and allow me to reflect back on what’s not working and why.

TRAVEL SOMEWHERE NEW

If you’ve been a longtime reader, you’ll know that this is a perennial goal of mine. I think it’s important to continuously expand your horizons and see new parts of the country and world. For me, travel is inspiring, fuels my creativity, and honestly travel makes me feel like a better and more interesting person. We traveled a lot last year, visiting London, Austin, Portland, Seattle, New York City, and Chicago. The latter was the only city I had already been to (and numerous times at that; it’s only a couple of hours from Madison, so we get there at least once a year). This month, we’ll be traveling to Florida’s Gulf coast to visit Dave’s parents who rented a condo for the month. We have Sweden on the radar for this spring (assuming work schedules and travel costs allow), and we’ll add on a to-be-determined destination abroad during that trip. It’s tempting to go back to our beloved Brussels or visit Copenhagen again because one week in that gorgeous city wasn’t nearly enough time.

GO WITH THE FLOW

I’m not the most chill person and I may have a tendency to overreact and be a bit dramatic. This year, I’m going to do my best to be more understanding and relaxed whenever an unexpected curveball is thrown my way. Along with this, I need to stop taking as many things personally.

TAKE SELF CARE SERIOUSLY

No, I’m not talking about doing face masks and soaking in the tub. I’m talking about being more active, drinking more water, reading more often, and eating better. My 46-year-old uncle died rather unexpectedly on Thanksgiving and it was an eyeopener to me that at age 35, I really need to start taking steps to take care of myself so that I don’t find myself with a slew of health problems ten years from now. I do need to lose weight. I lost 15 pounds in 2018 … and then gained it all back during our hectic travel months and the holidays. While discouraging, if I could do it last year, I can easily make it happen again with a little willpower! I’ve also been making sure I drink at least 64 ounces of water daily (but aiming for 100 ounces each day). This is such a small thing, but it’s made me feel more energetic and keeps me from mindlessly snacking when I’m really just thirsty.

AROUND THE HOUSE

I had a lofty list of goals for the house last year and didn’t accomplish as many as I naively thought possible. That said, we did find the perfect dining room table and chairs, painted our upstairs hallway, made significant progress on painting the doors and removing old paint from the hardware, purchased light fixtures for five rooms, and had four dying trees removed. We probably should have done more, but it’s such a balancing act with time and money. Here’s my must-do list for the first six months of 2019:

  • First of all, share more home-related content! I’d love to give you a better idea of where I’m spending my time and some of the things I’ve learned improving a fixer upper.
  • Finish installing our living room sconces. We bought sconces months ago and only installed one. It was such an annoying process that we got discouraged and put it off. I’d actually like this done before the end of January.
  • Paint the remaining three doors, strip the paint from the hardware, and hang them.
  • Hire someone to fill in the unnecessary doorway between our bedroom and guest room. (Long story short, the house was a two-flat at some point. Our upstairs guest room was a kitchen and our master was a living room. Instead of having the tenants go into the small hallway to access each room from the original doorways, a previous owner cut a doorway between the two rooms … and did a shoddy job at that. In fact, the “trim” is plywood. It’s a more difficult job than just drywalling each side, which we could do ourselves, so we’ll need to hire someone. I’ll share photos and talk about it more soon!)
  • Hire a painter to tackle our stairwell. I’d like to do wallpaper eventually, but I don’t want to live with the ugly yellowish paint that’s on the wall until I have money saved up. I’d rather have it painted white (or maybe an accent color) so it’s less of an eyesore for the time being.
  • Replace the storm door at the front of the house. It’s in such poor shape and incredibly ugly. (I have no idea how to install a door, so that’ll be an adventurous weekend!)
  • Add a screen door to our back deck, if the existing door and frame allows.
  • Add an exterior motion-sensor light to the garage.
  • Paint or stain the deck and front porch.
  • Figure out our gutter situation so the rain doesn’t just dump directly from the roof onto the deck. (I’m not sure if they simply need to be cleaned out or if we need more gutters.)
  • Buy curtains for the dining room. Our house is close to the neighbor’s property, so we’d like to do sheers or linen curtains for privacy, but also to allow light to come in.

–
images: 1, 2, 3, 4

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Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: new year's goals, new year's resolutions

2018 New Year’s Goals

January 1, 2018 by jessica 9 Comments

New Year's Goals 2018

FEWER, BETTER THINGS

I know this is the Cuyana tagline, but it makes so much sense for where we are in our lives. We have a lot of possessions — which became evident when we moved — and the last thing we really need is more stuff. I’m trying to get out of the habit of impulse purchasing or feeling like I need something new to scratch an itch, or in terms of our home, feeling like we need a transitional piece that acts like a placeholder while we hunt for “the one.” I have a few lofty items that I’d love to own this year, namely the Gucci bag I’ve been saving for, wallpaper for our stairway, light fixtures for the entire house, and a dining room table and chairs. Having clearly defined purchases makes it easier to pass up the impulse items. I’ve also thought about limiting myself to just one or two sartorial pieces each month. It’d be an interesting challenge to whittle down a wish list to just a couple of purchases, but I could see it sucking a lot of joy out of fashion. Maybe worth trying for a few months, though!

