Boy, oh boy 2016 was quite the year! Between starting a business, moving in with Chris and a lotttt of travel I can quite honestly say 2016 was one of the craziest, busiest, most exciting years I've had to date. There were a lot of ups and downs, but holy moly am I thankful for all of the changes and experiences I've had this year -- AND especially thankful for all of you who were along for the ride. 

I covered some of those BIG changes already in my NYC-versary post (You can check it out >>here<<) , so today I'm sharing a slideshow of some of my favorite memories 🎉 2016 was a wild ride and I can only imagine what 2017 will bring! 

New Years in Vancouver

Chris and I kicked off 2016 by celebrating in Vancouver, BC

New Years in Vancouver, BC

The noms were pretty darn good!

New Years in Vancouver, BC

We rang in the New Year on the waterfront.

January Snow Storm

We got over 2 feet of snow in January which was pretty exciting.

January Snow Storm

I attempted to build an igloo on the studio's balcony... butttt it ended up being more of just a snow fort. 

Maple Bars Came to NYC!

You can now finallyyyy have Maple Bars in NYC thanks to an awesome donut shop called The Doughnut Project. This was a fabulous surprise for my Birthday!

Danielle Came to NYC

My bestie from college visited NYC for the first time!

Danielle Came to NYC

We had some quality girl time and definitely put quite a few steps in during her trip!

Lovely Happenings

I had a fabulous girly day with my friend Megan at Lovely Happenings Spring event!

Jacob Visited WA

My friend from Portland came up to visit the Claw for the first time and we made quite the rounds!

Jacob Visits WA

We went up to Crystal and rode the chairlift to the top to the restaurant. Holy views... INSANE!

Jacob Comes to WA

We also ventured to Seattle and enjoyed a beautiful Spring in Seattle!

Family Time

I was so thankful to have so much family time this year! I made it home more this year than the last 5 combined andddd I loved it!

Family Time

On my spring trip we got to visit my Aunt Di's cabin which was such a nice visit!

#BoldBossTribe Campaign

We launched a campaign at Bold & Pop called #BoldBossTribe which highlighted some seriously awesome entrepreneurs and biz owners. 

Wedding Festivites

We attended some fabulous parties & showers leading up to Lauren and Bear's wedding!

Bear & Lauren's Wedding

One of Chris' brothers got married this year and the wedding was fabulous!

Nashville

I got to check out Nashville for my friend's bachelorette trip and omggg I loved it!

Nashville

The music, the food, the vibe. Nashville you were wonderful.

Trips to Mystic

I took several trips up to Mystic this year to visit my business partner and we always had an amazing time!

HGTV Blogger Block Party

My friend Lynette and I attended HGTV's Blogger Block Party this year and had a grand time!

iHeartRadio

I had my first in-studio interview this year for Bold & Pop with iHeartRadio which was pretty stinking cool!

Wedding in Tarrytown

We headed north a little bit to Tarrytown, NY for our friends' wedding.

Museum of Ice Cream

We got to check out a really cool pop-up museum called the Museum of Ice Cream in the city this summer.

Housewarming BBQ

We hosted our first BBQ in September after moving and had a great time!

Angie Visits WA

My high school bestie visited WA from New Zealand and we had a fun day in Seattle!

Greenlake with Lindsey

I just love Seattle and got to explore more of it with my friend Lindsey :)

Angie Visits WA

I also finally got to meet her husband! Living on opposite ends of the world (literally) can be tough sometimes!

Seahawks Games

I was home for a decent chunk of football season so we had some fun times watching the games!

Carving Pumpkins in Seattle

I celebrated Halloween up in Seattle with my friend Brittany and we carved these guys!

Seattle Day with Little Duck

I reallyyy got some quality Seattle time in this fall! Had a fabulous day with Little Duck and her roomie at EMP!

Wedding in Delray Beach

2016 was the year of weddings! We hopped on a plane to Delray Beach to celebrate some of our friends 

Visit to Raleigh, NC

I headed to Raleigh for a weekend to visit my biz partner and my bestie! We also had a super fun photoshoot for our biz that was awesomeeee.

Holiday Cheer with Little Duck

And wrapping up the year was a holiday cheer filled day with the Hardersens making cookies!

This post is long overdue! I finally had a chance to take some shots of the new apartment (okay it's been 4 months..) and am excited to share! This is my 4th apartment in the city, and my first with Chris (other than the few months in the studio) so it's a bit of an eclectic blend between both of our things. 

The Specs

Location: Upper East Side

Apt. Sq. Feet: Apx. 385 sq. feet

Outdoor Sq. Feet: Apx. 240 sq. feet

So living in NYC, they never tell you the square footage of apartments (unless they're new buildings) so it's always a bit of a mystery until I measure for my apartment tour posts. I have to say after moving in here, my guess was it came in around the 450 sq ft. range because it feels a lottt bigger than the studio, which was around 373 sq ft, but to our surprise it doesn't even break the 400 mark coming in at apx. 385 sq ft. Can I also take a moment to acknowledge I just said I thought 450 sq. ft. felt big?! 😂 You know you've lived in NYC too long when... haha. 

