in Review

Christmas time already, huh? Wow. That was fast… 2018 has been a great year, albeit less eventful than say… buying a house as we did last year. However, we did manage to stay busy with travel (i.e. in May we didn’t spend one full weekend at home!), making some home improvements (everyone was right about homeownership…it’s a trap!), and working our nine-to-fives.

Some highlights include traveling to Europe for kubb…yes, that’s right… kubb. With Christopher’s newly officially-formed business Kubb On, he, his brother and fellow kubb player, Kyle, decided to take Kubb On on tour. They played in five tournaments in three weeks in three different countries (Germany, Belgium and Switzerland). I decided to tag along because there was NO WAY I was missing out on the mountains and all of that chocolate in Europe. The guys geeked out over all of the differences in game play from the way things are done in the US vs Europe. They did a some write-ups on the experience in case you just neeeed to hear more about kubb and less of a tired family holiday update. A highlight of this highlight was when we got up close and personal with the Matterhorn in Switzerland. Bucket List item: CHECK!

A full year after we bought and established ourselves at The Jones Den, we finished up a pretty transformative project—painting the interior walls! We always knew we were going to change the colors, but what to change them to was a reeeaaal challenge. You'd think having two designers in one household would make for expedient design decision making, but think again! After commissioning a friend/professional painter/fellow kubb player to do the walls, we had a deadline in our sights so the work had to begin! It all started with deciding to paint our trim from off-white to white-white. In reality, it really wasn’t much to decide on, our souls were slowly dying with the exposure to all of the off-white. When the trim finally matched the windows and ceiling we rejoiced! (only once we were able to stand up-right after many hours of hunched over painting) When it came to the wall colors, we made swatches, took said swatches to each room, squinted, used our imaginations and carefully chose the perfect greys and blues for each room only to find that all of the colors look mostly the same… Oh well, it does look good and I like to think all that squinting was for something! All that’s left to change are off-white interior doors and kitchen cabinets. TBD on when that will get done…houses… amiright?

Christopher’s still keeping people comfortable with his work on home thermostats at Residio (recently spun off from Honeywell) and I am designing campaign collateral for Brightpeak Financial, who’s aim is to help young married couples navigate money together. When we aren’t working we are either chilling at home with all of that glorious white-white trim, going to trivia at our neighborhood brewery a short walk away, or planning our next trip! The upcoming 2019 looks like a busy one already, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

So in closing, to you, our dear friends and family, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa and Joyous Festivus too! Whatever you celebrate, wherever you are we are thinking of you and sending lots of love (in lieu of an instant pot, sorry, budget was a little too tight this year.)

HUGS,

Abby & Christopher Jones