Weekend Recap

Good morning, and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and have had a great start to the new year so far! Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to over the past few weeks.

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Home Projects & Updates

Well, if you thought my last house update a few weeks ago had some major changes (like all the walls being primed), get ready for a whole lot more action! I’ll share a bunch of the updates today, but I also have an official progress post coming soon with even more progress!

First up, I’d say about 80% of the trim in our house is up and done! One of the features that first attracted us to this builder was the incredible trimwork and detail throughout their homes. These guys have been working for three weeks straight cutting all the trim and it all looks so beautiful! It will eventually all be primed and painted but it really pops now against the white walls! Here is a look at my future office. I just love all the windows in here!

They also got the risers installed on both the staircase up to the carriage house and our main staircase. It’s wild how every day is looking less and less like a chaotic construction zone! In the pic below, I’m standing at the side entrance off the porch. To the left and down is the little mudroom area and door to the garage, up and to the left is the carriage house, and then to the right is into the main house and laundry room area. This little area makes our house look quite a bit larger from the exterior, but it’s really just a spot for the staircase. Many carriage house staircases in our neighborhood are on the exterior, so we love having it enclosed this time around.

Also, most of the closets have been built out! Here is a wide-angle look at Kurtis’ side of the closet .

Aaaannnnddd……they got the tongue and groove planks and beams installed in our kitchen, dining and living room space! Kurtis keeps thinking we should have stained the wood and left it natural, but I keep reminding him we only paid for paint-grade wood, not stain-grade. I’m not sure he’d love the natural look if he actually had to pay for it 😉 But it does look beautiful right now! I’m even more excited to see it all painted. I think it will add a really nice texture and visual interest to the space.

We’re also doing a similar treatment to the ceiling in Kurtis’ office. They just started that space Saturday, so that will be fun to watch progress, as well. The ceilings are 10′ tall on our second floor (rather than 12′ on main) so his won’t have the beams, just the boards.

If you follow me on Instagram, I’ve been sharing a lot of paint thoughts, decisions, and dilemmas. I’m trying to be more consistent with sharing live updates over there. Here are a few samples we brought over for Kurtis’ office. We both immediately knew Hale Navy was the right choice for the space once we saw it there. I have a whole post dedicated to Benjamin Moore Hale Navy and all the other times we’ve used it if you’re interested. I’m excited to have it back in our new house! We’ll likely be color-drenching his office, so everything will be painted navy (walls, tongue & groove ceiling, trim, etc.)! His room has pretty much been finalized because he has very specific opinions and knows exactly what he likes and doesn’t like. I’m much less decisive!

Speaking of paint. Wow. I can’t even tell you the volume of paint samples I’ve brought over and moved from room to room to room. The house gets very strong light tones from each of the different directions and it is making an optimal paint color very difficult to find! We’re also contemplating painting all the interior doors a light blue gray paint color which has Instagram very divided. 50% say to absolutely do it, the other 50% say absolutely do not and keep them white.

Now that all of our trim is done outside of a few closets, and the doorways, I anticipate the doors will be arriving shortly for painting and I’ll need to make a decision quickly. I’d love to hear any feedback or if you have a light blue gray paint color you love! They are all such chameleons, so finding something that works house-wide has been a challenge! The leading contender is Benjamin Moore Silver Gray. It’s shown below (on the right) next to Benjamin Moore Wales Gray (too green-gray in our lighting conditions). I basically stare at it all day as the light changes while I’m sitting at my desk. Our current door/wall/shiplap color is Sherwin Williams Snowbound, which we’re considering using again.

Over the past few weeks, I feel like I finally gained some clarity on the direction I want to head in a few spaces in our new home. I’ve hesitated sharing design plans simply because nothing felt 100% certain other than a space or two. But I also know that’s part of the process, and you all may enjoy seeing that, as well. Real life!

I placed several more orders for lighting, a vanity, and other fixtures over the past few weeks. I’d love for a few to arrive, and then I plan to give you some sneak peeks next week of some of the items I’ve ordered that have arrived so far!

