Our New Home

Although I was born in Texas, I moved to California within months of my birth. I grew up in Southern California and complained of the cold during winter months, and lost sleep over the sweltering nights during summer. I dreamed of leaving and creating an adventure somewhere far away where other seasons existed besides summer and winter.

K and I made the 2,000 mile drive to Illinois at the beginning of October. It has been a crazy ride already! I have already had the pleasure of experiencing 3 degree weather, and driving in the snow... I'm definitely not in California anymore... Some of you may have heard about, or even experienced the tornado that ripped through Illinois and other nearby states- well, we were here! Again, definitely not in California anymore...

So- that all leads us up to this point- our home in Illinois. I've loved posts showing the bloggers home. They always look so snuggly and clean! I love them so much I wanted to share my own. These pictures were taken right after we finished unpacking and hanging everything. I wish I could keep it so perfect clean all the time, but we all know how unrealistic that is.

Ok. So our apartment was so bare and boring at first. (as you can see below: living room and kitchen)

Our bedroom was pretty depressing.. and we were sleeping on the floor.

K began work immediately, so, so did I! I painted our entire home in two days...  oh.. and we bought a bed :)

K loves his books, he collects them like no one's business. (I love it, but find it so strange because he never gets around to ever reading any of them). I made the moss initials for our wedding, they hung on the gazebo we were married under. I loved them so much and wanted to keep something sentimental from that day. They were so easy to make! Also, K's aunt and uncle had that beautiful name plate created for us. I'm not sure where they bought it, but there's a ton of cute options on Etsy.com, like this one here.

This is probably my favorite piece. I love the idea of having our dishes out on display. We were given some beautiful dishes and barware and I love letting it show!

Lastly- our first original art. I love them :) The first week we were here the city was holding it's local art faire. There were so many amazing artists to discover! One of my favorites was Carrie Pearce, her work was so haunting, yet so mesmerizing. Her work was a bit out of our budget, but luckily we found another artist who was basically just giving away her work. Honestly, for how awesome her work is, I was surprised it was so affordable. Here is the link to Dewey James's online gallery. There were so many fun prints to choose from, and I love the ones we walked away with. 

Now that our car is unpacked, and the dishes are stacked, things are beginning to feel normal. This apartment is becoming our home and it's so fun to realize it as it's happening. Now I just need to find the motivation to purchase new Christmas decorations and get this place holiday ready!

In His love,

Bri