{ ketchup }

when i was in first grade, my teacher used to tape a picture of a huge ketchup bottle on the chalkboard and declare it a "ketchup" day. get it? catch up? pahaha.

well, minus the large ketchup bottle and the chalkboard, that's what kind of day i'll be having. i've got some client projects that i'm hoping to make some major headway on, some organizing to do around the house, and a styling project to work on with a looming deadline ahead. 

on the flip side, we FINALLY made some progress in our bedroom and purchased an actual bed. (check out the instagram photo here and follow along if you aren't already!) nothing fancy - just this simple number from IKEA, but it feels so nice to not be sleeping on the ground anymore. it's the little things ;).

i've also been spending some time organizing my pinterest boards, which feels so nice! it's so much easier to pull client inspiration now - i spend way less time sifting through a ton of random photos. 

happy MLK day to all of you. perfect day for reflection. lovelovelove.

{ simplicity }

{photo via}

you know when life feels awfully cluttered? i walked into my apartment yesterday and all i could see was stuff. random jackets and stacks of papers piled on the dining room table, shoes scattered over the floors, clothes overflowing out of hampers and toiletries and makeup covering the top of our bedroom dresser. and don't even get me started on what happens if you open our hall closet. have you guys seen that friends episode with monica's secret closet? that's exactly what ours looks like. and that's my exact reaction when someone opens it. ugh. gives me hives just thinking about it. combining two peoples lives in one small apartment just starts to feel a tad overwhelming. 

so anyway. i can't stop thinking about how much i just want to get rid of EVERYTHING. how nice it would feel to just have quality things that we need instead of random things that we never use. it's time to purge the broken vacuum cleaner and the clothes i'll never wear again - and yes, many of the old trinkets from trevor's college apartment that will (i'm sorry to say) most likely never see the light of day have got to finally go. (don't feel too bad, i already purged my own pink pillows and other items that i knew would never make it into the apartment when we moved in.)

how lovely would it feel to walk into your home and not see things falling out of every corner? why do i need five different types of skin lotions? why do we have 15 toothbrushes? (lord, please tell me i'm not alone or this is going to be mighty embarrassing.)

so that's my goal for the next month. simplify. purge. quality, not quantity. organize.

thanks for stopping in y'all. lovelovelove.

{ not this week }

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it's been a long week, folks. and it's only wednesday.

as exhausting as this week has been, i feel like i haven't accomplished near what i should have by now. i'm thankful to be working on some great client projects at the moment, my part-time job as program manager of the theater department at a local arts high school continues on, busy as ever, and as always, there are piles of dishes in the sink and mounds of clothes on the ground, waiting to be dealt with. 

sometimes being a grown up is just too darn much. i was so burnt out when i got home yesterday that i decided to crawl in bed with bentley, just for a moment, to warm up from the bitter cold. i ended up falling asleep for twenty minutes and when i woke up, i realized it was almost 5:30. trevor was going to be home soon and the house was still a disaster and i didn't have a clue what we were going to eat for dinner. i immediately felt guilty and was inwardly yelling at myself for being lazy. 

but then i stopped. why do we do this to ourselves? if you're exhausted, take a nap! who cares? if my apartment doesn't always look photo shoot ready and there's not always a delicious home cooked meal on the table, we all still survive. trevor doesn't even notice the dishes and he certainly doesn't mind eating indian food instead of my {mostly} questionable dinners. some nights are all about staying in bed with a movie and delivery. and that's perfectly okay. 

there are times when i get so frustrated by the fact that i don't have things down to a science. that im not always on top of my to do list, and my kitchen gets dirty and my laundry constantly needs to be done. but i'm trying really hard to let that go. not because i don't want those things to get accomplished, but because sometimes there are more "important" things. like taking a nap. or snuggling with bentley on the couch. or reading a stack of magazines that i haven't gotten to yet with a cup of coffee. 

life goes on, and i'll figure it out one day. 

it just might not be this week. 

{ weekend getaway: twin farms in barnard, vermont }

just like many of you, we're dealing with a bit of snow here in baltimore on this very chilly friday. i went outside to scrape the cars off this morning and thought my hands might fall off. thankful to be indoors with a hot cup of coffee now.

one of the things that i'd really like to make happen this year is more traveling. i know that my budget won't allow anything too terribly grand, but even just a trip right here on the east coast or in the good ol'  US of A would do me good. i don't think there is anything more exciting and inspiring than going somewhere new. i've also LOVED hotels for as long as i can remember. getting to stay at them as a kid was my favorite part of a road trip - even if it was somewhere as simple as a comfort inn. i had my ninth and thirteenth birthday parties in hotels, in fact, and for my eighteenth birthday trevor took me a local hotel which i had been dying to stay at my entire adolescence (what a weirdo...). all of this to say that  i've decided to make fridays on the blog the designated time where i feature a hotel that i'd love to stay in for a weekend (or longer in many cases :)). most of these will be way beyond my price point, but shoot, that's the fun of it! or maybe it's just pure torture. either way...

ladies and gents, meet twin farms - an all inclusive resort and spa in barnard, vermont. i mean, can you even? i just love when you find hotels and resorts that are designed to feel like a real live home. each suite/lodge/cabin has it's own design and feel, which just makes choosing the one you want even more fun. im not typically drawn to reds/oranges, but good golly miss molly i love the way it's used in their "treehouse" room. it's the perfect addition of warmth in an otherwise neutral (but cozy) space.

a suitcase full of wine, board games and romantic comedies and i'd pretty much be in my own personal heaven. any recommendations for hotels i should add to this list? i could do this all day, y'all.

happy friday! thank you so much for stopping in. lovelovelove.

