Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had great times celebrating the end of 2016 and the start of 2017. We had a night in and kept things pretty simple, but it was perfect and so fun watching the ball drop. I just wanted to check in and say hi! And update you guys on my most recent home project – my coffee corner! I'm also adding a little discussion of my goals for 2017 at the end! 

For Christmas, I got a new coffee maker and YALL. I am so excited! It came with a milk frother and i've been practicing so that I can make pretty designs in lattes! Since its technically an espresso machine not a coffee maker, I am definitely going to keep using my Keurig! So I wanted to set up a little "coffee bar" in my dining room where I can have easy access to both of them! To make it look a little nicer, I ran over to TJMaxx and picked up a few baskets that were each less than $10 and this pretty plant to add some green to the space! 

I knew I wanted at least one basket, big enough that I could set my Nespresso on top of so that it didn't seem quite so small(especially next to my big coffee maker!) and this one fit so well with the little pieces of wood leftover from another project! The smaller basket was an "in store decision." I liked the little metal screens and thought that they would pair well with the other metal elements on the table, but its size is PERFECT for the milk frother and my sugar jar. I also picked up the little plant to add some green. The best part? I got both of these great baskets for less than $20! I love TJ Maxx, y'all. I'll show this space again once I get some really cool things added to the wall behind them – really, really excited!

So now one of my goals for 2017 is to be able to make pretty lattes, like those leaf designs that places like at Fido in Nashville do(check out my post on Nashville, here, to see what I mean!) 

My "Mantra" for 2017:

If you follow along on Instagram, you may have seen my post yesterday about how my word of the year is going to be JOY. I'm still not sure how this will end up taking shape, but I felt like the word was following me around for the last bit of 2016, so when I sat down to think of what my goals would be for this year, I decided I wanted to use "joy" as my basis for my new years resolutions/goals/plans. I am going to make sure to spend my free time in 2017 doing things that bring me the most joy, with the people that make my heart the happiest.  I'm also really hoping to have a better plan for this blog, I've loved the community I've found here since starting the Little Bleu Studio, and I can't wait to see where it goes in 2017! I've met some of the most driven, creative, passionate people who are so helpful, that really embody the "community over competition" idea.  I have been so blessed to have friends that have supported me with this project and let me bounce my crazy ideas off of them to figure out what to write about! 

Of course, joyfulness will also include taking more time to relax and stay healthy(I hope make more time in my schedule for running and doing yoga!) and hopefully more painting and photography work! I'll also get my thesis completed this year, which will mean I am done with grad school(unless I decide to get a PhD someday!) which will be a JOYful occasion :) 

//// What are your resolutions or goals for 2017?? ✨