Apartment Update

Other parts of my story include the sweet apartment we are renting. my daughter helped me decide on picture placement. It makes a huge difference in making the apartment look finished and making it feel like home.

I thought I'd share a few snapshots of the living spaces with the prints on the wall. 

Nesting...Again

With this move to Wilmington, we downsized...again. I know I talked about the last two moves...one as recently as November. I've mentioned that we downsized when we lived in Bellevue/Seattle. I loved that. I was surprised by how many endorphins I got from lightening our load. The Bellevue apartment had just 736 square feet. I thought of that small size as a badge of honor. 

When we downsized in NC, I earned another badge of honor. We went from living in a house to 853 square feet. --Granted, not as small as Bellevue. But, the new proud achievement is that this was the first time we downsized without any of our things stored in a utility room or storage unit. In the cross country move in 2010, we ruthlessly let go of our possessions in storage. Our thinking...do we love "this" (whatever the "this" was) enough to pay for it to move cross country with us. Keeping in mind that moving costs are affected by how much space we take up in the truck (movers) and what the weight of our stuff is.

When we got to the NC house we basically did not furnish several rooms in the house. In that time we enjoyed another aspect of fewer possessions. We got to live with a lot of "blank spaces". I'm not sure how to explain this...but seeing a room with clear surfaces provides a sense of calm.

So, when we moved to 835 square feet, it wasn't as difficult. We did give a few additional things up, but the big win was that we were not paying rent for our possessions to be in storage. YAY!

Long story, shorter...I've not regretted any of my downsizing experiences.

With this move, I had to really work on lightening our load even more. This time we are living in 667 square feet. The kitchen/dining table had to go as well as Jordan's desk. When I measured our living room furniture, I realized that it would not fit in the new space. The living room space is too small for the couch and chair we had.

On moving day, our new living room included two side chairs one side table and a footstool. Of course, we also have the credenza for the TV.  --But sitting wise, we had very little.

Just a week before Christmas...Eve

I've been so silent here. The sparks of inspiration hit often...but rarely when I can capture them. Today after some required chores I took a much-needed nap.  I need more naps in my life. 

Balance, Priorities and Puppies

I haven't been on my blog for a while. I'm a little overwhelmed. Not necessarily in a bad way. Work is very busy. Which is great. Coincidentally I've also had to schedule miscellaneous appointments (dentist, eye dr., reg. dr., etc. ). The time away from the office is not ideal. But, it's hard to predict when our production spikes will occur. So...I've had to put in a few more hours on the back end of a normal workday.  That's my story.

Work / Life Balance

Instead of going to yoga, I've stayed at work. I really should start a practice at home. But I really enjoy it so much more when I have a teacher to follow. It's also a nice communal experience. Neither of which I want to give up. But...when we are busy and I have to choose where to spend the extra time...I do have to keep in mind that work actually pays for yoga.  So...

Priorities and Choices

I admit that I'm making a choice. It is a choice. It's a choice between leaving work "on time", or early even and doing yoga for the health and mind-clearing benefits. But, I also know that leaving without getting what needed to be done completed...just means a sleepless night as I worry about how I'm going to get it all done the next day. 

So anyhoo, I woke up today blue. Stressed a little about what I have ahead of me at work. Worried a little about how I will get it all done. Yadda, yadda, yadda---blue.

I took Jacob out for his morning walk. --It was already muggy. I wanted to give Jacob a little extra time. So I walked the long way around the complex, making our way to the dog park. Jacob and I visited the apartment dog park a couple of times when we first moved here. Both times we were the only two in the park. So, I sort of had it in my head that going to the doggie park at the complex was a solo kind of thing....which isn't that appealing.

Happiness: 

The dog park has been updated. The grass is turf so that it doesn't become a mud pit after our torrential rains. They added a few obstacles for dogs. It is nice.

More happiness: 

Two doggies were already in the park. Instant playmates. One dog was a Yorkie (I think). The other...a puppy. An English sheepdog puppy. He was a joy to watch. Several other people came with their dogs which made the whole thing more interesting. 

And, just that short time watching a puppy play...made all the difference in my day.

D's New Place

We spent Easter weekend with Danielle at her new place. I took several pics with my Smart-phone that I'm sharing here. I'm starting to think it may be time to upgrade to my camera phone.

So, to set the scene...a two-hour drive to her place was an all-day affair for us. I took the day off work, so it was a vacay day for me, which meant I wanted to sleep in, which I did. I woke up and realized we were getting a later start than I planned. 

A Little Catching Up

How lovely was today? It was still chilly here but with a beautiful blue sky. I took the pic below from my porch today. It's the same view I've posted before. I know it isn't that different but today, I felt that the bright sunny day was especially cheery.

One of the things that I love about living here is that we can appreciate the lovely landscape without the work.

More Apartment Living

I realize that the photos of our apartment are pretty sparse here on the blog. One reason is that I haven't felt that the photos I've taken actually do the space justice. I have been relying on my smartphone as my impromptu camera, which does not do well in low light.  ~That's the excuse reason I'm using, anyway. So, to give a better idea about our apartment, I'm sharing pics of the model units, which are very nicely lit.

Source

Making My Apartment Home

There is not a day that goes by that I don't look around my apartment and say "I love this place." We've been in our place for a little over a year and have zero desire to consider leaving. We enjoyed the home we had before and I enjoy looking back at the photos of how we made that house our home. 

Getting Settled

We are almost completely settled in our new place. I knew when I saw our new kitchen that I wanted a pop of apple green. I'm loving this tea kettle. 

The biggest change (although, I don't think that is the right word) we made is our kitchen table. The white kitchen table we had in our red kitchen was our true taste when we lived in a high-rise in Bellevue. We had a tiny apartment with a "view" of the space needle from our kitchen window. The table was a perfect fit. 

We also bought a craft table with two bookshelves. We used this as our kitchen island in the "Centerway" house. It was more streamlined than the island counter that was originally in the kitchen. It also complimented the kitchen table. 

Anyway, we let the buyers of Centerway keep the two kitchen tables. They were such a good fit there and we don't have room for both tables in our new place.