Self Care Essentials: Audibles I'm Listening To In 2021

Having "survived" January, all things considered, I decided to make an Audible wishlist — literally & figuratively, and I'm kicking off my book tour with a nod to Black History Month.

I have always been impressed by the Audible library but even I was surprised at the very robust assortment of listens showcasing Black voices & the Black experience.

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The Hygge Ranch: Our Kitchen Organization With iDesign & The Container Store

It's no secret that organization is my jam, so when thinking about the kitchen renovation, how it would be organized has always been top of mind — from the design layout to the cabinetry options. But that's only one piece of the puzzle — the perimeter edges of the puzzle — but while the kitchen has been in a holding pattern, awaiting the countertops, I've been working on the middle pieces of my storage puzzle.

What's a dream kitchen without dream storage solutions?

It's no secret — and should come as no surprise — that The Container Store is my go to destination when it comes to storage, even if it's just to window shop. Switching out all the cabinetry, adding brand new cabinetry, and upgrading the existing pantry system meant a chance to optimizing our existing storage while also getting to bring in new products and solutions.

We going shopping y'all!

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Behind The Design: Our Laundry Room Reveal

Did you know that my plan for the laundry room was heavily inspired by what we'd originally planned to be the media room? It leads to the laundry room & was originally designed to be a lot of black on black, so I wanted to lighten it up a bit in the laundry room, while still carrying the darker hues into the space. But my do things change!

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Kitchen Accessories Shopping Guide: All Black Everything

In case you missed it, my cabinets are a combination of matte white and matte black cabinets by BOXI from the creators of Semihandmade.

Inspired the matte finish of our new cabinets, I was drawn to accents with the same smooth, non gloss look — like my dinnerware from the holidays — for utilitarian and decorative items for the kitchen.

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Let There Be Light: Our Lighting Design Plan

Years ago I determined that lighting is the unsung hero of every design -- residential, commercial, doesn't even matter. Lighting is the jewelry of the room, from pendants to floor lamps to sconces and everything in between. Needless to say, when we bought our house, I knew we'd be upgrading all of he lighting to designs that were more "us".

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A Letter to Thirty Five Year Old Me

If nothing else, Albie, you can say you made it. But now what? If I know you — and I'd like to think I do — then you're probably thinking turning 35 is no big deal, but you're wrong. Did you know that in numerology the number 35 is a sign of "business, building, efficiency, realism, and balance"? I know this because I looked it up and now you know too — you're welcome very much. But here's something we both know... 35 broken down to 3 + 5... equals 8. There's a reason we gravitate towards the number 8. There's a reason we consider 20 to be our favorite number, but 8 to be our "lucky" number... a number of abundance.

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The Hygge Ranch: Designing Our New Kitchen

We have come a long way from peel and stick backsplash and removable wallpaper in the kitchen... like renovation long way! After years of creating kitchen color guides on the blog AND secretly wanting a lot of the finds for myself, here I am designing my own kitchen renovation.

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Semi Custom with Semihandmade: IKEA Besta Upcycle

If you've been hanging out with me for some time then you already know that before we bought a house I was working on a refresh for the living room, which then triggered our decision to covert the dining room to a study.

The design plan was to keep as much of what we already owned and give them a proper upcycle to recreate the space. Two things we knew we wanted to keep were my old desk and our IKEA Besta sideboard.

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Shop With Me: What's In My The Container Store Cart... For The Kitchen?

You guys! I don't what's taken up more of my time these past couple of weeks... renovations or organization. If you don't know this about me yet, I love organization... so much so that I even considered adding organization services to my e-design packages.

The great thing about renovating the kitchen is that it's given me a chance to control nearly every detail of every surface, giving me a sort of clean slate when it comes to organizing. For so long I've had to work around what was already there and now that it was a design of my making, the storage solutions could be just right.

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Shop With Me: What's In My H&M Home Cart?

It's been a while since I've done an H&M Home haul and that's definitely not for lack of shopping; but with the recent decision to make some changes around the house, now seemed like a great time to do some window shopping, especially with so many of their new releases giving me all the hygge vibes my little heart can handle.

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5 Ways To Practice Sustainability With Grove Collaborative

I remember when I started using Grove Collaborative, it was so I could make sure my household essentials, specifically for cleaning, were always stocked and within my budget. However, over the course of being a Grove Collaborativecustomer, my shopping habits have evolved in a way that supports a more sustainable lifestyle.

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