The Nesting Place

Our little family

"It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." This quote is from a book by Myquillyn Smith called The Nesting Place and it is so perfect for us right now. I read about this book on the blog Gracelaced, one of my favorite blogs, and I want to read it because I think it would calm my heart right now.  Gracelaced is a mom of 6 boys, an artist, follower of Christ, and DIYer. She never pretends she can do everything or anything perfect but continues to find the grace of God in the everyday.  I like her a lot. 

When we moved here to this new townhouse it was such a blank slate. I was so excited to make it beautiful and feel like home too. Since I didn't have a job I spent pretty much every day trying to make it feel like home. I was getting frustrated because I didn't want to spend tons of money on brand new stuff but we had to buy it new since we didn't bring any living room furniture down - we had no where to sit! I would scour the internet for deals on couches and pin living room after living room. I like our living room now but its definitely not complete.  I don't pride myself on my decorating skills but I do my best to make it feel like home. Andy keeps telling me how impressed he is with what I've done to the place which feels good but the house still doesn't feel quite right. 

One thing I am realizing though that a home can never be just bought and put together like a puzzle to look just perfect with THINGS like furniture and knick knacks. A home is not about what's in it, but who is living in it and the memories made there with the ones you love. I like the eclectic look of pieces from all stages of life and places and these items, like framed coasters from MN breweries or Andy's iron fist sculpture, bring character, life, and memories into your home. A home must be built from the inside out, otherwise it's just a house. It can be pretty and functional and needs to be somewhat organized. Lord knows I am definitely calmer in a pretty and organized space, don't get me wrong, but I am realizing that I'm not looking at our home with the right lens. 

I always loved making our house a home in St. Paul. It was a cute house and things worked but it definitely wasn't all perfect. Most of our furniture was from college, passed down from family or friends, or one of our first purchases as a married couple.  I was never truly satisfied with how it looked but I loved how it felt. It had character on its own and didn't need a whole lot of "stuff" to make it work. I can picture myself standing in the kitchen and remembered all the barbecues, New Year's Eve parties, and dinner parties we hosted with friends and family. I go to the front yard and remember picking the currants out of the bushes in June to make currant jam. I remember watching Lincoln sunbathe in the backyard and picking little cherry tomatoes from the garden. I remember training for the Twin Cities Marathon in the summer by running 20 miles solely on the Mississippi. Ahhhhh. So many amazing memories. When I think about that house I think about the memories and great times we had there over the last three years. I don't remember if it was decorated perfectly and what I would have changed and stress over the fact that I never decorated it perfectly. It didn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. 

“...you can’t DIY yourself into loving your home. No amount of painted furniture or stenciled pillows will make you more content with what you have. Creating a beautiful project may bring temporary satisfaction, but unless you look at your home through the right lens, you’ll quickly wonder why you’re still annoyed with your space. ”

— Myquillyn Smith, The Nesting Place

I have decided that a home definitely needs some organization and pretty in order to maintain sanity but I am determined to start looking at our new home with a new lens. I can't compare it to our house in St. Paul because as your first home it can never be replaced or replicated and the memories made there can't be beat. I am determined to do what I can here to decorate and make it feel pretty and work with what we have, but also work harder on making great memories here. I do not want to wait for perfection because a house isn't perfect without the memories and love that is shared inside. I am looking forward to inviting new Texan friends over for dinner (someday), shopping at a street art fair for local art, hosting family and friends from Minnesota, and celebrating anniversaries and birthdays here. In the end, memories shared with the ones you love inside your house is what makes it a home and every day this place feels more and more like home because I am sharing it with the man I love the most and our little fur baby Lincoln who fills us with so much joy.  This is what makes it our new home.  

Our New Digs

Hey there! I'm sorry it has been so long since I've posted! We've been busy with so many different things from vacations to Mexico, a visitor from MN, a trip to Princeton, NJ, and hiking in Austin! I've gotta catch up so look forward to some of those posts later on! I've also made some headway on the job front so that has been taking up my time too.

I thought I would fill you in on where we live nowadays. When we first came to Dallas we were in corporate housing (aka: free apartment in Uptown!) until the end of February. We pondered with the idea of buying another house since everyone told us how much "more house" you can get for your money down here. Well this motto is true but only if you live 30 minutes outside the city in the burbs. With Andy's job in Uptown and not having a darn clue where to start, we decided to rent for a year to catch our bearings, see how we feel after a year, and explore the area. We have no idea how long we'll be down here but it feels good to not commit so quickly to buying a house if this whole shebang doesn't last too long.

We found a nice town home community about 10 minutes from Andy's work, 3 miles from the nearest (only) lake, our favorite grocery store a 10 minute walk down the block, and away from the noisy night clubs and bars that Uptown graced us with for two months. It isn't as walkable as our last neighborhood in Uptown but it actually feels like a neighborhood.

