HOUSE-IVERSARY

A few weeks ago we celebrated the one-year anniversary of buying our house. We strung globe lights around the patio, and continued a tradition that we started last October... or did we only "start" it now, the second time around?... semantics. Anyway. One of the first things we did after getting the keys, and crossing the threshold for the first time, was crack open a bottle of 2012 Fullsteam First Frost, that we had been saving for almost a year. We had kept it through the long home-buying process, and promised ourselves we would open it only once we got a house – or the first frost came. Luckily it was the former.

So this year, on an unseasonably warm night, we enjoyed a bottle of 2013 First Frost. We talked about all the work we've done on the house, and everything we'd still like to do. The top of my personal list was painting the kitchen cabinets, and buying a new, comfier, larger sofa. Since then we've started a "couch fund" (there is something so satisfying about putting cash in an envelope and watching it get fatter and fatter as the weeks pass). I'm planning on tackling at least the upper cabinets over my Christmas break (which is actually the week after Christmas).

And of course, the 2014 First Frost will be released within the next week or two – and we need to stock up for next year.

TREAT YO SELF

I'm a big believer in celebrating everything, big or small. Sometimes it's obvious, like planning a weekend away to celebrate an anniversary or birthday with my husband. Sometimes it's as simple as buying myself a $50 bottle of wine to celebrate making it through a "wildly productive and living the dream" week (...like I did last Friday), or scheduling a massage for yourself after a long weekend of yardwork. This fell somewhere in between.

I follow Marble & Milkweed on Instagram, and am totally entranced by Briar. I think it's because I'm becoming more and more interested in plants: growing them, eating and drinking them, and being healed by them. It all feels cyclical and honest and connected and just the right amount of magical. She's made a beautiful business (and life, really!) out of that. Her Autumn Getaway Kit seemed like the perfect way to try out a few of her products, and reward myself for making it through the first three quarters of what has turned out to be a very volatile year (in the best way!, but still).

The nourishing body oil and solid perfume (IN AN ACORN CAP) smell like some sweeter-yet-spicier version of one of my all-time favorite scents. I still haven't tried the chai, but I love that she offers different, "modern" translations of it from time to time. I think I'll try a tea sampler next. Spicy masala chais are my favorite tea. Plus, I've been wanting to make my own tea blends for some time now – so I think it's half about actually enjoying the teas, and half about being inspired by their differences, and getting my gears turning around that.

...which is, in the end, what celebration and reward are all about for me. Anyone who has spent a birthday or New Year's with me knows I'm all about capturing the highs and lows of the last year, and then setting an intention for the next (whether it be conceptual or very, very literal). Sometimes "celebrating" is as simple as saying out loud, "I did this rad thing / I made it through this hard time / We did it our way" and really hearing yourself. Acknowledging what you've learned and what you accomplished, and letting it guide you (without weighing you down) to where you want to go. Just don't forget to treat yo self once in awhile.

MASTER BEDROOM, AFTER

I just tried to recreate the before photos for ease of reference.

So now our bedroom is black, and has a larger bed. We love it! – it gave the room instant personality, and now it somehow feels bigger and cozier at the same time. I also love the transition from dark bedroom to bright bathroom. It's the sexy sleep cave our gothy inner teenagers (and badass outer thirty-somethings) always wanted.

WATERMELON

This is the largest thing I've ever grown. And I can't even really take credit for it.

Micah planted some Crimson Sweet watermelon seeds in the spring, and I honestly didn't think anything would come of them. Watermelon just seemed to big for us to successfully grow!, I don't know why. But, vines sprouted, and snaked through the monkey grass... flowered... and started putting out tiny watermelon babies. We planted them where a wood pile used to be, and I think they were getting some primo organic matter.

When I realized it was October (and saw the stem was drying up), I thought it might be time to pick. We ended up harvesting two; this one was the largest. They were both sweet and juicy and actual real-life watermelons, that we grew, somehow.