Before we dive into 2025, and all of our plans for this year, I wanted to jot down all of the 2024 personal things we did. I was listening to Mel Robbin’s podcast about Making this year your best year yet, (it’s so good!) and one of the first things she has you do is go through your whole camera roll. There were SO many things I forgot that happened in 2024. Wonderful things!!! To be honest, at the end of the year, I had more negative feelings about last year as a whole, but when I look back–it was undeniably sprinkled with so many highs. DRENCHED even, that I felt like I had to share some of that here in a short-ish summary.
My takeaways: I can’t travel as much in 2025 (I love home too much.) Nothing fuels me more than a good project and a long walk (more of that in 2025!) and the mundane days at home, where we are hosting family, were my favorite parts of the whole year. But here’s how it really went:
January
January was at least twice as long as the calendar says it was and all of our happenings this month have to prove it. It started with that post holiday vibe—my favorite vibe—where anything goes. Play ship in the living room where the floor is the ocean? Yes! Please do that! Jump from couch to ottoman. It’s the holidays! (Kind of).
The vibe was not as good when I landed in the ER, And then subsequently in and out of doctors for a few weeks. I was diagnosed with Celiac’s disease, despite being gluten free for 10+ years, and CSID (a starch and sugar intolerance.) My intestines took a hit but we’ve spent the majority of the month cleaning things up and getting on some enzyme prescriptions I’m feeling much better.
We all went ice skating (once I was finally feeling better!) And painted the back hallway doors and trim, which sparked so many “where’s the after?” comments, I was straight up giddy. That actually might have healed me, tbh.
Sprinkled throughout the month was all the newborn sweetness with my newest niece, Andi’s daughter Gigi. Life is so good with her here. (I created a sweet moodboard for her nursery!)
February
February was jam-packed—there was something almost every day! A few highlights include: Launching our spring Loloi line in Las Vegas (and celebrating with Kenny G!). Not to be upstaged by the celebrating I did with my bffs who flew in to support me. We never stopped talking for 3 days (except maybe when we cold plunged at the spa and could speak no words!).
Chris and I took my parents to the UNC v. Duke game and it was exhilarating seeing my dad so ALIVE and happy and cheering!
Not to be buried was the feeling of seeing our Pottery Barn Kids collection in stores! It was unreal, and then I turned around and so many of our team members surprised me and came to see it too! Dream team. I’m working on celebrating these big milestones and they are teaching me how.
When we lived in Idaho, February was just the MIDDLE part of winter, but here in NC, we had several warm days already and I’m so grateful that we get to live here. Swimming and jumping on the trampoline all year never gets old. We did my niece Gigi’s nursery, which means I got to snuggle her several times a week and it still wasn’t enough. What’s better than a newborn?!
I’m a family girl and there wasn’t a gathering this month that didn’t end up with us playing @bank.gameapp. Like, we can’t stop. My sister, Patty came to visit and taught us. Her visit filled a hole that I didn’t know I was feeling—it was peak happiness. Come back, Patty!
We got tile installed in the mudroom and it. changed. everything.
A good month (actual best month ever??) wouldn’t be so without my long quiet walks with Cricket. We go miles and miles and miles together, and I swear it’s where I get my energy and ideas. I’m committed to even more walking in 2025, because when I look back, those were some of my most peaceful times this year.
March
March felt light and fun and I think that it had a lot to do with the weather getting warmer, but spirits were lifted and I felt like my brain started working again after its winter hibernation.
After a year of thinking about it, we finally decided on an exterior trim color (and got it approved!). Maybe my brain hasn’t been working longer than I thought.
We started the month at the Biltmore with our team for a planning retreat and lots of visual eye candy to feed us. I had the absolute honor of going to see Olivia Rodrigo with my sister and daughter and niece and we sang our guts out.
We have a goal to swim every month in our pool and our youngest two are always up for checking that bucket list item off. (Update! We did it!) Chris heated up the pool for a couple weekends and it felt like summer.
In March, Chris got lasik eye surgery. It was tough for him during, though. He did it without the prescribed valium (literally just never picked it up), just the numbing drops during the procedure, and the sheer panic! Before, during, after. Only regret was not chilling out a bit beforehand.
Our Pottery Barn Kids collection hit stores and I could cry (ok I have), the display is so beautiful. We had a big meet and greet to celebrate and it was a huge highlight.
And on the very last day of March, we celebrated Easter and I marveled at how blessed I am to be my girls’ mom.
April
We kicked off the month styling our shelves with something a little more—unusual, shall we say?
We painted the exterior trim Cromwell Gray, and it was the BEST decision ever. Chris did a review of his favorite hot sauces and I tested steam mops (spoiler: the winner surprised me!). We launched our HouseWarming collection with Lightwell, and candle-o-clock got better than ever.
We ended the month with a spring house tour that felt like a breath of fresh air.
May
The very best May. We took a trip to Bora Bora with our best friends and Oak Island with our OTHER best friends. It was there that we experienced the most magical sunset of our lives. It kept getting more and more vibrant.
Greta started high school and we threw a big dive-in movie party to celebrate (the first of many). I got to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mom just ten minutes away, and we played Ticket to Ride over and over again… out of nowhere and it still hits.
We had an epic pool party at night with a new projector screen. Chris made a cucumber crunch salad that had us all in love. The highs were high and carried us through all the lows.
