Monday, April 30, 2012

Cozy New Vibes

It's been really wonderful living in a place that doesn't make me hate my life. Having been out of the "dungeon" of our last apartment for about a month now, I am finding myself more and more motivated. Our spacious, sun-filled abode has me pinning all sorts of new decorating ideas, hanging photos and art that have been tucked behind our poor excuse of a couch for far too long, and finally purchasing the perfect IKEA furniture goods that I have been drooling over my whole life. Yes, it has been quite nice not looking out of my only window, seeing the remains of our neighbor's groceries strewn across our yard as a poor attempt at what in her mind probably constituted as composting. What this lady did not understand was...well..composting. Throwing your leftover head of lettuce, carrot peels, and coffee grounds over your porch rail and into the sand heap that is our yard does not a compost pile make. If I had been given half the opportunity, I would have built an actual composting spot, filled it with soil and encouraged all our building tenants to contribute to it and create a lovely heap to be used in our garden the next year. This would have to assume that my neighbors 1. had the capacity to think of anyone other than themselves 2. could follow simple guidelines such as what is and is not compostable vs. what is and is not trash and 3. would even have the ability to put said compost matter INTO the compost heap rather than merely throwing it onto the yard. Alas, I was not provided the opportunity for the maddening task, and simply hopped on the one that meant that I could get the hell out of dodge as soon as humanly possible.

Yes, it has been nice living mere mile (yes, singular) from the beach...a nice beach...and quite far from the ruckus of Portland yet close enough still to visit whenever I want, which happens to be frequent. Sunlight peaks in through my windows every morning, less like a creepy creeper and more like an old friend just checking in. It makes for a lovely opportunity to grow as many plants as I am physically capable of maintaining, which is apparently few because I seem to have allowed my gorgeous pink hydrangea to fry rather than bask in the sun as it should.

 My success of the week has been finally forcing myself and Jacob to unpack our final room- the dining room/my office. We didn't really have anything TO unpack, but it was mostly just a tote full of crap and notebooks and CDs and more crap that just needed to find a home. A couple hours, and a bottle of prosecco later, everything had a place and my office finally looked exactly how I wanted it to. That doesn't mean that I won't be doing all of my work from Jacob's Nan's chair in the living room where it is both warmest and most cozy, but it does mean that on that rare day that I do feel inspired to work like a grown-up, I have a specific space with everything I need in an orderly fashion where I will feel on task and ready to work.
 
The closer we get to summer the more inspired I will get to keep making each room exactly how we'd like it to be. While this apartment is definitely more "us" than any we have lived in the past 4 years, it still has a bit of work before becoming a home. I am hoping that I will write more as it all comes together, especially since I have been spending a lot more time in the kitchen the past month that I did the entire year at our last apartment.