as cliché as it may very well be, home ownership is my very own american dream. the importance of housing resonates innately within me. in fact, it is so important that witnessing the lack of housing and the prevalence of homelessness in richmond led me social work and away from studying theater (phew!)
last week, my husband and i finally summoned the courage to contact a loan officer and a real estate agent. i think i have just been afraid of their power to crush our dreams: “sorry, your credit sucks.” or “you thought you would qualify for WHAT?” however, it was pretty much the opposite and we were so pleased to find that we would qualify for the range we had been searching over the past year.
here’s where it gets complicated. now that the possibility is before me i am equally excited and terrified. i have the blog bookmarks, magazines, and photos saved in my “Decor” folder on my desktop to prove i’ve only been thinking about this for, well, FOREVER. yet somehow i’ve started to feel this overwhelming sense of having to find my dream house now (while all the while i know that is entirely unrealistic). i mean, why can’t i have my craftsman house with all the details i have poured over the past 10 years. oh yeah, i’m a first time home buyer, ha!
looking at houses for the first time last week certainly allowed me to narrow down our options and at least give me a beginning sense of what makes the cut and what is out project runway style. but since, i have been dreaming of updates to my our beginner house a little slice of my dream house. we shall see! round two on tuesday!
i’ve taken to making cards for birthdays, holidays, and thank you’s! i’m working hard on getting my easter cards finished, but here’s a hint of what’s to come!
Happy Easter!
INSIDE
as our move out of the apartment is looming before us, i felt the need to preserve some pictures of my favorite things i’ve collected over the years. since we are moving into a friends house, there won’t be much in the way of my decor about the place. guess i’ll just have to wait ’til we’re back east and have our own place!
hope you enjoy these quirky, kitchy, whimsical items as much as i do! some are thrift store finds or antique store finds, some gifts, and others are passed down from our grandparents.
KITCHEN
orange colander (Marshall’s), ikea napkins, teapot (target), cross stiched citrus fruits and 3-D mushrooms (fantastic thrift), 1970s flower power cheese platter
various bird pictures, beer stein from Germany (thanks dad!), grimmy figure i’ve had since i was 10 (“i’m not a morning person”), seductive picture of woman and man (thanks stephanie!), serving tray from Mikasa Mexicana by Ben Seibel (california thrift store), the piles of sunglasses on polka dot tray (target)
above the sink: painted pierre and sugar tiles (by lisa!!), crosstiched kitty (fantastic thrift), virgin of Guadalupe, decoupaged plate with redneck pin-up
plastic flowers (antique store in fredericksburg)
over the trashcan (gotta make dirty look pretty!): vintage apron (halcyon vintage), floral still life (fantastic thrift)
needle-pointed floral, paint-by-number puppy
LIVING ROOM
elephant plant stands (passed down from gibson’s g-grandma), various collections
hand painted velvet pin-up with wormwood frame (orange, ca antique shop)
pierre picture (painted by me in 2002, ha!), tiki figure from hawaii (thanks pearl and tom), various coffee table books, glass vase (from my grandmother), owl lantern (urban o.), flower power recipe box (fantastic thrift), odd shaped end table (from my dad, found at the navy exchange)
wood hanging (was gibson’s grandfathers)