Back at our house, Christmas came down quickly and now I’m in full purge and clean mode! I had these various white pieces of coral and seashells in various places around our home and decided to group them on top of my bookcase in my office. I love them! This piece and some of these pieces are still available. I always enjoy finding fresh ways to decorate with items I already have after the holiday decor comes down.

I’m planning to jump into spring decor here shortly, once I do a bit more purging and tidying up. We’re going to have a very busy spring with prepping for listing, showing our house, and some travel, so I want to stay ahead of the game!

Around Town & For Fun

It’s hard to believe my last update was in mid-December, shortly after we got home from Omaha to celebrate Christmas. It feels like so much has happened since then!

After we returned home from Omaha, we had a few days before we flew out again to Salt Lake to spend Christmas with my side of the family. In between there, my friend Jess coordinated a fun dinner at O-Ku for all of us influencer friends that live down here. It’s crazy that three of us (it was four until Rach moved a street away) all live on the same street, and yet we probably only see each other once a quarter except in passing at times! So it was nice to have a dedicated dinner to catch up for several hours. They’re always such a fun group! I’ll link their names to their Instagram handles in the caption if you’re not familiar with all of them!

Later that week, we headed to the airport again for our flight to Salt Lake! I looked back on my travels this past year and realized I literally only ever wore Varley for every single trip regardless of the climate we were traveling too. It’s hard to believe I only got my first piece of theirs last January. It feels like a long-standing love affair! But their DoubleSoft collection is the only way to go! Funny enough, when I was flying to Omaha, there was a lady in the exact same outfit as me (same color and everything). She was probably 20 years old and six or seven inches shorter and much more petite than me, so their clothes really do work for so many body types! They probably won my award for favorite brand discovery this year! Bonus of my Invisalign tray: I feel like it’s a free lip filler because I’m always having to adjust my lips to better fit around it. Ha!

The second we arrived Rachel asked for a pic of my parents’ dog, Bella. She is a Bernedoodle like Rachel’s younger dog and she couldn’t be cuter or more fun! She loves playing with my brother and sister-in-law’s lab, Ace, when they’re in town visiting.

The weather was wild while we were there. It may be the only Christmas in my 45 year memory when there hasn’t been any snow in the valley or even in the mountains. The ski resorts had a little, but it was unreal. The temps were so warm every day. We spent an afternoon at Top Golf and it was a lot of fun!

You’d think this picture was late summer or early fall if you didn’t know any better!

Every morning, Kurtis would join my mom and the dogs on her usual 3-4 mile hike up the canyon. Bella insisted the window be lowered for every drive. And since my mom apparently doesn’t parent her dog like she did her children, Bella always gets her way 😉

My mom always has such cute holiday arrangements that she comes up with!

We went to Christmas Eve service at my childhood church and I wore this top that was basically the only semi-dressy seasonal item I wore this year. It’s such a cute one if they still have your size left! The earrings are probably ten years old from Bauble Bar and I still get so much use out of them!

Our cute cat sitter always sends us such cute pictures, videos and stories while we’re away! If you’re local, I’m happy to pass along her contact info. We never worry about them when we’re away!

We arrived home from Salt Lake Christmas night, and by the next morning, I was tearing down Christmas decor for Kurtis to haul to the storage unit. This might honestly be the shortest period in our entire 20+ year marriage that our Christmas decor was up. We’re both very much looking forward to the day we’ll have a spot to store all of this at home (we’ll have a tiny little attic area) and we can get rid of our storage unit!

That night we had our friends dinner at Amigos so it was fun to see everyone since we missed Christmas! Our friends Becky and Mike and their kids were also here from Kansas City.

We had bocce league and kind of bummed around the house for the next few days. We watched the new season of Emily in Paris, the Diddy Documentary, the latest Selling Sunset, some (pretty terrible) Christmas movies, etc. We tried to keep it well-rounded 😉

Becky and Mike hosted New Year’s Eve at their new rental in Watercolor. The house was absolutely darling. When my friend Louise showed it months ago, she had texted me pics and said it was such a “Sarah house”. Becky and Mike (and sometimes Kurtis) are huge Husker fans, so I don’t think they realized they had a Ute in the house when they turned on the Bowl Game. Go Utes! 😉

After dinner and some games, we walked into Seaside for their New Year’s Eve celebrations. We had attended a few years ago but skipped the last two. They always do such a nice job with their events if you can handle the crowds!

