Starting to Feel Like Home

Now that the stress of the actual move is over, I can focus on the fun part...making the new place feel like home.

After moving back to Mass., Tommie and I spent a year living below my grandparents in an apartment collectively furnished over the years by my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Sitting below my great-grandmother's large framed multicolored rooster, I couldn't help but miss our furniture...not to mention our freedom.

It's been fun rediscovering the San Diego furniture we had stored, finding new things on Craigslist, and trying to make it come together to form a place that feels like home for us. Here's a peak at a couple rooms we have been working on:

A dining/reading nook in our living room. Lamp and shade are from a thrift store; the bookshelf and table/chairs are Craigslist finds (I recently gave the table an easy makeover by painting the top "espresso"). And the painting is by Tommie's grandfather.

Maya checking out part of our kitchen. I ordered the wooden island online with free shipping and a coupon. The chalkboard (Tommie's menu board) is from a seller on Etsy.com and is made of recycled barn wood.

Yum.

Farm Fresh

Yesterday was the first day for pick up from the local CSA (community supported agriculture) that Tommie and I joined (we're splitting a share with my co-worker and the CSA happens to be on the same property as our office...can't get any easier than that).I can already tell it's possible I will eat more veggies this summer and fall than I have my entire life. It's a good thing. I always say, "I need to get more vegetables," then I go to the grocery store and come out with ice cream sandwiches. (It's not my fault the ice cream is in the same isle as the vegetables). But now I don't have a choice. I go down to the farm and pick up my farm fresh produce from the cute boys who grow and pick it...which almost makes it okay that there isn't a box of ice cream sandwiches tucked in the bottom of the bag.This week there was romaine lettuce, spinach, radishes, turnips, garlic scapes, baby summer squash, and swiss chard. We had a salad last night to try a little of everything. We put spinach in our sandwiches for lunch and cooked spinach with our fresh fish tonight. Popeye would be proud. I really can taste the difference. The spinach is crisp and I don't typically eat radishes but these guys have a subtle fresh flavor to them and aren't bitter. It's going to be a healthy summer.

Our New "Home"

I have been quiet on here lately.

Tommie and I finally moved into our new apartment. The move has been consuming my mind ever since we found out about the place a few months ago, and to be honest, it is still consuming my mind because our place currently looks like this:

But as I unpack, swiffer the hell out of things, and find a home for all my wayward Craigslist furniture, I can tell it is going to be a lovely little place to live. It took us just over a year, but we're finally back on our own. We have a small yard, an ocean breeze, and delicious take-out thai food three minutes away.

I will post photos of the clean apartment soon!