We are still missing some things in our living room but we feel pretty settled in the rest of the house. The community is nice, quiet, and has lots of dogs and a fenced in dog park on the property. Not to mention a pool we can use at our leisure on days like today when its 82 degrees!

So without further ado, I promised a tour of our new digs.These are the same pictures I showed you before but imagine more green and that bush to the left that is brown in the picture? Yep thats bright pink with flowers now! Happy Spring! We have 3 levels: 1st floor is office, foyer, laundry room, and garage. 2nd floor has dining room, living room, kitchen, and that balcony you see there. 3rd floor there are two bedrooms each with a bathroom and a linen closet! It fits more than you think although we had to be creative with storing things because there is no basement.

Walk into the front door into our foyer and see this....

A closeup....

To the right there is a small room we use as the office/dumping room for our extra stuff....not pretty I know....

But seeing this below makes me happy when I am working/job searching/blogging at the desk!

You see that floral print on the top of the desk?? That was a super easy, cheap DIY project that I was so excited about! This is my old college IKEA desk which had a shelf on the back with drawers. We tried to make it work but the drawers just took up too much space. So I ripped off the shelf, sanded it down, found this ADORABLE fabric at Joann's and covered it with a piece of plexiglass from Ace Hardware. Total spent on project: $35! New desk! The chair I found at a garage sale back in St. Paul and painted it orangey/coral. LOVE. The rest of the office will live to see better days when I figure out a gallery wall for the office. 

 Okay moving on....

We have a coat closet behind the entryway table and our door the garage at the back of the house. At the base of the stairs there is a small laundry room with a tiny window....

Moving upstairs we have our one and only KEGERATOR - all of you who have tasted Andy's home brews know this was coming with us. It found a home right here next to our kitchen table. 

Across from our table is the kitchen which we love because it has so much space and storage. We were able to fit ALL of our kitchen appliances and "extras" (like a large electric pancake griddle) in it which used to live in our basement in St. Paul. We love the natural light but since we don't have an end unit we only have windows on the front and back of the house. We'

We also love the massive island (with bonus storage underneath!). Here you can see next to the kitchen is the partially-done living room. 

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We left a ton of our living room furniture in St. Paul which is why we have so little here.  It was great furniture that has loved many a living room, but they had been lent to us and we felt like getting our own "grownup" furniture to start fresh. I'll tell you what, furniture shopping and living room designing is not a piece of cake. 

We got this awesome classic, neutral couch from West Elm on sale (oh yeah!).  I don't have a picture but across from the couch is our TV on an old bookshelf....nothing too special. I know it's hard to see with the blinding morning sun coming through the windows but I was so pumped about these throw pillows.  I found them at a local mother/daughter owned shop called Uptown Country Living and they were....what?....$9!! The mirror above the couch was a steal from Home Goods and that too-small, soon-to-be-replaced rug was from Target in St. Paul. Good ol' Target! 

Our plan for the living room: 8x10 rug and two armchairs on either side. 

To the right of the windows is the stairs to go up to the third floor where you'll find our bedroom and the guest room, each one has a full bathroom in it. We love that we can offer our guests their own bathroom for once! 

Now we are on the third floor in the master bedroom! See that little teddy there? Andy gave that to me when we were in high school....awwww! :) By the way we LOVE those Pottery Barn lights for reading at night. 

For the first time we can keep all of our clothes in our bedroom! In our last place we had clothes spread out all over the house in different closets and dressers....this is definitely nicer. We have this nice walk-in closet which actually fits all our clothes and some nice storage up above. 

This is our wedding program that Andy framed for our first wedding anniversary (the first year gift is traditionally paper)! I love looking at the painting on the cover and seeing all the amazing people who stood up with us on that special day.  

We also have this hanging for a fun reminder from our friend Shel Silverstein. :) 

Here it the guest room bedroom we put together! FYI I made that headboard....let me know if you want to make your own because I'd love to help! It was sooo easy! 

To the left of the bed is a full walk-in closet. Although don't get too excited if you are going to come visit that you can bring your whole closet on down.  It is currently out of closet commission and stuffed from floor to ceiling with all my teaching materials! If you are a teacher or have ever lived with one you know that this is a LOT of stuff.  I didn't dare take a picture. It's a mess...and actually a miracle we can even open the door! Once I get a job and a classroom that will be emptied and functional as a closet once more, and your closet is more than welcome to stay there too. :)

FYI - any guests are welcome to jam on Andy's guitars. 

PHEW!! I don't even know if anyone cares to see our new digs but there she is! We are liking it so far and love sitting out on our balcony for dinner in the nice weather and going for runs in the neighborhood. 

I'll have a few more blog posts coming up to catch up on some trips and my job search journey. 

Love you all!

Betsy, Andy, and Lincoln