Hey 2016!

Wowza, 2016 you say?!  As most people do this time of year, I'm reflecting, feeling refreshed with the new year upon us and doing some planning.  I found 2015 to be both a wonderful and difficult year.  I found myself somewhat lost near the end of the year, trying to figure out exactly what it was that I was aiming for.  Then a couple of days ago it hit me, what I need to change to make 2016 a year of fabulousness.  One word pretty much sums it all up.

Confidence.

Confidence to do your own thing.  Confidence to not follow the crowd.  Confidence in your talents.  Confidence to go with your gut.  Confidence to go with what you like.  Confidence to break the rules.

Confidence.

And I think with confidence will come happiness, peacefulness and even more confidence.  I wish I could bottle up this feeling that is currently filling me with energy to do my own thing and tap into it whenever I am full of doubt.

How's that for the start of my first post of 2016?! ha!

With that, we've already made some changes to the house.  It all started with the living room.  I've loved the pieces in the room forever, but I've always felt like the room could be so much more.  I was completely hung up on the idea of having either the chairs or couch in front of the window, but I did not like how crammed the room felt once we added the piano.  Nor did I like the way it looked without the piano.  So what to do?  I decided that we should try placing the piano on the opposite wall.  Well that didn't work out at all!  The wall was a better fit, almost as if it was waiting for the piano, but then we could no longer place the chairs or couch in front of the window because the piano was now centered on the wall vs being right next to the window like it was on the other wall.

We decided to just place the furniture in a way that we could use the room while we waited to figure out a new new layout....and well, what do you know, the "temporary" furniture placement ended up being something that we both absolutely loved AND it made the room feel and look a million times bigger.  Funny how that happens!  Here's the new layout:

Part of me kinda wonders if I love the new layout because it's better or simply because it's new and we literally just took down the Christmas tree?  So I'm leaving it like this for a while to see if my feelings about it change.

In other news.....I am constantly searching kijiji, just for fun really, because you just never know what you're going to find.  I have a mental list of items I'm hoping to find or that we still need for the house.  When we first moved in I purchased super cute side tables for the living room.  As great as they are, they limited how much we could place on them due to their size.  So I've been keeping an eye out for something new, but I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted.  I was open to both new and vintage.  Then last week I stumbled upon a great pair of vintage side tables.  They had beautiful detail and at $15 each, I couldn't resist giving them a go.  Turns out that they are solid wood, which means endless possibilities for refinishing.  They also have a stamp from 1963 on the base!  Score!

They sure are pretty!  I worry that they may be a little too much for the room, but I'm not putting them away anytime soon.  I will decide once they are refinished and I have new lamps on them.  This is something that I'm really excited about!  Having matching lamps in this room.  I'm thinking a pair of Ralph Lauren lamps from HomeSense.

I've had a love for vintage pieces for as long as I can remember.  So finding gems like this really make my heart swell!

Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,