in & around my home

These past couple of mornings have been rough ones. I'm sure it doesn't help that we've been getting to bed so late and it certainly doesn't help to have a ginormous pile of dishes to do in the morning (as a result of late bedtimes). What's more, I have a tiny kitchenette area with a dinky little sink of a sink, which makes the task more of a chore than it ought to be. Anyway, I've been wanting to do this kind of a post for months! No, not a ranting post, we have enough of those. But a home sweet home post. Ever since I first introduced our little place here in blogosphere, I've been meaning to take some pics of the inside. So I took the liberty of taking pictures in and around my home of what made me happy. You see, we will be coming back here for next year, too (for $200 less, yes!!! - bargaining with our LL...), so I have to focus on what I love about this place and count my blessings and document its beauty in snippets!

My bowl runneth over: this is such a happy addition to our home! And it's not that I eat beautiful fruit & nut mixes with spoons... that's Lena's silverware there and I love them! So that's a plus.

In such a small space, storage is limited (as you'll see more of later), so I've resorted to leaving out my precious pieces to help free up that storage and help beautify and decorate the place. I love this trio together!

Beautiful flowers from the yard, courtesy of Lena (along with the vase and the doily). Plusses abound! Oh, and my lovely butter dish from guess where? :)

More lack of storage = more showing off of my pretty plates, cute canvas totes and my wonderful pots and pans (thanks M&D, and thank you Saladmaster!)! Notice the stacked toilet paper on the right... we have open storage under our stairs; not so pretty...

Come and sneak a peak into my kitchen! A couple of things I'd like to mention here: I love the useless fish-friar (LL's) and my matching red iron accessories. But what's more, I LOVE being able to close off my kitchen and hide what's behind it, if necessary...

And I just had to find a place for my beautiful plate rack. In Rexburg it served as a resting place for my framed tin-foil (later). But here it serves as a backdrop for my cheese graters and one of my favorite frames, and family picture! Disregard the inconsolable grease stains under the hood...

And now, moving on to Will's half of the room down stairs. It looks a little tight, huh? But I actually like it, it feels nice and cozy to me. And I still LOVE his bedding and the whole surfer boy theme. Those painted wooden plaques were my home-made gifts to Will (in place of a quilt) and I'll be mentioning them, hopefully, on that one blog of mine... some day. All the furniture is our LL's, except the crib, along with the wooden fish in the window, the funkalicious lamp and the beautiful runner on top of her dresser. A few plusses here, I've lost count...

The other side of the room, our storage facility. In our next year's contract negotiation conversation, our terms (besides decreased rent) would be to find a better storage solution, in case we have another kid and need this side of the room. But in all reality, it's worked rather well as is. Those curtains used to be Will's at our other place. Now they're hanging from a stretched out shower rod as a room/storage divider. Nifty, huh?

And now we move back out through the kitchen and into the living area. I LOVE the vaulted (???) ceilings here and the height of the room. And I can appreciate the exposed beams, too. Notice my framed tin-foil. Yup, I've still got them! Also notice my star, which I adore, and the extremely modern sofa that I've tried softening up with a butt-load of pillows! Hey, it works. And that glare in the five dollar, sideways turned mirror is me. And you can barely make out the artwork's reflection (and that I'm actually getting used to and hardly notice it's there anymore, oddly enough).

This is Will's little nook. I like this area and consider it a plus because of the rickety old kiddy rocking chair (thanks to Lena) and our wannabe fireplace (the heater gets real hot and y'all know how Will is...).

And here's a picture of our love seat, which may seem weird. But I really like that pillow in the foreground, and it's Lena's too, along with the throw. And yes, that is the same slip cover that we used on our couch back in the 'burg, except it's been removed and refitted and remade for our love seat. A plus and a minus in this place is the furniture. The only things that are ours is the crib, this love seat, and the coffee table (passed down from college buddies and filthy, thanks to Will snacking).

Here's a cute little picture of our bathroom's window sill. I just love this tin (mine), and the cool hair comb is LL's. I hate the bathroom, but this little scene always makes me smile. We're focusing on the positive here!

And last but not least, our bedroom, upstairs. It has a slanted ceiling, which I've always wanted, and lots of windows, each with a beautiful view. I've loved my bedding, since day one (almost three years ago, thanks to reception money!) and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this quilt that my mother made and then selflessly gave me for Christmas. Isn't it beautiful! It doesn't quite go, but I just don't care.

There you have it! A tour of our guest house. Talk about a hecka long post! But was it worth it? Is it worth it to live here? Yes, yes I think it is. And that's all I have to keep telling myself. That, and a home is a home, no matter where you live (even if it's not a house... *sigh*). The area we live in is absolutely gorgeous! And our little place really is like our own little home, just to ourselves. Yes, we really are happy here.