December Round Up
It’s crazy that in a little over a week, it will be 2024. We’re excited to unplug for a few days and soak up all the Christmas things with the girls. Watching The Grinch (Jim Carey version), making Gingerbread houses, and a Mexican Christmas Eve dinner are just a few things on our holiday schedule.
Before we head “out of the office” we wanted to share some of our favorite things from this month. This has become one of our favorite blog posts to share and we hope you find it helpful (or at least somewhat entertaining).
Business
Making the most of a traditionally slow season
December is traditionally one of our slower months. A lot of our clients start to push projects to the new year and take some time off (which we fully support).
Over here, we’ve been trying to strike a balance between soaking up the extra time with the girls and using this season to invest in our business, plan for 2024, and get caught up. We’ve done this by…
Taking a course - (been taking this one for a few months now, but really diving into it while we have the time). It’s a business course mainly for designers and I can’t recommend it enough!
Setting 2024 goals - Just starting this one, but planning to spend some more time next week after Christmas getting clear on our vision and what we want The Studio Sullivan (and our personal lives) to look like in 2024. I’ve already started incorporating these journal prompts into my morning routine and it’s been a game-changer in shifting my mindset and helping me be intentional throughout my day.
Planning ahead - This looks like brainstorming social media and blog content, estimating client workload for January, and last-minute tax things.
Housekeeping - Literally and metaphorically haha. I need to brag on Lance for a minute. He is completely self-taught in all the handyman things. He started doing home improvement projects when we bought our first home and has gradually attempted new things. We’ve been wanting to add some board and batten to his office (and a few other places in our house), and since we had some extra time this month he made it happen! I mean why not turn your house upside down the week before Christmas? (more on that below).
Fun
Family favorite cheeseball recipe
Growing up, my Nana would make this cheeseball every Christmas. It was a staple in our family and something I looked forward to all year. Now that she’s gone, I’ve picked up the tradition and whip it up (it’s ridiculously easy) at Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can’t have too much cheese, right? It’s great just served with crackers but sometimes we get fancy and put it on a charcuterie board.
Cheeseball Recipe
8 oz block of sharp cheddar cheese
1 package of cream cheese
2 tablespoons of chopped green pepper
2 tablespoons of chopped onion
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped pimentos
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Chopped pecans to roll it in
Mix all ingredients, form into a ball, and roll to on chopped pecans to cover.
Elle’s first ballet recital
Gosh, alllll the feelings experiencing Elle’s first ballet recital. This is her first year taking dance and she’s taking at the same studio I did when I was her age. She’s never performed before, so we weren’t sure how it was going to go, but girlfriend CAME ALIVE on the stage and danced her heart out. She loved it so much, she wouldn’t leave the stage when her performance was over and they had to go get her.
Elevating our living area with board and batten
Like I mentioned above, this would not be possible without the skills and expertise of Lance Matthews. I do help plan, pick colors, and brainstorm our projects, but he is the one who executes them. His attention to detail comes into play here and makes all the projects he does look pristine.
We bought our house while it was already being built but were able to take over some of the decisions for fixtures, etc. That being said, some elements of the house have always felt builder-grade to me and we’ve been on a mission to make it look and feel more “custom”. I plan to do a post on here sometime showing what we’ve done, but for now, let’s talk trim.
When we moved in, there was already board and batten in the eating area, so we’ve kept that same style throughout to keep the house cohesive.
Our “before” picture after we’d started moving things out of the way.
We decided to add it to the living room, entryway, guest bath, and Lance’s office (and he literally had it all built in like a day and a half), but he’s wrapping up the paint job on the other rooms as I write this, so we’ll share those later. For now, see the updated living room below! Planning to hang some art over the couch tonight, but the new texture and detail add warmth and elegance to the room that we’re loving.
Kept the board and batten in this room the same color as our trim, but excited to add some color to the other spaces.
Finds
The BEST gluten-free pizza
Our current Saturday night tradition: Opening up one of these, adding green olives, onions, tomatoes to half, spinach and tomatoes to the other, and sprinkling Frank’s hot sauce all over it (surprisingly delicious). It cannot be beaten by any other pizza - homemade or ordered, gluten or gluten-free. It. Is. That. Good.
A shower head that’s transforming my hair
The content you didn’t know you needed haha. I’ve been wanting to get a water filter for our showers and tubs once I started learning about what is actually in tap water (YIKES), but hadn’t pulled the trigger. I told Lance, and in true Enneagram 1 fashion, he did his research and found us a good one. My hair is typically on the coarse side but I had no idea how much our water was contributing to that!! It is SO much softer and I could literally feel a difference on my skin after one shower. I’m sure there are fancier ones out there, but we love this one so far.
Last-minute gifts
A belt bag for the little ones
Wrapping Up
And that’s a wrap for 2023 Round Ups! We hope these posts have been beneficial to you and your business this year, and have helped you get to know us on a personal level.
Thank you so much for being a part of The Studio Sullivan community and we hope you have a blessed Christmas and happy New Year! We’ll be back with more of our favorite things in January 2024!
All the best,
Emily