Happy New Year all! I hope the last month treated you all well, and that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's Eve!

I took a little break the last couple of weeks from posting on social media and blogging, and it was kind of nice to take a step back. I took some time to evaluate my business and the past year in general, and to focus on some goals and ideas for 2018.

Last year I chose a word of the year instead of the same old typical resolutions (lose weight, work out more, eat healthier) and I really liked it. I chose the word 'moderation' and I felt like I was able to focus on it and keep applying it all year long, instead of slowly fizzling out a few months in like I usually did. I think that picking one specific idea instead of several more general goals worked well for me.

I ended up focusing more on moderation in my eating than anything else, and I started having some health issues in the spring that really made me have to be more strict with my food. The result was that I lost 17 pounds over the last year (and only gained one during the holidays!) and I've been able to have goodies around and not just completely binge like I would have in the past. It's helped me create more healthy habits and I consider it a success for the year.

This year I decided to continue that practice and as you probably guessed from the photo above, I chose the word 'productive.' I have always been a procrastinator. I even wrote a funny post about it several years ago when I first started blogging! I tend to put things off if (especially if it's not urgent), and I've always said that it's because I work better under pressure. But the older I get, the more it just stresses me out, and it's time to change.

With the house getting closer to being finished (which means more hands on projects for me), and other goals I have for my business and blog, I know that being more productive is key. So my plan is to create a solid routine for my day to day, and stick to it! I've done that in the past, and I do so much better on a good schedule.

I've been reading up on some articles on how to be a more productive person (I pinned them all to my New Year board), and I've found some good ones that I think will help me in the areas I need to work on.

First and foremost is setting a strict bed- and waking time. I struggle so much with keeping a good sleep schedule! It's so easy for me to stay up late and sleep in most days, but the last month I was fighting off a bug and it was worse than usual. No matter how hard I've been trying I just could not get it turned around! But I've been working on it and this week I'm knuckling down and making it happen. 6:30 a.m. is going to be my new best friend!

I also intend on using more time blocks for daily tasks that I do every day. This way I don't get sucked in and distracted on social media, or putter around and bounce from one little task to another when I know all I really need to do is the dishes. This will help me get through my day to day while still allowing me to have time to focus on bigger projects like the house.

I also have switched up my list making. I have a tendency to just pile up my to do list with every little thing, and then I get overwhelmed and only half of it ever gets done (if I'm lucky). One article I read said that a person can really only focus on about three things at a time, and I know I constantly have way more than that on my mind at any given time. So, each day I'm going to prioritize three tasks (besides my daily chores/work) on my list and focus on those. I also created a weekly and monthly list to pull from that has everything I'd like to get done. I'm really excited about this and I'll let you know how it works out :)

So that's my word of the day. I hope this year will be successful and kind to us all! And I'd love to know, do you set resolutions for the year, or choose a word? Or do you just think it's all nonsense? Haha! Let me know!

Happy 2018 everybody, and thanks for stopping by!

This last weekend was a busy one for working on the house. Well, it's always busy I guess, but it's been a while since I actually worked long and hard on something myself, Dane's been doing most of the work lately. But he needed help putting up fascia board (the edge board you see that covers the end of the joists) and I started paint prep!

We get so much rain here in southern Oregon, I wanted to get the exterior painted before it really gets going. Usually it hits in October sometime, so we're kind of racing to get the roofing done and most of the exterior before that happens. It's still showing clear for the 10 day forecast though, so fingers crossed it will stay nice weather for a while!

There isn't really much I need to do to the new part of the house as far as prep before painting (although there will be a ton of caulking at some point soon), but the original part of the house really needed some attention before I could do any painting. It's obvious it hadn't been painted in a really long time, maybe over 20 years! And most of it was peeling and flaking off.

To get a good adhesion with the new paint, I had to get all of the loose stuff off, which required going over it with a pressure washer, going over it all by hand and scraping it, and then pressure washing one more time! It was as much work as it sounds. It took me three days!

Now that it's done though, it looks so much cleaner without all the flaky paint and cobwebs, in spite of all the missing paint, haha! And now I have a smooth slate for priming and painting. I wrapped that up today, and here's what it looks like now.




The plan is to start painting this week, and since I will definitely be sharing an update when that's done, I thought I'd show you some of my inspiration for it!

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We're also doing a gabled front entry, that will be enclosed on the sides and only open on the front. Our house is far from a Tudor style house, but I kept coming back to them for their front entries and so I took inspiration from them for ours. It's not built yet, but it will be done soon!

And lastly, I know we're doing a wood front door, and I got some brick on craigslist for our front steps and walkway.

It's going to be so exciting seeing the outside come together, and it's a pretty big check off the list. Soon, we'll be moving onto the interior, and man am I ready for that!

So what do you think? I know white houses are very trendy right now, but I just love them so much! Are you on the white house bandwagon too? What are some of your favorite exterior details?

Have a great rest of your day, and thanks for stopping by!
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This picture is a big one on my list of inspiration. I looked at a ton of pictures of kitchens with black windows, but this one is my favorite. I love the white walls, and the way they make the windows really pop. And it has all of my favorite things, black+white, warm wood, brass hardware, and greenery!

Here are some other things I'm looking at.

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I love inserted hood ranges, and I think it's necessary anyway because I'm not planning on doing any upper cabinets at all! Call me crazy, but I just love the look of open shelving, and there will be plenty of storage without them. Dane loves the idea because it's cheaper haha ;)

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There are several cabinet color options that I really like (I love those wood ones), but I always keep coming back to black. It's always been a favorite of mine, and I feel like you can't go wrong with such a solid neutral color. But, I have tossed around the idea of a dark olive green, so I could surprise myself and choose that when it comes down to it!

