Hello Internet-landia! I’m so sorry for the silence, but I did warn you I was going on a break! It was a difficult decision to step away from my blog at first, but I knew the first step to regaining balance of everything was to stop sitting in front of a computer for 12+ hours a day.

While I’m still not ready to come back full-time yet, I thought it would be fun to do a photo recap of what I’ve been up to this past month during my break. These pics were all posted previously on my Instagram, but I’m expanding on the commentary today. I hope you like it!

Can you believe it? Closet Luxe turned 1 on October 28, 2014! Time truly flies. Thank you for making this first year so memorable, and I look forward to many more!

I recently started making weekly trips to the San Francisco Flower Mart. I love coming home to fresh flowers all around my apartment! It’s a small price to pay for daily therapy. 🙂

I learned hydrangea are the easiest to take care of, and I’ve had bunches that lasted for 3+ weeks! The trick, as told by my coworkers, is to dip the bottoms of freshly cut stems into hot, hot water for 15-30 seconds. Apparently, there is a sticky substance — sap? — inside the stems that will otherwise run down and block the stem from any water intake if you don’t do the hot water trick.

I’m still trying to figure out how to keep roses alive and beautiful for at least a week. I’ve gotten better at it; evidently, roses should be cut under running water so no air bubbles get inside the stem (which would block water intake).

In the past month, I turned my would-be Blogging Time into Apartment Redecorating Time. Instead of planning outfits and photo shoots, I started going from home decor store to the next, looking for accent items to transform my apartment into a grown-up sanctuary. Home Goods, West Elm and Pottery Barn are now my new favorite stores!

I adore this Paris pillowcase by Sealoe! I didn’t like the pillow stuffing that came with the case, though, so I took an old pillow I had lying around and used its stuffing instead. #CheapHacks

Man, styling a bookcase was harder than I thought it’d be! I spent a lot of time looking at Pinterest boards before spending an entire evening arranging and rearranging my books until it came out like this. Phew!

I met up with a lovely group of bloggers over the weekend, and it turned out we had the same feelings about so many things. We discussed subjects like how it’s been as a newcomer to the blogging community, how social media both helps and hinders, and how we can grow our blogs while supporting others. Oh, and we all shared our meals, too!

#BloggersWhoBrunch is still in beta mode, but we’d like to make this a regular thing. If you’d like to join in the next meetup, send me an email! 🙂

This was such a serendipitous shot. I walked up to Alamo Square park just in time just to see this beautiful moment of golden light peeking through the trees. How can you not love San Francisco??