The cutest little “seaside” town!

A quick selfie with Kurtis, Mike, Rachel, me and Louise! You can see they had a stage set up in the amphitheater with a band before the fireworks show.

We’ve actually had pretty incredible weather with days in the 70’s, but NYE was cold and the show was in the 40’s. I was surprised the kids lasted as long as they did, but we all made the call to start walking back before the fireworks started. But we were able to watch them on our walk back to Watercolor! I saw some pics of those that watched from the beach, and I think that’s a goal for next year – it looked so beautiful!

The next day, I officially broke out a puzzle. Remember the years when I would allow myself to do them in the month of December? I basically can’t allow them otherwise because I become obsessive. We actually did three while at my parents so it got the juice flowing! This beachcomber’s puzzle (which I’ve already almost finished) is a really fun one if you love seashells like I do! It’s one of the more unique ones I’ve ever done and is still 1,000 pieces despite all the large cut-outs.

We opted out of friend dinner and bocce this week (as did several others) to focus on getting back to real-life for the new year and new week ahead.

Kurtis and I head to Kona, HI for his company incentive trip in about seven weeks, so we’ve decided to really lock it down until then. We are doing Dry January (which may lead into dry half of February) and making an effort to get back to cooking more meals at home and meal prepping. We do so much better when we take 30 minutes or so on the weekend to figure out our meals for the week, make a list and get groceries before the weekend is over.

I always find others’ recipes and menus from the week helpful, so thought I’d share a few of ours in regular rotation. Many of these are meal planning favorites where we can make ahead and eat on them later in the week for a quick lunch. I’ve linked the recipes we use on each of the items:

• Jennifer Aniston Salad
• Healthy Tomato Bisque
• Turkey Meatballs (Kurtis’ new obsession after I made them for a girls night and he got the leftovers. He loves to pair them with the Jennifer Aniston Salad when we have both on hand).
• Tortellini Soup
• Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
• Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup
• Beef Pot Roast recipe from this 16 year old post I wrote. Be warned 😉 But the roast and white chicken chili are both still ones we make frequently.
• We also heavily rotate steak salads and taco salads. For the steak salads, we grill steak, let it rest a bit, and then add it to greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, blue cheese crumbles and blue cheese dressing and top it off with fresh cracked pepper. The taco salads are usually similar but we use ground beef (I season on my own but you could add taco mix), tomatoes, avocado (if we have on hand), shredded cheese, and salsa (sometimes with Greek yogurt or sour cream if we have on hand). Kurtis will also add a little ranch dressing and black olives to his.
• I’m also planning to try this High Protein Chicken Tortilla Soup tonight so we have dinner for the evening and then a few lunches this week.

Once we get back from Hawaii, we know it will be time to list our house, since it will already be early March by then. Which means the next six weeks our focus will be on finalizing new house selections but also getting our house ready to list!

In looking at the new year, I have so much excitement! We have some fun trips planned, plus the move to the new house (which I can’t even wait for).

Over the coming months, I’m planning to start only posting Weekend Recap posts once or twice a month. Not only is that because I’m sure you can only stand hearing weekly updates on our packing for so long. But also because that will allow me to put more time into sharing the house design updates, progress, decorating ideas, etc.

I hope you have a wonderful start to your new year!

Recent Buys & Sales

Following are some sales from the weekend that have carried over and are still going strong!

