PLANTS

I've always loved the idea of having plants around the house but didn't want to bring something home and kill it. I bought some succulents (in the first and sixth photo) at a plant sale here in Norfolk last year and kept them alive for a whole year and counting. And they actually grow and look happy. So I wanted some more for windowsills and on the balcony and have ended up with these. I'm really enjoying learning about them and watching them grow. They have been a nice distraction to keep up with lately.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This is what our Christmas looks like this year. I spent the past few weeks getting these things together while Douglas was away on the ship. So this little display is special to me - it was comforting to prepare and look at everything while waiting for him to get back. He got home a few days ago, and I'm so happy we're having a quiet, cozy, probably Chinese food for dinner Christmas. We are making breakfast though.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and happy new year.

WORKROOM ORGANIZATION

The workroom I have in this apartment is definitely the biggest space I've ever had. Which is awesome, but I wanted it to be super organized to make the most of it. I've really had fun finding different ways to organize supplies without having to buy any new furniture or big items. Even after living here for about four months I'm still not done putting finishing touches on this room (or any room). Here's a little peak at how I've been organizing around the room. 

On the floating shelves we installed, I have these cups and jars lined up for brushes, exacto knives, pencils, and, of course, honey sticks. I love using these two cups for storage because I love looking at them so much but don't want to use them everyday as...cups. It's a nice, clean way to organize these things where I can easily grab them.

This Samsonite train case is probably the craft storage I've been using the longest. It's perfect for holding things I use often but don't want to look at all the time - glitter, glues, staples, tacks. The space under the tray is perfect for holding craft paints.

This is absolutely my favorite method of storage in my workroom. The pegboard is really inexpensive, as well as the hooks. But it adds so much organization for my trims, ribbons, and washi tapes while still looking light and open.

I bought these little spice jars from World Market when we lived in Charleston. They're perfect for holding my colored buttons where I can see them. I have way more black and white buttons than colored ones, so I store those in the bead boxes underneath. I also love that old cigar box on the right - it's where I keep bow tie clips.

This DIY is one of my favorite that I've done because I use these all the time. And it's nice to use them for different things as I need to and relabel them.

To sort all my vintage zippers I use these old wire desk trays. They're especially nice because they stack  on top of each other to go onto a shelf.

Hopefully I'll be back soon sharing pictures of the whole room, as well as the others in our apartment. It's slow, but it's all coming along.

AROUND THE HOUSE TODAY

1// yard sale sailboat 

2// pins and needles

3// old and new pillows 

4// Yoshitomo Nara postcards frame

5// my favorite little rubber bands 

6// white fox and our wedding collage

7// favorite rug 

8// old copper monogram stencils/best birthday present

9// my favorite sun catcher waiting for a perfect spot 

10// mailing supplies

11// all my prints/posters and a happy bag 

12// dog with Douglas glasses

A PEAK AT OUR NEW HOME

1// new bedding and our bird 2// our living room shelving and my favorite deer 

3// $3 yard sale chair/favorite corner 4// working on a project for our bedroom walls

 5// our new (really old) kitchen hutch 6// vintage food ads on our kitchen walls

  7// spice jar project 8// hearts and aprons 

9// tapes and trims 10// freshly painted chalkboard drawers 

11// pocket knives in my workroom 12// workroom shelf

Things are finally finding their place, and it's starting to feel a little like home in here. While it's taken longer than I'd like to admit to put things away and get settled, we've really been enjoying taking it easy and taking our time to set everything up. Douglas's schedule is going to get insane soon enough, so we need to relax while we can. I'm working on doing a little more rearranging and decorating. And I can't wait to share full room pictures soon. For now a few detail shots will have to do.

Working on little projects here and there has helped keep me sane. I've always wanted matching spice jars, so I was really excited to finish these. It's been one of my favorite projects here yet. I've also wanted to display vintage food ads in our kitchen since we got married. I've been collecting them for years, and I love finally having them up. And I can definitely say that my new obsession is our floating wall shelves. I've spent so much time rearranging them already (while I had several other more pressing tasks to attend to).

I'm happy to finally be posting again...and I'm hoping to get back into my schedule next week when Douglas starts work. I have lots of share about our life here so far and things that are happening. Happy weekend!

OUR NEW PLACE!

We found our new home here in Norfolk! On our first day of looking at places we saw a for rent sign outside of a great old apartment building right in the area of town we wanted. The next day, without knowing anything about the place we were walking into, we looked at the apartment, loved it, and spent the rest of the day thinking about it. We decided to take it later that day and signed the least the next day, October 3 (my birthday!). It had a lot of the big things that we were looking for, feels so cozy and safe, and is within walking distance to so much stuff. I have so many favorite things about it, but mostly I love that it's a place I can't wait to settle into with Douglas. 

We love all the details that come with an older building. I love the glass doorknobs, gorgeous wooden floors, and the super wide moulding around the windows. There's always these things about getting to know a new place, like what patterns the light will make on the floors during different parts of the day.

Two of our rooms have beautiful exposed brick walls on one side. It's a detail we loved about the first apartment we looked at - but that was about its strongest point. So we were really excited when it showed up in two rooms here - and we like these older looking bricks better! 

We have a cute, little black and white bathroom. I'm forever obsessed with black and white, so I love it. 

One of our favorite details - a beautiful stained glass window in our hallway looking into our bedroom...well there's not much stained glass here since it's mostly clear with light blues and greys. But it's an unexpected detail and the textures are really pretty. 

We have a huge balcony. It's the first apartment we've had where our outdoor space is somewhere we'd want to spend time. I can't wait to maybe grow some herbs and get some new covers for my parents' old butterfly chairs. 

This is what it looks like out of our back door. I love the white brick with the natural bricks. I think I just love everything about this place. 

Our living room has these columns in the big doorway. These lights here aren't permanent but we had to have them here for our first night in the new place. These lights are always in our bedroom, so I couldn't have our first night without them. 

We even have a cute, little non-functioning doorbell. 

All these pictures were taken with the original wall colors - dull, darker neutrals...not our thing. Or at least my thing. Luckily, Douglas is the best and had no problem with painting the walls. We started this weekend, and slowly but surely our walls are becoming bright and white. So excited to see the change it makes in the whole place. But let's get real. Picking out white paint is tough stuff. 

Okay and let's get real with this. I love our new place so much, but this is the air mattress, no furniture, minimal belongings situation that exists in here right now. The moving truck is supposed to arrive with our stuff sometime this week, so until then we are living like this. Luckily that gives us time to paint and not ruin all our furniture with our many paint splatters. I like having my things organized and living in some sort of order, so this, along with the stresses of a new place, gets to me more than I'd like. But I know that in no time we'll be all settled, and I'll be worrying about how to decorate the walls. So for now I'm trying to enjoy this exciting, scary, stressful time we are sharing together. We are lucky.