Before & After - A WOW Kitchen Renovation by Designer Maura Rabiner

Before: a simple plan, good size room, just needed an update.

After:  no structural changes...but a new layout creates better flow, more places to eat, entertain, work and hangout.

Maura Rabiner: Principal/Owner of Maura Rabiner Designs. Maura is an interior decorator whose fundamental design principals are: simple, serene, comfortable, functional and of course fabulous!  maurarab@shaw.ca
     

Have you…

heard about The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin? I read this book over the holidays. Each month, the author pursued a different set of resolutions -- go to sleep earlier, tackle a nagging task, bring people together, take time to be silly -- along with dozens of other goals. She read everything from classical philosophy to cutting-edge scientific studies, from Winston Churchill to Oprah, developing her own definition of happiness and a plan for how to achieve it. She kept track of which resolutions worked and which didn’t, sharing her stories and collecting those of others through her blog (created to fulfill one of March’s resolutions). Bit by bit, she began to appreciate and amplify the happiness in her life. At times a touch sickly sweet, but I would recommend it.  

I also wanted to update you on the challenge I suggested a few months ago on documenting what you are grateful for. Well a good friend and I began emailing each other daily, 3 things we were grateful for that day. My friend is the grateful task master! It was a challenge for 21 days, but with her encouragement/coaxing/threats, we have carried on. She is much better at committing to it daily than me, but when I do it, I really do think about things in a different way. Try it!  Whether you keep it in a journal or find a grateful task master like I have, you will see your life in a new way.