June
We ended the month escaping to Lake Lure (our first time!) and it charmed us in all the best ways. We kayaked and swam in a private lake for hours, we climbed to the top of Chimney Rock, we enjoyed temps below 100 for a few days. It was so hard to see the town tragically disappear with the hurricane so shortly after.
We launched our peel and stick wallpaper line and travelled a LOT for work. Three trips this month—to York, PA to give final sign-off on all the printed papers and tour the incredible York Wallpaper factory. To Charleston to shoot with our @loloirugs fam. (So grateful we were able to take our little ones with us on set) and to San Francisco to shoot our fall line with Pottery Barn Kids!) I stopped in @vintagerugshop while in the area and it was somehow even better in real life.
We hosted Chris’s brother’s family from out of town and celebrated Father’s Day, in between it all and I decided the Friday before to set a table for 24.
July
The month kicked off with Summer School: Home Styling 101! I talked about my tips & tricks for making entries, kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms feel more polished and like an expression of you. It was a big project and partially fueled by Chris’s best-ever steak frites.
We installed a stair runner in our back stairwell (I gave that project a 6 out of 10 for how I lost momentum after buying the wrong size rods). There was a family trip to the lake with our family and my sister who came in from Idaho. And then a family trip to Idaho to see everyone we miss.
August
This August, everything kind of felt like it came crashing down, but when I look at the highlights, I can’t help but be so grateful for every moment. We celebrated Polly’s birthday, and we checked off over last summer work trip to San Fran.
A lot happened on the exterior this month: Our contractors installed copper gutters and they may just be the crowning jewel! The mudroom window was completely transformed into a door (and it’s turned out better than I imagined).
With the end of August, and the end of summer, I wrote a big personal update about all of the behind the scenes you didn’t see this summer and the big lesson it all taught me. It was a challenging time for me, but I’m so glad to know where I belong now.
September
I never wanted September to end. The beginning of the -Ber months holds so much excitement. We went on a family vacation to Disney and Universal Studios and walked 27 million steps a day, and we couldn’t get enough of it.
We started decorating for fall and settled into a back-to-school routine and early bedtimes —thank goodness! I couldn’t keep up with summer bed times! And asking two different people this month to take our family’s photo while we were out has to be some kind of record. Always awkward in the moment and always worth it.
This month, we launched our collaboration with Poppy & Pout—it was so fun for us to pair recipes with lip balm flavors!
October
October, it felt like everything changed. The leaves. The weather. My sleep schedule (for the worse). Every day felt like 100 days and yet, it all went too fast.
We started the month exploring a new-to-us lake town with my parents and fell in love with lake life all over again. We launched our new Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Teen, and Pottery Barn Kids (with holiday!) collections AND Lola blankets and Loloi rug and pillow lines, and jumped over to High Point market for a meet and greet to celebrate. (Goodness, we have the kindest, most beautiful people in this community. I wish I could hug you all every day.)
Chris’s parents flew in for his birthday in the middle of the month and we soaked to every minute with them. Chris’s mom passed on her famous roll recipe and that was a gift that was untoppable.
We went to Pinehurst for the first time with friends and as a non-golfer myself, I was like, yeahhhhh what’s not to like about this? Yes! I would love a drink at halftime, thank you!
A dream of mine came true this month: We launched The CLJ Shop!! For over a year, our team has been working on this. We want this to be a real resource for anything you want to purchase, so that it takes some of the overwhelm out of shopping. All of these products have our CLJ seal of approval. There will be more to come—pretty much new things added daily—so check back often!!
At the end of the month, we surprised the girls with a fun Halloween decoration for our house and ended the month playing the game of Clue irl for Halloween as Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard. (1986 version).
November
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: our home is an autumn. The fall home exterior house tour was so much fun to film—I think it was my favorite tour yet.
Speaking of fall hues, I’m still not over the new colorways of our CLJ x WallPops peel-and-stick floor tiles! I can’t wait to see these in your homes and see how you use them for your own DIY projects. Are you team Jade or Oxblood? I tried them out on the floor of our primary bathroom, which is really giving me some inspiration for our first big project of 2025!
Every year, my best friends and I get together for a long weekend together, and this year we met in Sedona. It was colder than we all thought, but also even more beautiful and completely rejuvenating before the hustle of the holidays really kicked in.
I chatted about our (secret-revealed) sink pedal that has changed our kitchen game. It was so helpful for Chris’s easy Thanksgiving menu. And then all of a sudden, it was Christmas around the house!
December
We celebrated our big year with our CLJ team at The Bridge Club with the most amazing food and even more incredible people. We worked so hard this year, we decided to let our entire team have the month of December off, and it was really great to spend more time focused on home, and less time focused on running a business. We had lunch at the new Rooftop RH Restaurant and spent time just dreaming in the gallery.
My favorite moments have been at home, of course. Sitting by the fire, watching movies as a family, wrapping gifts, and counting down to Christmas with our girls.
For Christmas, we surprised our girls with a trip to Costa Rica! We rang in the new year on the beach, as a family, and it was my favorite family vacation to date. We went zip-lining, and saw so many monkeys and swam in the ocean and reflected on the year. I’m so excited to share the plans with you! We have so many amazing ideas for 2025.