January 2016 Recap & Personal Updates


Now that the holidays are over, we spent our month refreshing ourselves and our spaces. We set up our 2016 calendars, organized our closets, checked a few mini projects off our to-do lists, and even had a DIY Playbook “team meeting” to organize our thoughts and plans for the year. And after all of our organizing, we feel ready (& excited!) for 2016.
1-corner-desk-office-bedroom-augustaOn the DIY Playbook:
One of the biggest projects we Caseyย tackled on the blog this month was adding a desk/office area to her master bedroom. Now that she has a super cute/organized place to get her work done, she has declared her Master Bedroom COMPLETE (for now at least). Her bedroom is the first full room she has tackled start to finish since moving in and now that this space is done, she will be tackling the other parts of her home. #cantwait

Beyond Casey’s bedroom (office gameplan, desk area reveal, secrets to hide desk cords, full room reveal, and bedroom source list), we did manage to get a few other things accomplished. Here’s a quick recap:

Video

And did you catch this month’s video?! Creating a video to explain what the DIY Playbook is and help welcome new readers was one of our 2015 goals. And although it didn’t technically get shared until 2016, we are happy to check that project off our to-do list.

Behind the Blog this Month

Casey:

casey-work-weekend-workbench-tv

Season 4 of the show I produce has begun, and it has been super busy at work. We’re out shooting in homes or on set most days of the week, and then when I’m in the office I’m writing away! It’s been crazy…but in a good way.ย beer-madison-brewery

We were able to get away for a weekend and headed north to Madison, Wisconsin to visit some old friends. We visited the New Glarus brewery, went to a comedy club, and enjoyed time catching up with our Madison friends.

Speaking of getting away…

Next week is my mom’s 60th birthday, so right now we’re skiing in Beaver Creek, Colorado to celebrate her big day (Check out some pictures on Insta)! I’ve been skiing since I was a kid, but haven’t been back on the slopes in years…so fingers crossed I make it home in one piece! I’m so excited to spend this time with my family and will share more about our trip on the blog soon.

Bridget

My month has been a lot less eventful than Casey’s! Probably the craziest thing I did this month was when I woke up at 4:00am one Saturday morning to wait in line for over two hours… all for a chance to win FREE donuts for life.

I went with myย little sister, Maggie, and my mom and we actually had such a blast (even though we didn’t win and froze our buns off in the process). Stan’s Donuts was opening a new location right down the street from my Maggie’s place and was offering prizes to the first 100 people in line, one prize being the free donuts for life. Being from the donut-obsessed family, I had to at least try to win the free donuts for life!! Like I said, we didn’t win the grand prize but we DID meet Stan… as in the man behind Stan’s Donuts & Coffee! haha worth the wait =)

The rest of the month was spent back to work, getting in the routine of my new class schedule/getting to know my new set of students. So far, so good… I have great classes/great kids! My weekends were mostly spent tackling mini organizing projects, doing some deep cleans and working on the blog <– pretty glamorous month, right?! I guess I can’t complain, I was glad to have a month to catch up on the nooks & crannies that sometimes get neglected around here when life gets busy.

Bridget&Casey


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.