motivated wednesday: interiors edition

i've seen so many pictures of interiors that are making me swoon lately, so i'm dedicating another motivated wednesday post to share them with you (see the first post here). one of my goals on my 30before30 list is geared towards decorating (decorate our "forever" home to reflect both my husband & i perfectly), so i'll use these as motivation when we find that home.

1.

the beautiful wythe hotel in brooklyn, that is a renovated factory. i absolutely love all the windows, and the (mostly) simplistic design.

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2.

these before & after pictures of an awesome kitchen re-do. it's no secret that i love white kitchens (proof of that here & here) , and this is definitely no exception.

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3.

and another:

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4.

now, i don't think a trapeze bar will make its way in to my house anytime soon, but what a badass mom, no? they clearly are the "go-to" house for all their friends.

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5.

i know that none of us need an excuse to want to visit greece, but...just in case you did, here it is. a stunning hotel in mykonos that i would love to live in forever, please. it has the most perfect lighting imaginable, and everything is so perfectly clean & simple.

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6.

if i could read the source page for these images, i would let you know where this beautiful house was located. but unfortunately, it's in neither english or spanish, so i'm at a loss. but it's gorgeous, nonetheless! and the exterior isn't so bad either.

see?

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which one is your favorite?

they get paid to do what???

Let's talk about jobs. Have you ever met someone or heard about someone who has a job where you react by saying: "excuse me, they get paid to do WHAT?!" And I don't mean that like the way that I admire garbagemen because they do a job that I could never do myself. I'm talking about people that are, for example, interior design decorators and photographers. Just throwing that out there because that's my dream job.

Tell me - what's your dream job?

I really, really love my current job. I really do. And I'm so thankful for it. I get to do something really fun, meet new people regularly and I really do leave my job feeling like I've accomplished a lot. With the exception of things that have come to light in the past few months, I don't have a complaint about it!
That being said, I still think about those dreamy, swoon-worthy jobs that I think would be so fulfilling and fun. Some of the things on my 30before30 list are on there because they'll help me (hopefully) eventually get somewhere close to that dream job of being an interior design photographer/stylist, things like:

*owning an original art piece

*plant a thriving, picture-worthy vegetable garden

*master taking photos the way i picture them in my brain

*decorate our "forever" home to reflect both my husband & i perfectly

*become crafty

I spend a lot of time seeing pictures of beautifully styled and photographed homes and just get more and more inspired, pictures like the ones below (styled by the married couple I have a crush on, The Novagratz), make my heart skip a beat!

So, what about you?



#21: start (& keep) a regular yoga practice

I need to make it a point to update this blog at least 3x per week. That's not a resolution/goal, because I can't keep adding to them, but that's just something that I'll be working on. I look forward to logging in to my Google reader every single morning, because of those dedicated bloggers that are kind enough to leave me (yes, they do it just for me) updates every day! And yet I'm the slacker that posts once a week. Is it bad that when I get to work in the morning, that's the first thing I do? I show up to approximately 30 unread e-mails every morning, but if there's not a class going on, I go to the Google reader first. Maybe that should be yet another personal resolution...but...probably not.

So on my Motivated Monday post, I said that I'd post about how #21 on my list is going, which is keeping a regular yoga practice. It's going extremely well so far! My first class was on Monday, January 9. The classes are every Monday and Wednesday for an hour and a half, and I always leave feeling relaxed, stretched, and all around great. I've always been really good at starting a workout routine and keeping it up for about a month. I can be a hoss for a month and just absolutely be gung ho about it, and then something happens (like getting sick) and I just fall off the workout wagon. And I fall off hard. This yoga class has helped me not fall off that wagon. I've pre-paid for a month's worth of classes, and I'm kind of cheap. So I'm definitely not going to stray from a scheduled class once that money has been taken out of my account! And when I'm doing something twice a week, it motivates me to do something at least one other time that week, anyone else with me? I don't want to downplay yoga - I know it can do amazing things for one's body. But I personally don't think it will get me to the place I want to be with my body, without some cardio or weights or ab workouts being thrown in the mix. I'm already noticing my flexibility improving a LOT, just after 3 weeks in the class. And on Sunday, the husband said he had noticed a change in my body - am I right when I say that's the most motivating compliment? So one day this will be me:

and maybe this & this, too:

But until then, I'm happy with my progress with #21. Very happy.

This is the most amazing, beautiful yoga video I have seen in a long time. If you are in a place where you can watch it, I'd highly recommend it. Talk about motivating! This chick's insane.

What do you guys do to stay fit?


(original 30before30 list here)

this doesn't really count as an update

Unfortunately I don't have time for a real "update" right now, but I refuse to let a whole week go by without at least something on here. So I'll leave you with a few pictures from my "30before30" board on Pinterest. These are pictures that I've come across that all have to do with things I want to cross off my list. They're really motivational because most of them are really beautiful and make me jealous. That's always a good sign.

Oh, and if anyone can find me an outfit like this for Oliver, I'll be forever indebted to you.

Quick book update: I'm 68% done with book #1, Not That Kind of Girl...I'll finish it by Saturday and am still accepting recommendations on book #2! YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME TO SUGGEST!