TRAVEL SOMEPLACE NEW

This perennial resolution is my favorite. I think it’s important to expand my horizons and see a different part of the country or world. Plus, it’s so much fun to experience a new location! Last year we only took one vacation, and fortunately it was to a new-to-us location: New Orleans. It was difficult to justify additional travel when we just purchased a house and were feeling financially stressed as we adjusted to a new budget. Hopefully we’ll have more travel flexibility this year. We already have London on the books for April (with the flight and hotel already paid for, so that’s taken care of!), and have toyed the idea of going to Iceland for a week in the summer. I’m not sure if Iceland is realistic, so we have a couple of domestic ideas in mind. (After last night’s subzero temperatures, I wouldn’t mind ringing in 2019 somewhere with a beach!) And, while this is more than a year away, I promised Dave that we could go to Japan in 2019 or 2020. (Maybe if I write it down here, I’ll feel accountable for making it happen?)

MOVE MORE

Challenging myself to lose a certain amount of weight or commit to an ambitious workout schedule isn’t going to happen. However, I am looking to make healthier changes to my lifestyle in 2018. (Gone are the days that I could reliably lose weight just by reducing my calorie intake!) I’m starting an exercise regime that I can accomplish at home (twice a week sounds realistic to start) and once the weather gets nicer, I’m committing to at least one bike ride a weekend to get out an enjoy our neighborhood, Madison’s parks, and the surrounding lakes.

AROUND THE HOUSE

When we purchased this house, we knew there’d be a lot of work to do to make it our own. It was largely abandoned and hadn’t been taken care of or updated over the years. We’ve made impressive strides in the first six months of ownership, but there’s still a long list of things to do! We keep a shared list on the “Notes” app that allows us to jot down every project that comes to mind so that we can prioritize them. I won’t get into all of the projects, but some that I’d like to do tackle this year include:

  • Finish painting the trim and doors.
  • Finish painting the hallway and ceiling. (We’ll need a professional painter for part of the wall and ceiling that we can’t reach over the stairs.)
  • Repaint the guest room since we hate the grey we originally picked.
  • Replace the storm door at the front of the house. It’s in such poor shape and incredibly ugly.
  • Replace the remaining light fixtures … for seven rooms.
  • Buy a dining room table and chairs.
  • Purchase a living room rug, preferably vintage.
  • Add a screen door to our back deck.
  • Have a contractor come in to give us quotes on renovating the bathroom, closing off the opening between the master bedroom and guest room, and renovating our front porch/sun room. (It was originally a porch, but had been closed in at some point. We’d like to add more windows and give it an interior face lift so it’s a space that we’ll use.)
  • Get quotes on wallpaper installation for the stairway. (I’d love to make wallpapering a priority for 2018, but it all comes down to money.)
  • Get quotes on skim coating the kitchen to get rid of the awful textured walls.
  • Have an electrician install exterior outlets.
  • Resurface the driveway and add a parking pad to the side of the one-car garage.
  • Add exterior lights to our side entrance and the garage.
  • Paint or stain our deck and front porch.
  • Figure out window coverings. We’re likely going with roller shades because they fit the period of the house and they’re affordable.

–
images: 1, 2, 3, 4

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Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: new year's goals, new year's resolutions

2017 New Year’s Goals

January 1, 2017 by jessica 3 Comments

lace front wigs

Happy 2017! A new year brings with it a renewed sense of optimism and excitement for the months ahead. Sure, we have a certain president to contend with later this month, but let’s move beyond that for now and focus our attention on happier pursuits: the things we’d love to accomplish in the new year. Setting out with a list of resolutions for the year sounds daunting (and oftentimes unrealistic), so instead I’m framing them as goals. These are the items I’d like to work toward in the coming months and, honestly, I might not accomplish any of them. That’s okay. Setting goals rather than resolutions means that even the small steps forward are successes worth celebrating.

