Reading Nook {Moodboard}

I've been thinking lately how nice it would be to have a spot to curl up with the laptop or a book and have some quiet time for reading or getting online projects done. This could be a corner of a master bedroom, a guest room with a sitting area, a nook at the top of the stairs, or a finished section of the basement.

Here's what I came up with.

I love "natural" textures and finishes, so I chose a leather chesterfield loveseat, a grass green rug, a tree stump table and several live plants. I selected a leaf print as art, along with a few other favorites to make a gallery wall. I kept the area neutral other than the natural green and brown, and focused on adding texture. I added the room divider to help separate the nook from traffic or another section of the room. I like how it adds privacy too.

This is a first for me, and I haven't been compensated, but I was asked to put this moodboard together by Chairish, an online store for vintage furniture. I based my design on the Grass Green Abrash Turkish Rug. I found the wood and bronze floor lamp, as well as the leaf print, French farmhouse pillow, and bronze pouf at Chairish too. Chairish is an exclusive, curator approved, online marketplace for vintage and used furniture and accessories. It's a lot of fun to browse their website!

Do you have room in your home for a reading nook?

Project #walk365 {February}

I walked 40.1 miles in February! (Pictures in order for the month.)

This brings my total for the year to 75 miles! If you remember, I set a goal in January to walk 365 miles in 2015 (#walk365). There are 59 days in January and February, so I'm 16 miles ahead!

I know this year will bring some challenges. We're looking at moving again in early summer (don't know where yet), there will be sick days and busy days and who knows what else! To not let myself off the hook and start falling behind in my mileage, I challenged myself back in January to be a streaker.

Ha! Not like that! It just means I plan to walk every day in an intentional way. I don't own a Fitbit or similar device but I do use Runkeeper on my iPhone. To count as a walk, I have to be intentional and actually turn on my app, not just count accumulated steps during the day, though if that's what you're doing, you're totally awesome!

So far I've gone for a walk each day for 7 weeks! 49 days in a row. Go me!

February in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been COLD. I've mastered the art of layering and try to walk in the afternoon when the weather is the least cold. Not warm, just less cold. Walking in the afternoon is only possible when my husband (a student) is home with the boys, and there have been many nights that I don't get my walk until after the boys are in bed.

I've walked in single-digit temps, with windchill in the negatives, in the sun, under the moon, by the light of the streetlamps, in the snow, over ice, with my kids, with a friend, at the mall, past my church, around a lake, extra laps while shopping, always with a good book on Audibles!

Yesterday's walk was something I'm especially proud of. I have a little more time on Saturday afternoons when Gary is home, so yesterday I decided to walk around a small lake we live by. It's almost a 4-mile loop from our house and while I've always been capable of walking that far, I would be very tired and my back would hurt. Not yesterday! What's more, it was 25* with snow flurries, and a 10-mph wind that made it feel like 12*. But I got to see ice fishermen as the lake was almost totally frozen over, I saw geese flying sort of south, and ducks swimming in an open spot in the ice.

I got back to the house and checked my mileage and saw my total for the month was 39.6 miles. No! I quickly put my coat and shoes back on and went around the block. Ha!

If you would like to join me in my #walk365 project, use that hashtag or follow me on Instagram. I'm GibsonGirl726.