To us, Happy Hour is a time to sit back, relax, and catch up with friends. It’s a time to chat about everything and anything, and that’s exactly what we bring to DIY Playbook’s monthly Happy Hour.

These monthly posts are a chance to catch up with friends and bring just a little extra happy to your day. So grab your coffee (or champagne) and let’s catch up!

Casey

• When I sleep, I often toss and turn and completely mess up our bed. The fitted sheet always comes undone and it’s a huge pain in the butt. Finn ordered these sheet clips from Amazon and they are actually working to hold our fitted sheet in place! Making the bed in the morning is now a lot easier.
• This item made its way onto our gift guide under Finn’s Favorites, and I must say it may be a Casey Favorite too! When Finn asked for a place to display his watches and cufflinks, I knew I wanted something that would look nice and mesh well with our decor. This gold box gets the job done in style. Pretty decor and a happy husband? Yes, please!
• I’ve upgraded my eyebrow pencil to this thicker one and I’m loving it. I use the taupe color to make my eyebrows a tad fuller and darker. If you’re looking for a natural eyebrow pencil, this one is a winner.

Bridget

• Long story short: the bathrooms upstairs in the new house have been a hot mess since we moved in. We took down the fixtures, mirrors and medicine cabinets to prep for patching/painting right when we moved in. About a month later, these rooms are now patched and painted! I’ve been on the lookout to replace the original, ornate mirrors with pieces that are a bit more my style. The bathrooms still need A LOT of love (aka new vanities and tile in phase 2) but I’m doing my best to keep them neutral and “best case scenario” for now. I was looking everywhere for a small black mirror for our half bath and was so happy to find this one for under $40! Some of the other mirrors that looked similar were upwards of $200 so I was extra excited to find this one. It’s perfect in there for now and I’m sure when we re-do the bathrooms, I’ll still find a place for this classic piece.  I love it!
• I bought my favorite rug AGAIN for our family room. This time I bought the 12′ x 15′ rug. The room is huge so I need such a large rug, which is one of the main reasons I bought this one again. Other rugs that I loved in this size were upwards of $2,000 (!!) and I just couldn’t bring myself to pay anywhere near that, especially with all of the other new home expenses at the moment. So I defaulted to one that I know I already love and was more than happy with the $500 price tag. Such a great deal for such a huge rug!Inspiration Image via Little Green Notebook
• Speaking of large rugs, I also need to find a really big one (like 10’x14′) for the nursery! I keep defaulting to large, light color rugs but think I need to step outside my comfort zone and try something new. Plus all the ones I love are SO expensive. I’m eyeing this one because I’ve heard such great things about it and love it in this room. What do you guys think? A little outside my comfort zone but I do love how much texture it brings… and it seems like the pattern would be very forgiving for a little one’s space. And you can’t beat a $300 price tag for a huge “oriental” style rug. HELP!

Link Love

• Did you guys see this insanely gorgeous cabin that the bloggers behind Chris Loves Julia purchased? Wow, we can’t wait to see it transformed!
• The elimination of net neutrality has us both highly concerned. To learn more, check out this article about what it will mean for you and the internet as a whole.
• Is binge-watching bad for you? Yikes.
• I’m sure by now you guys have seen the gorgeous and classic holiday pieces by Chip & Joanna at Target. We didn’t buy anything (yet) but man there were lots of gorgeous pieces to choose from. That workbench? And dollhouse? These cookie cutters?!
• Home Trends: What’s In & What’s Out? <— Not so sure we agree with this list. What about you?
• What Women Would Tell Their 28-year-old selves
• More advice…but this time from Oprah

Casey’s Updates

I’m excited to announce that I have a new niece…Janie O’Halloran. Isn’t she absolutely gorgeous? She was born at the end of October, and I had the privilege of taking her newborn pictures earlier this month. My godson Harry is still adjusting to life with a baby sister (how about that face in the picture. I die!) and we couldn’t be happier to have another kiddo in the immediate family!

Speaking of family, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration all together. Here’s the Christmas card picture my mom will be sending out this year.

Oh, and how could I forget? Finn & I headed up to Kohler, WI for a long weekend together. It’s only about a 2-hour drive from Chicago, and the little town is insanely beautiful. We spent our time indoors escaping the cold, eating lots of cheese (gotta love Wisconsin!), and drinking wine by the fire. We also checked out the Kohler design room and were inspired by all of the gorgeous products (plus, we may have had too much fun posing in bathtubs. Ha!). It was glorious and just what we needed before the chaos of the holidays.

Bridget’s Updates

Ahhh… we have so much to catch up! Over the past two weeks, we finished all of painting on the entire first floor and got our floors refinished. You guys, I. can’t. even!!!

Although the time has passed extremely quickly since we started demo in September, the journey has been a hectic one so Matt and I  (and I’m sure my poor Dad) can’t wait for all the dust to settle so we can “relax” just a bit more on the weekends. I’m excited to focus more on the nursery since I haven’t ordered one thing yet.

We’re also hoping to move upstairs this month. We’ve been living in the basement since September (more on those details soon!), which has actually been a lot easier than we thought but we’re still excited to start making the upstairs our home.

Outside of the crazy construction schedule, Thanksgiving was such a welcome break from work and the perfect time to kick off the holidays with family and friends. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year and this year did not disappoint. Plus, having Owen around for the fun makes me even more excited for the next month!

Hope you guys enjoyed your Thanksgiving alongside family and friends! We’re excited to kick off a busy December, with nursery updates starting tomorrow! See you then.

Bridget&Casey