MORE OUTFIT POSTS

I’m sure Dave is super excited about helping me accomplish this 2017 goal, but they’re the most popular posts and, honestly, my favorite ones to do. Plus, photographing my sartorial hits (and misses) helps me hone in my style and encourages me to be more creative, which leads me to my next goal:

STOP OVERTHINKING CLOTHES

Fashion should be fun and personal style should be a creative journey unmarred by overthinking things like cost per wear and “Can I wear this with three items I already own?” Year after year, my favorite purchases typically fall into one of three categories: impulse purchases that struck an I-have-to-own-this-now chord, uniquely designed items that I love to wear simply because they’re fun, or expensive items I actually had to save up for. (The latter is certainly the anomaly, but it applies to designer duds my bank account can’t handle on a whim like my Hermès bracelet.) Of course, I don’t want to just throw money at anything that catches my eye. I’m working on finding the balance between identifying the items I’ll wear a lot and making sure they’re not just boring basics. And, really, if an item is just that good, I’ll figure out ways to wear it. I also want to get out of the habit of only purchasing individual items because they’re versatile. Why not buy an entire outfit because it looks great together?

TRAVEL TO NEW DESTINATIONS

I can’t let a New Year’s post go by without my perennial goal to travel to new destinations. Last year, we ticked Copenhagen off of our travel list and also visited Nashville. We’re planning to visit Arizona this spring. (I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon and I hear it’s kind of a big deal.) We’d also love to head back to Europe this summer. London is high on our travel wish list as is Iceland, but we’re open to any destination with a deal on airfare. I also really want to spend a long weekend beached at, well, the beach.

BUY A HOUSE

Last year was an emotional roller coaster with our house hunt. (I never expected to feel so devastated after losing out on the only house we liked enough to put an offer on.) The real estate market in Madison is tough with low inventory, but things are starting to come on the market again and I’m optimistic that this is the year we’ll finally become homeowners. This also means we’ll finally get rid of some of our ugly hand-me-down transitional furniture. It just doesn’t make sense to buy things like new couches until we know what kind of space we have to work with.

EAT OUT LESS OFTEN

With the aforementioned plans, we’ll have to find ways to cut expenses throughout the year. Dining (and drinking) out is a huge line item that can be trimmed. Not only is dining out multiple times a week expensive, it’s also doing a number on our waistlines with the calorie-laden meals. Besides, I enjoy cooking. It’s a fun, creative way to unwind after a busy day at the office. So, here’s to getting mileage out of my Bon Appetit subscription with more meals at home in 2017!

Happy New Year! 

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: new year, new year's goals, new year's resolutions

2016 Resolutions

January 4, 2016 by jessica 10 Comments

 

2016Resolutions

Happy 2016! Honestly, I’d be lying if I said I was excited to get back to my weekly routine on the first Monday of the year, but I am happy to have the holiday hoopla behind me! After a month of travel — and a flat tire on Saturday — I’m ready for a few weeks at home. And, it’s a good thing we don’t have plans this month. I’m going to need the extra time to get started on my new year’s resolutions:

CLEAN, ORGANIZE, PURGE

Dave and I have lived together for almost five years and we’ve accumulated quite a few things in our small apartment. Now that we’re becoming more serious about our house hunt, I’d like to spend the next few months going through our place and getting rid of the items we don’t love. I don’t want to move things into a new home if we’ll never use them again. I’m planning to go through my wardrobe in January and donate or sell unused items in February. After that, I will be going through the boxes I moved from my old apartment and never opened since. It’s a daunting project, so I’m heading down memory lane one box per weekend until the project is done, which should be completed by March.

FEWER, BETTER THINGS

This really goes hand-in-hand with the previous resolution. I’m growing tired of clutter. To be fair, it’s partly because we have a small apartment, but it’s also because I haven’t been as thoughtful about new purchases as I could be. In terms of clothing, I’m planning to cut back on the number of purchases during the year. Last year’s Pinterest board for new wardrobe additions shows that I added over 100 items in 2015. As much as I love clothing and accessories, that’s a bit much. (You can view my 2016 additions here.) This should be a fairly easy task to accomplish. I’m sticking to a stricter budget this year with $750 per season earmarked for clothing and accessories. This isn’t to say that I’m solely focusing on wardrobe classics again. I have enough of those. I simply want every sartorial purchase I make in 2016 to be very much “me.” For non-wardrobe items, I want to spend time looking for the “right” item and not throw money at something that will work for the time being.

TRAVEL SOMEPLACE NEW

My broken foot last year led us to reconsider some of our travel dreams. I wasn’t sure exactly when I’d be healed and how far I’d feel comfortable walking, so we revisited a few of our favorite U.S. cities. This year, we’d like to expand our horizons and travel to new destinations. We’re talking about visiting Copenhagen in the spring and taking a fall road trip to New England. I’ve always wanted to go to Maine and eat my weight in lobster rolls.

