*THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. IF YOU CLICK ON THE LINK AND PURCHASE THE ITEM, I WILL RECEIVE COMMISSION ON THE SALE AT NO EXTRA COST TO YOU. IT’S A WIN FOR BOTH OF US! KEEP IN MIND THAT I ONLY EVER RECOMMEND PRODUCTS THAT I USE AND LOVE MYSELF AND ALL OPINIONS ARE 100% MY OWN. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!*

Happy Father’s Day!

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend and getting to enjoy quality time with their dad. Miss Rona seems to have foiled yet another memorable day for most people, so if you have the opportunity to actually be with your dad in person today, cherish it! Today is my daddy’s 13th Father’s Day in heaven and I’d do anything to be able to spend just one more day with him. Be sure to tell your dad you love him and squeeze him extra hard! FaceTime him if you can’t be together, just make sure you tell him how much he means to you while you still can. ♡

We Have Windows!…Kinda

Most of our windows got installed last week and let me tell you, they’re freaking stunners! Even our project manager commented on how good they looked, although they’re proving to be a bit of a PITA, haha! If you recall from our visit to the design studio, we had pay a pretty penny to get black (bronze) windows instead of the standard white or almond color. Well, when that custom order went through, the windows were miscounted and we ended up with 4 missing windows. On top of that, one of the windows that did get installed cracked during installation and will have to be replaced. I definitely see why builders hate doing non-standard options because it can really delay the build process. The windows took longer than expected to arrive the first time around and now we’re waiting for the replacements to come in before the insulation and drywall can go up. Luckily, we were already running ahead of schedule and still have some flex days built into the end of the build schedule so this little window fiasco shouldn’t affect our close date. Even with all the drama, I wouldn’t change our windows for the world and am SO happy with how they look. I can’t wait to see the stone start going up on the front of the house so that the windows will look that much more dramatic!

A Big New Design Project!

I posted on my IG stories yesterday that I had just started a design project for a new client so thank you to all of y’all that check it out! I can’t share all the details on the project just yet (soon though I promise!), but I did share the 4 mood boards I put together for her bedroom. I had y’all vote on your favorite in a poll and the Modern Luxe board was the crowd favorite, by far! Clearly, y’all follow me for a reason because that board was also mine and my client’s favorite too! We’re still waiting for her to close of the house before we set any plans in stone, but the Modern Luxe bedroom will be making it’s premiere very, very soon!

My New Skincare Routine!

I couldn’t let the weekend go by without sharing with y’all the holy grail of skincare products: Skinceuticals. I’ve been using SkinCeuticals Glycolic 10 Overnight Treatment (for acne) and SkinCeuticals Phyto Corrective Gel 30ml (for dark marks) for over a year now and have seen tremendous progress in my skin. My dermatologist recommended both to me after I came to her with the worst acne of my life and no idea what was causing it. Growing up, I never had more than a pimple or two maybe once a month. For some reason, right around my 23rd birthday my face just decided to give me a giant “F U” and completely switch the script. I tried Proactive, Rodan + Fields, and basically every off-the-shelf acne solution CVS had to offer but nothing worked at all until I tried Skinceuticals. My skin still isn’t 100% restored to it’s former glowing glory, but we’re getting there.

I just recently added a few more Skinceuticals products to my daily skincare routine after reading about another blogger’s success with them and now my skincare product lineup is almost entirely Skinceuticals. I use the SkinCeuticals LHA Cleansing Gel at night, SkinCeuticals Purifying Cleanser in the morning, SkinCeuticals LHA Solution as toner after washing my face, and SkinCeuticals Blemish and Age Defense Serum to help clear up my adult acne. I’ve only been using thee products about a week, but I can already see the difference they’re making so I’m really hoping this is just what my skin needed to get back on the right track. I’ll be posting a review of with before & after images in about a month or so, once the products have really had a chance to work.

A Very Happy Homebody

My favorite Homebody tee (and the rest of the Propertee collection) is 20% off this weekend in honor of Father’s Day! Last week, I showed you all 6 different ways to style the Homebody tee in outfits that were perfect for work or running errands. I’m headed over to their site now to take advantage of the sale, so go check it out!

I start my dream job tomorrow!

I’m sure some of you are confused because I already was doing my “dream job”…or so you thought! So let me back up and give you the full story. A few months ago, I woke up excited AF because the day I’d been dreaming about for basically as long as I can remember was finally here. It was Design Studio Day! Ira and I had to wait for about a month after signing our contract on the house for the design studio to have an opening in their schedule. We had been prepping, planning, and picking out all the things we thought we might want in our home to make the selection process go as smoothly as possible. But what started as an exciting morning quickly went to shambles as I sat on a Zoom call with about 30 of my coworkers and learned that my employer was discontinuing their Staff Design Program and we all no longer had jobs.

Talk about a damn buzzkill. That is definitely not what you want to hear as you are literally on your way out the door to spend thousands of dollars. I can’t share all of the details of the layoff due to the contract I signed, but basically because of the economic impact of Coronavirus, choices had to be made to ensure the financial security of the company…and our salaries were just one of those things that had to be cut. All of us were offered the opportunity to stay on with the company as contractors, but I declined the offer in search of stability and a more long-term employment solution.

Well just last week, that solution came! I am absolutely STOKED to announce that I’ll be a New Home Designer at a local design center here in Austin that services multiple different major builders in the area. I’m so excited for this new opportunity to help others create their dream home and can’t wait to share more of the homebuilding process and beautiful designs with all of you! I've really been wanting to expand my design work into more hard finishes for a while now, so this opportunity came at just the right time. I had been feeling over worked and burnt out on decorating (e-design is no joke y’all! I was doing 6-8 new projects EVERY WEEK) and it was really messing with my creativity. Now, I’ll have more brain capacity for my creative juices to flow and a little more time to take on my own e-design clients. If you’re interested in hiring me for you own design project, be sure to checkout my design services and packages!

When I first got laid off, I was upset (duh, obviously) but I really tried my best to see the silver lining in the situation. I had asked God for a way to expand my design business and knowledge past furnishings and into the homebuilding space and that’s exactly what happened. Not in the way I imagined it would, but that’s how life goes right? The irony of the whole thing—losing my job as I was literally on my way to my own design studio appointment, only to land a position at another design studio, doing exactly what I want to do—is not at all lost on me. God truly is good all the time and I thank him so much for seeing me through such an unexpected and frustrating time. Throughout the ordeal, I was very aware that while my situation was unfortunate, it wasn’t anything close to what so many other people were going through. Ira and I both still had our health, our loved ones, and our house and that was more than I could ask for. For any of you that are still struggling with the mess that Coronavirus has created, know that I am praying everyday for God to send blessings your way. He is with you. Even in the valley God is good.