{ plans for our little apartment kitchen! }

this little apartment of ours is pretty small (i realize i still need to show you guys a full tour of the place!)  but our kitchen is actually a fairly decent size as far as apartments go. unfortunately, the space is a little wasted. the kitchen is in the back of the apartment away from the living area so we don't currently spend much time in it. however, i'd love to find a way to make the space a little more useable. for now, we just kind of plopped our desk there, but i typically end up working on my laptop in the living room because the kitchen just feels cold and uncomfortable. allow me to clue you in...(and sorry for the crappy photos - it was all i had at the moment!)

well that was embarrassing, but hey, i'm keepin' it real over here. so as you can see, there's a big empty space next to the fridge, and then there's a large area where the desk currently is, where most would put a breakfast table of some sort. see, we actually have the perfect little round table for that area, but we decided to place that in the living room for a combined living/dining area instead. the kitchen doesn't get a lot of light so we just weren't too thrilled at the thought of to holding all of our dinner parties or gatherings in the darkest corner of the apartment. i was sort of stumped on how i wanted to handle this area of the kitchen for a while, but the other day i was thinking that i actually think it would be a perfect place for a little breakfast banquette.

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i'm still trying to decide what configuration would work best, but i think for the sake of being in a rental we'd probably be better off with a settee/bench situation rather than a traditional banquette. i think it would work with the coziness of the room rather than against it, and add an element of comfort that just might inspire us to hang out in the kitchen after all. i'll keep you guys posted on this as the ideas develop. 

hope you're all enjoying your thursday! thanks so much for stopping in. lovelovelove.

{ caitlin creative in 2014 }

{photo by the amazing anna reynal}

i can hardly believe that it's 2014. doesn't that just seem like such a big number? 2012 and 2013 felt like one big blur to me. i packed a lot of action into those two years: getting an internship with the everygirl and jess lc, moving to chicago for the summer, moving to chicago permanently, getting a full-time position at a pr firm, leaving said pr firm, leaving chicago, moving to baltimore, moving in with trevor, launching caitlin creative, getting a dog, etc, etc.)

so here i am. with a brand new year and for the first time in a long time, my life feels a bit...steady. im still working on growing my decorating services, i've spent some time deciding what exactly i want this blog to be and why i want to keep doing it, trevor and i are settled in baltimore (for now) and there are no big life changes on the horizon. its sort of weird, actually.

i have a good feeling about 2014. ive had moments recently where i miss chicago so much it aches, and i kind of can't believe i ever left. at the same time, i find myself more content on a daily basis than i have been in a while. i don't know if that make sense, and im still figuring out what it all means myself. my hope for 2014 is to fill it with adventures, learning, joy, and creativity. it's awfully easy to become complacent about life without ever intending to, and im going to do my best to check in with myself frequently about how im spending my days this year.

alright y'all, check back later today for a second post with my plans for our little apartment kitchen (which is admittedly the eyesore of this humble abode). excited to finally tackle it!

happy new year, everyone. wishing you all the very, very best. lovelovelove.

{ real estate dreams: a little rowhome to call my own }

though it'll be a long time before i own my home, that doesn't stop me from browsing real estate listings for hours on end. what can i say, i'm a realtor's daughter and i'm hooked on houses. as i sat in bed this morning with a cup of coffee (mind you i'm snowed in) i was doing some of my usual perusing on redfin.com when i came across this cute little rowhome in one of my favorite baltimore neighborhoods: fells point.

now, this guy is perfectly livable as is, and at the same time, is nothing terribly special, all things considered. but i couldn't help but think of all the potential it has to be the perfect home, and how i'd hop on the chance to buy him in a heartbeat. (i don't know why i decided it's a him, but just go with me here.)

here's the view when you first walk in:

pretty, but the first thing i'd do is stain the floors a rich ebony color...

and paint the walls a bright, clean white. or maybe a soft greige? sounds boring, i know, but bear with me...

I'm a huge fan of painted stairs, and would definitely paint these suckers black to make the spindly details look nice and updated. I love this example from Jenny Komenda of Little Green Notebook.

yeah. that'll do pig. 

i think this dining area would be a great place to experiment with wallpaper. love this one, this one and this one (among others) from schmaucher.

this is a perfect example of a kitchen that definitely still needs to be tweaked but could be done on a fairly thrifty budget - at least for a phase one makeover until you wanted to spend more to make it exactly your taste.

first of all, that wall color needs to go so i'd bring in the same color from the living room to keep everything flowing. that fridge is far too big for the space and makes the whole thing feel much more cramped than it is, so I'd replace it with one that was flesh and fitted to the counter depth. I think the lower cabinets are fine (aside from needing paint) but the uppers need to be refaced. i'd paint them a pretty grey and add some hardware to make them look more polished. Since the countertops are totally workable but not what I'd pick, I'd remove the strip of granite on the wall and add a backsplash (herringbone pattern perhaps?) that would go all the way to the ceiling on the far wall with the stove. Then I'd remove the microwave and cabinet above the range and replace it with a hood. After refacing the upper cabinets built around the fridge for something more streamlined to match the lowers, I'd remove the upper cabinets on the right wall and replace with open shelving to keep everything feeling airier and give the illusion of more space.

nothing groundbreaking but with some pretty styling and accessorizing, i think this kitchen would do just fine. one of my favorite features are the windows on the far walls. i'd do away with a blinds and bring in some pretty roman shades. I also don't love the tile but it's better than others that i've seen and a pretty indoor/outdoor rug with lively color and pattern would bring the whole space to life in no time.

some inspiration...

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anyone else participated in some real estate dreaming lately?

lovelovelove.

C