Right now I'm planning on medium brown wood floors, white counters (maybe concrete) and a subway tiled backsplash. I've been hearing rumors that subway tile is out, and I get it. When something dominates as much as subway tile has, people get tired of looking at it. But, we used it in our last two remodels and didn't get to enjoy it at all! Literally weeks after tile went up, we moved out :( I may decide to try a different tile layout, but I still do love the classic.  I also thought about some pretty patterned cement-like tiles, but honestly, I think I would get tired of that really fast, in spite of how pretty it is. So, tried and true it is.

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The layout of our house is a little different than most people are probably used to, like I mentioned in a previous post. You walk right into our dining room/kitchen, so I want it to make a really good first impression. Something cozy and welcoming, with lots of character. And our dining table is going to float in the center of the room, so I'm picturing something old, rustic, and warm. These pictures above  are really pulling that off!

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And, let's be honest, some of these places (like so much of Pinterest) are much higher end and extravagant than our house is going to be! So my goal is to focus on the things that I know I like (warm wood, black+white, olive green, a touch of rustic, a touch of traditional, a touch mid-century) and make it work for our home :)

There you have it, our new kitchen inspiration! What do you think? Should I continue to do these posts for some of the other rooms in our house? Let me know!

Happy Wednesday folks, and thanks for stopping by!

This Christmas season is FLYNG by! But it may be that it already feels like Christmas has come and gone (even though it hasn't).

I started working on my Christmas card line in September, and that meant listening to Christmas carols and all around getting into the Christmas mood. So it's been a few months, and I can say that I do eventually get tired of hearing those songs over and over ;)

Then, we celebrated with my side of the family this past weekend and so it already seems like we're done! I'm still looking forward to Christmas day, but it will be the first year we are traveling for the actual holiday, and it feels different.

Since we already had one celebration, that means I already got some gifts! Yay for art supplies! I shared Saturday's haul on instagram, and one of the gifts I was most excited for was In Progress by Jessica Hische!


I've had it on my wish list since it was on pre-order, and my sister got it for me. To say it's inspiring seems like a disservice! That lady is so ridiculously talented, it makes me want to cry ;) but she also works so, so hard! It's very encouraging to see how far someone can get with a whole lot of hard work.

Aside from some great technical info and a step by step of Jessica's work-flow, there are a ton of beautiful pictures of art and advertising work. Some of them were ones I had seen, but didn't know she had done!


I definitely recommend it to any other letterers or designers out there. Even though the type of work we do is a little different (I'm not a freelancer), it helped me realize where some of the holes are in my own process!

But even if you're not a designer, it's still nice to have a book around that's filled with great examples of beautiful type! You can find it here on Amazon.

In other news, I rolled out some new (and one re-vamped) designs at the Hip Holiday Craft Market a couple weeks ago, and I will be listing them in the shop after the new year! I'm super excited about these, and I have a feeling the bacon one will be a good seller for Valentine's day ;)



Well, that's all of my exciting news for around here. I hope you all have very happy and safe holiday weekend, and spend lots of time with loved ones! Thanks for stopping by!

It's been a while since I've been able to totally decorate a room from scratch, so I'm pretty excited!

That's all I'm up to this afternoon, how about you? Anything fun, new, or exciting taking up your afternoons currently? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

I've been thinking a lot lately about goals, both personally and for Brightly Done. I don't usually make new year "resolutions," but I do like to use this time of year as a way to step off on the right foot. Most of the goals I have are consistent ones, that I have all the time, but it seemed like a good idea to reevaluate and share them all here!

Personal Goals

Goals for Brightly Done

You know those fast food chains that are always targeting their late night hours toward stoners? Well, turns out that they also appeal to bored insomniacs!

So now that I've polished off some extremely terrible (but delicious) food, how about some eye candy?

So lately I have been on a huge greeting card kick (what with passing out Christmas cards and what-not), and I have been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over beautiful cards everywhere! In the grocery store, in magazines, and online, beautiful type and design has been catching my eye like crazy!

It really makes me think even more seriously that I would love to get into the design field. Whether that includes going back to school or not, I'm not sure at the moment. But it definitely seems to be what pulls at me, and I would love to try my hand at print making, and design!

While on one of my card browsing sessions, I stumbled across this contest from minted. If you don't know, they are this amazing website full of greeting cards, party invitations, and the like! All submitted by designers from all over, and voted on by the minted community. Let me tell you, if I had more money, all of my friends and family would have been getting cards from this site!

Side note: As it were, I settled on designing my own card, and passing those out instead. I was pretty happy with how it turned out :)



As you can tell, I'm really feeling the chalkboard look this year. That mistletoe sign is what I put on my own chalkboard! And I just cannot get enough of all things twinkly and sparkly. I've got some major twinkle light fever going on!

So what has been inspiring you this holiday season? Maybe go check out some more of these inspirations boards, and get dreaming!

Inspiration!

I think that Wordle is such a great and fun tool, and you could use it for so many things!

I highly suggest you check it out, whether you were using it for research, or just as inspiration! There are so many layouts, colors, fonts, and orientations to choose from, so you can make it completely unique and yours. And once you create it, it's yours to save and do whatever you want with!

(FYI, this post wasn't sponsored in any way, shape, or form by Wordle. It's just a fun tool that I wanted to share with you all!)

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you find motivation and inspiration for whatever project you might be working on today :) Happy Monday!