I must admit, while we certainly could have made the studio work for a bit (if my landlord didn't sell the building), having the bedroom is pretty nice. I'm very much a night owl and work pretty late a lot of nights, so it has been nice to have the separation in the space. Plus, we can have two TVs out now too so I'm not tied to watching sports 99.9% of my evenings anymore. 

Oh and btw, note on the pics -- my marquee sign has some blinking lights which is fun when you're in person, not so great for taking pics lol!

I really loved using washi tape to decorate the walls in the studio so I went at it again in the new place! This time around I went with a gold washi tape and went with a linear design to spice up those white walls a bit.

Chris had a few "must-haves" in the new apartment... Cue his Pearl Jam, the Iron Sheik, and Bob Dylan posters.. Sooo yeah those made it in. 😂

While most days we end up just eating on the couch, I wanted to create a little eating nook. I decided the perfect little spot to create one was on the wall in between the kitchen and living room so I bought a shelf from Ikea and wa-lah instant little eating bar!

Another thing that was a little tricky is we don't have many cabinets in the kitchen and we didn't have any drawers. So we bought a hutch and put up some open shelving to create some addition storage space and kind of a galley kitchen feel. I have a lotttt of glasses -- hey a girl needs cute glassware for girls nights right?! So this really helped maximize the space we have.

Okay, so total confession.. I've become a magnet hoarder. I've been picking up new ones whenever I got somewhere new and I've worked up quite the collection.

As you can see, our apartment is old -- Pre-War baby. So there's some older and kind of funky things. Yes, we have an electrical reader in our living room lol.. buttt that's what people on HGTV like to call 'character', right?!

As renters, obviously most are things we can't change but we still did some DIY projects to spruce the place up where we could! Like our bathroom! While it isn't anything to call home about, I did do a lot of work on it when we first moved in to get it up to my standards. Just call me handy Anna! I re-grouted and re-caulked the bathtub, which let's just say needed some love.

Our apartment is long and skinny so from north to south it's our bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom and then the backyard.

It's okay that our apartment is still under 400 sq ft. too because what reallyyyy MAKES this apartment and why I really really wanted it was because of its private backyard which comes in at a whopping 240 sq ft! Bringing us in at 385 sq ft inside and 240 sq ft outside for a nice 625 sq ft of living space when the weather is nice. Summer come back to me already!!

I put some serioussss sweat equity into the backyard to get it to look like this. Let's just say it was a bit of a fixer-upper but I'm sooo happy with how it turned out with some help from the Felicetta's! I'll share the before and afters on this one (along with the bathroom projects) on a future post to show some inexpensive projects you can take up as a renter.

All and all, we're really happy with the new place and the new location! Anddd being on the first floor instead of the 5th of a walk-up has totally changed my life #realtalk. Hope you've enjoyed checking out the new digs too!

We're getting down to the wire for holiday shopping! Still have a few people to check off your list? Me too! That's why I'm excited for today's post because I'm introducing a new candle company called Katya Candles. Candles have always been a go-to gift for me, because who doesn't love having their home smell amazing?! Another cool thing about these candles is each one comes with a ring inside that features Swarovski Crystals. Double win!

I checked out the Fir Balsam flavor and was sooo impressed! Since I was going to be in Washington for the holidays, we didn't put up a tree in the apartment this year, but if you walked in you'd think we had one thanks to this candle! 🎄 I feel like this is a scent that's kind of hard to nail down -- some brands' scents end up smelling artificial, but Katya Candles really got it right! Like standing in the middle of a Christmas tree farm right! It smells so stinking good! Even when it's not lit with the lid off, the scent really fills the room, which I love.

The candles are made of soy wax and are free of dyes, parabens, sulfates, pesticides or major allergens. They're also made in the U.S. and are all hand-poured California. West coast babyyy! Overall I was really impressed with the quality of the product. From the gift boxes to the glassware and the ring inside, you can tell they've really paid attention to the details.

Another cool thing about the company is that is was started by an awesome girl boss who has really put her heart and soul into the company (and it shows!) Since becoming a small business owner, I appreciate all of the hustle and hard work that goes into these businesses SO much more. One of my favorite quotes right now is "When you buy from a small business an actual person does a little happy dance" and it's so true! When you shop small you're supporting someone's dream which is an extra little bonus while doing holiday shopping for those you love!

If you'd like to get your shop on, click on the link below! The candles are also available on Amazon and through Etsy. Make sure you order before Saturday to receive your candle by Christmas Eve too!

*Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. Katya Candles provided me with a candle to review in exchange for a blog post. This post and all opinions stated are based on my own ideas and honest experience with the products and have not been influenced based upon the sponsorship.