LOSE WEIGHT

…and speaking of weight, I need to shed a few pounds this year. My ambitious goal is to lose 20 pounds. I was on my way last year until my foot broke and I fell out of my exercise routine. Oh well, it’s a new year and a new chance to get myself in better shape! After college, I lost 70 pounds and have since gained back 35 of them. It’s incredibly hard, but I need to prioritize my health as I get older. Besides, my sluggish metabolism needs a kick in the arse with Jillian Michaels! I’d like to give myself little reward at each five-pound benchmark. Any ideas? (That said, I’m focusing more on total wellness than the scale itself with clean eating and exercise three times a week.)

JUST FOR FUN

Try two new recipes each month.

Keep champagne chilled for even the smallest special occasion.

Search for the perfect bar cart.

Wear bold patterns and embrace color.

Buy a new mattress.

***
images via 1, 2, 3, 4

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: 2016 new year's resolutions, new year's resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

January 6, 2015 by jessica 15 Comments

2015Resolutionsv2

When I was little, my mom made a cross-stitch piece for my bedroom with the inscription “Each new year’s a chance to see your dreams become reality.” That piece is packed away with the rest of my childhood decor, but what a wonderful phrase to bring back at the dawn of a new year. Everyone seemed to be strong out of the gate with their 2015 resolutions, but I needed extra time to collect my thoughts about the new year.

TRAVEL SOMEWHERE NEW

This is a perennial goal of mine and one I think should grace everyone’s list. Last year, we were fortunate enough to travel to Belgium and visit Brussels, Ghent, and Bruges. We made a stop in Amsterdam (a repeat for me, but new to Dave) and took a Memorial Day roadtrip to Louisville, a city we visited a couple of years prior. I love the balance of revisiting favorites and mixing in new destinations during the year. So far, we’re talking about an April trip somewhere warm, like Puerto Rico, Mexico, or Florida, and a December trip to Europe. Visiting Christmas markets in Europe is a major bucket list item for me. It’d be incredible to check that off the to-do list this year! (However, I’m a little worried about how much holiday decor I’ll end up bringing home!)

LOSE WEIGHT

Ugh, I don’t know how the pounds crept up over the last year. When we got back from Belgium, I was 20 pounds lighter than I am now! All of the beer fests, eating out, and ordering pizza really did me in–and it’s not like my slowing metabolism is helping anything! I need to get back in shape. I’m armed with my FitBit, a Weight Watchers membership, and Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. (Any other FitBit users want to be friends on the app? My cousin joined and I’m surprised at how motivating it is to see her daily steps add up.)

FIND FASHION FUN AGAIN

The last few years have been about curating a wardrobe of quality basics. It was a fantastic learning experience that taught me to value quality clothing and forgo shopping at fast fashion stores. However, it put the emphasis so much on basics that I ignored the things about fashion that make me happiest: unexpected fabrics, big prints, and color. I want to have fun with clothes again, while still adhering to the principles I worked so hard to incorporate: quality over quantity and no impulse buys.

MIND MY MONEY

I say this every year, but adhering to a budget and saving money is becoming more and more important as I get older. I spent time last weekend working on a realistic budget that allows me to tuck away and invest a decent amount of money each month, while still allowing myself $250 per month for clothing. I’m going to scrap the six-month clothing budget that I was trying (it would have continued through February) and start fresh this year with a monthly budget. The six-month allowance was too tempting to go overboard at the beginning and I’d like to keep all budget-related items to a calendar year. I’ll allow any unused portion to roll over to the next month and, as always, a portion of blog revenue and eBay sales will be added to the budget. I’m also starting a 2015 Pinterest board of all new wardrobe additions, both gifted and purchased. I’ll share more about this in January’s budget recap in a few weeks.

WILDCARD RESOLUTIONS

Stop letting dishes pile up.

Read more.

Take care of my wardrobe and put things away at night.

Be patient.

Let go of things that don’t make me happy or serve a purpose.

// images via 1, 2, 3, 4 //

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: new year, new year's resolutions

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Hello!


Jessica Hamm
Hello there! I'm a first-time homeowner updating a 1920s house in Madison, Wisconsin. I have a penchant for travel and a love of costume jewelry.

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I’m challenging myself to get through a backlog I’m challenging myself to get through a backlog of travel photos before we book our next trip. First up, photos of the gothic York Minster. I’m not religious in the slightest but I can’t resist stunning architecture and the opportunity to climb hundreds of cathedral stairs for a city view. This one only had a single rest stop about halfway up the flight of 275 steps for a closeup view of the flying buttresses — and a waiver you had to sign before your ascent to promise you’re healthy enough to make it.
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Visiting York earlier this month put us in the Hal Visiting York earlier this month put us in the Halloween spirit. While it claims to be the most haunted place in Europe and is dubbed the city of a thousand ghosts, we only encountered the wire-mesh sculptures of Ghosts in the Gardens (@the_york_bid) and the family of souvenir ghosts I brought home from @yorkghostmerchants. 

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