40H

Happy New Year!

I love this time of year.  Really, I do.  Every time a new year begins I find myself looking back on the year that flew by faster than the one before, attempting to sum it up.  But so much happens in a year, it’s not always easy to package it up with a nice little bow and catapult forward into the year ahead.  There are so many moments in between celebratory new years that I can’t possibly sum it all up in one post, so, you may catch me looking back here and there.  I’ll also be looking forward and sharing some new goals and resolutions for the exciting year ahead.  But for right now, this very moment, I’m happy to be here, in my new home, with my new husband, excited for the life we have ahead of us.  2010 was packed FULL with happy memories and new beginnings, all of which we’re extremely thankful for!  In 2010 I/we…

• Planned a wedding
• Pulled off said wedding without a hitch thanks to the help from our amazing family & friends
• Had the absolute time of our lives becoming husband and wife…and continuing to be
• Honeymoon
• Branden graduated from college
• Branden got not one but two new jobs doing exactly what he wants to be doing
• I have continued to learn and grow this amazing and rewarding little business of mine
• We’ve laughed
• I’ve cried (and cried)
• I’ve laughed so hard it made me cry
• We’ve made mistakes
• We’ve learned from those mistakes
• I changed my college major back to my first love…studio art and have been painting up a storm…(more on that later)
• We moved!  As amazing as this year has been, this last little thing is really the culmination of everything we’ve been working for and it feels so good!  Some very busy friends of mine have asked to see some photos to hold them over until they can come see our new place.  I thought I’d share the little home we’re building with all of you.  Come on up and see us sometime!

Here it is.  Our little living room with the couch I drooled over for months.

We’re on the second floor with nice vaulted ceilings and lots of light which makes this painter-slash-photographer extremely happy.

If you happen to come over and sit on my dream couch, this is what you’ll be looking at.  I have a few little souvenirs from our wedding mixed in here and there and they make me smile.

My obsessions.  Books!  What should I read next?  I’m hot on the recommendations right now.  The stack on the right are what have been on my nightstand as of late.  I’ll break it down for you…

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon - Branden’s new favorite author so I’m checking him out.  Really good, huge vocabulary so keep a dictionary nearby, but totally worth it.

The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield – I would recommend both this and Art and Fear to any artist.  This one particularly, though, for anyone making a career out of something creative.  You’ll read it fast and come back often for inspiring little reminders.

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell – One of my favorite non-fiction books in a long time.  Look it up, then read it.  It’s far more interesting than it sounds, I promise!

Getting Things Done by David Allen – still working on this one but it comes highly recommended for a stress-free, productive business/life.

The Fast Track Photographer’s Business Plan by Dane Sanders – You can’t NOT like this guy.  He’s so genuine and humble in his writing, it really does help you to fine-tune your vision as a photographer if you’re willing to do the work.  I’m only done with the first couple of tasks within but I can tell you they have honestly taken me to places I would never have come to on my own.  If you’re in the photo biz, check it out.

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers – Based on the movie The Wild Things which was based on Maurice Sendak’s children’s book.  The movie touch my heart in a way I can hardly describe.  Maybe it’s about coming from a divorced home that I identified so much with Max, maybe I’m just madly in love with how Dave Eggers (screenwriter) and Spike Jonze (director) tell a story.  Either way, I preferred the movie to the book but there were some neat extras that came in text form.  If you’re going to read Eggers, I’d choose any of his other works over this one, but still, not a bad read.

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers – I’m wildly embarrassed to admit just how much I liked this book.  I read the entire thing during finals week when I should have been studying to turn that B into an A but I couldn’t, I was hooked.  If the phrase “Christian romance novel” makes you want to gag (as it did me…mainly the romance part of it), stop a moment because this one was actually worth a read despite my extreme judgement.  I smiled like an idiot and sobbed like an infant reading this.  It touched me.  I like that.

The Illustrated Kitchen Bible – Gorgeous photos and delicious recipes.  So far I’ve made Eggplant Parmesan and Linguine with a Tomato Clam Sauce and both were restaurant quality.  Ever since we’ve opened this cookbook, we’ve been eating well and we’ve only just begun.

A few more from our fun collection…and yes, I overcame my maniacal alphabetizing compulsion to arrange them by color instead.  I kind of love it but don’t worry, the DVDs are still in perfect alphabetic order.  Let’s not get crazy now.

We went for a little one bedroom place instead of two like we really wanted so we had to get creative with how we split things up.  Here’s my little office space at the far end of our living room.  It still needs lots of art on the walls: we’re working on it.  I found my desk at a garage sale, stripped it down and painted it bright red and finished it off with some sweet little drawer-pulls from Anthropologie.  J’adore!

As I mentioned, creative use of space was the name of the game.  I’m using our dining room as a painting studio so we found the cutest little wood table at Ikea (yes, real wood) that fits right in between the kitchen, living room and dining-room-turned-studio.  I actually love it.  Don’t worry though, that cute little table has 2 leaves that come out to seat plenty of dinner guests.  The red clock and the salt & pepper shakers are a couple of my new favorite things.

The kitchen!  Well, it’s a little apartment kitchen but it does have a great window!  We’ll take it!  Both the salt jar and the 3 tiered cake stands are from Sadie Olive and they’re another couple of my favorite things in the house.  It’s the little things, you know?

Branden’s handiwork.  Magnetic strip full of knives and pegboard pots & pans.  Know what’s awesome?  Never having to bend over to lift heavy pans out of a cupboard.  Genius, thanks Julia Child!  Before you all tell me that my pots are hung backwards, I want to tell you that I meant to do that.  It’s the only way my pots will hang that way and I like it.

Another (future) favorite spot…our patio, because it’s going to stop raining one of these days, right?  One of the first things I did upon the move was plant some herbs.  I can’t live without them.  They may be drowning in constant rain, but I’ll nurse them back to health somehow!  Can succulents get too much water?  I wonder…but they seem to be looking pretty good still.

Lastly, but certainly not least, my studio!  It’s small and quaint but it’s amazing to have a space that is only for painting.  Everyday I wake up and want to spend time here.  I don’t always get that opportunity but this setup certainly helps my cause.  The drying rack on the bottom left is especially neat.  My easel and tabouret have been updated and I’m in business.  I’m totally ready for my next painting class or just a little free time!

So, obviously there’s a bathroom but apartment bathrooms really aren’t anything special.  Our bedroom basically has a bed and not much else so that’s about all you’re getting for now.  Maybe one day we’ll be able to pay the bills and buy some new bedroom furniture but for now, we make do and we’re more than happy to do so.  So, there you have it!  Home Sweet Home in apartment 40H.  Madly in love with our little love nest : )