• ABERCROMBIE is offering 20-50% off almost everything during their Winter Sale. You can shop their sale here.
• AMAZON has a bunch of items on sale in their Today’s Deals section. You can shop their site here.
• AMERICAN EAGLE is offering 25-50% off almost everything and 30% off jeans. You can shop their site here.
• ANN TAYLOR is offering up to 50% off your full-priced purchase and an extra 60% off sale styles. You can shop their site here.
• ANNIE SELKE is offering 20% off sitewide with code LASTCALL. You can shop their site here.
• ANTHROPOLOGIE has a number of new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
• ARHAUS is offering 20% orders of $5,000+. You can shop their site here.
• BALLARD DESIGNS is offering up to 25% off sitewide. You can shop their site here.
• BODEN is offering 10% off new womenswear with code D24M. You can shop their site here.
• CAMP SNAP CAMERAS is offering 7% off their viral camera with code LIFEONVIRGINIASTREET. You can shop their site here.
• CHICO’S is hosting their Semi-Annual Sale, with up to 70% off markdowns. You can shop their site here.
• COCO & EVE is offering 30% off all hair and tan sets. You can shop their site here.
• CRATE & BARREL is offering up to 20% off bedding and bath adn up to 60% off during their warehouse sale. You can shop their site here.
• ETU HOME is offering 20% off your purchase with my custom code LOVS20! You can shop their site here.
• FRANK & EILEEN has a number of new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
• GAP is offering up to 75% off markdowns. You can shop their sale here.
• GROVE COLLABORATIVE is offering 25% off a $75+ order with my code SARAHSTEWART. You can shop their site here.
• J CREW is offering an extra 60% off sale styles with code SHOPSALE. You can shop their site here.
• J CREW FACTORY is offering 40-70% off everything. Get an extra 70% off clearance styles with code TAKE70! You can shop their sale here.
• LANDS’ END is offering 40% off full-priced styles plus an extra 70% off sale and clearance with code COBALT. You can shop their site here.
• LILLY PULITZER is offering up to 70% off during their Sunshine Sale. You can shop their site here.
• LINDSAY LETTERS is offering 20% off all art! You can shop her site here.
• LOFT is offering 50% off your entire purchase. You can shop their sale here.
• LULULEMON has 500+ new sale finds in their end of year sale. You can shop their site here.
• MADEWELL is offering an additional 50% off sales styles (for up to 70% off) with code WINTER. You can shop their site here.
• MARK & GRAHAM is offering up to 60% off select styles during their end of season sale and free shipping on orders $150+ with code SHIPFREE. You can shop their site here.
• MARSHALLS is offering free shipping on orders of $89+ with code SHIP89. You can shop their site here.
• MCGEE & CO. has a number of new items in their clearance section. You can shop their site here.
• NORDSTROM is offering up to 60% off during their Half-Yearly Sale. They’re also offering an additional 25-40% off during their Designer Clearance Sale. You can shop their site here.
• OLD NAVY has 1000s of clearance items starting at $2.99! You can shop their sale here.
• POTTERY BARN is offering up to 60% off furniture, outdoor, bedding, and more plus free shipping on 1000s of items. You can shop their sale here.
• REJUVENATION is offering up to 60% off during their end-of-season sale. You can shop their site here.
• RUGGABLE is offering 15% off your purchase with my code LIFEONVIRGINIASTREET15. You can shop their site here.
• SALT & STONE is offering 15% off your purchase with code SARAHS15! I have really been loving their clean deodorant! You can shop their site here.
• SERENA & LILY is offering 20% off everything or 25% your purchase of $2,500+. You can shop their sale here.
• TARGET has a number of home deals like up to 40% off bath items, up to 50% off bed sheets, pillows, and more bedding, up to 40% off indoor furniture, and more. You can shop their site here.
• TJ MAXX is offering free shipping on orders $89+ with code SHIP89! You can shop their site here.
• TORY BURCH is hosting their Semi-Annual sale, with an extra 25% off items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
• TUCKERNUCK has a number of cute new items in their sale section. You can shop their site here.
• U BEAUTY is offering 20% off sitewide with my code LIFEONVIRGINIASTREET20. You can shop their site here.
• VINEYARD VINES is offering up to 70% off all sale styles with code WOAS25. You can shop their site here.
• WAYFAIR is offering up to 70% off during their end of year clearance sale. You can shop their sale here.
• WEST ELM is offering up to 60% off items in their clearance section. You can shop their site here.
• WILLIAMS SONOMA is offering up to 75% off in their clearance section. You can shop their site here.

I hope you all have a great week!

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