Our New Place

One of the things I was very excited for with moving was having a chance to start from scratch decorating our apartment and create a new home for us. You know when you pick out an outfit for school pictures, engagements, etc. and then later regret it and wish you had picked something else (clearly this has been an issue for me before), the nice thing about decorating is you can re-do it! Once we finally got everything unpacked I took time to figure out where I wanted everything. We don't have the means to buy expensive decorations, drapes, etc., but I wanted to make a nice, comfortable home with what we have. We used all the pictures, frames, etc. we already owned, and then added in some of the prints from designs I've made, as well as some new pillows I bought using some birthday money.

When we got married our sealer said that after our marriage we'd be given (though he said he'd give it to my mom since we were giddy newlyweds who would probably lose it) our marriage license, as well as a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and a picture of the Provo temple where we were married. He told us to keep all three in our room, to remind of the promises and covenants we made that day in the temple. We put two of the documents over our bed and the third on our dresser.

I made this display of our wedding invitation (s). It's a little crowded given the different events (dinners, sealing, reception, etc.) we had, but we love seeing it and remembering our wedding. 

The temple picture on the right is the one our sealer gave us. The K&T were from our wedding. The handmade frame in the middle on the dresser is something I made for Taylor when we were dating. 

This is the little hallway that connects to our bathroom (the bathroom has two entrances), and our walk-in (yes, it's my dream come true!) closet. Tay bought this cute Audrey Hepburn quote decoration so we put it where I can see it when I get dressed and ready for the day. 

Here's the display that we finally came up with.

We brought my sewing machine and table so we created a small little sewing/crafting area for me that I love: 

 

 I had some miscellaneous pictures I wanted to display but ran out of wall space and frames, so I spray-painted some clothes pins gold and hung it by some craft string held up by some gold-painted thumb-tacks. I felt like it fit the little craft area, but still tied into some of the gold accents on our collage wall.

The decor on top of our bookshelf: 

I love, love, love that we have a little dining room to eat in. We barely had any room for our table at our old apartment, so it's nice to have this space. I wanted to have our "fancier" stuff put there since it's our dining room, even if it's not really a fancy place. 

This is one of my favorite things that we own. It is a personalized, hand-written calligraphic copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Christmas of 2011 I was a dancer in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert, and I met Steve, the head of security there for the dancers and performers. His wife makes these calligraphy heirlooms, and they gave it to me and Taylor as a gift (I couldn't believe their generosity), and it was one of the most meaningful gifts we received for our wedding. In today's world where the definition of marriage is attempted to be re-defined. This document is very important to me and I want to always have it displayed to remind my family of the importance of marriage. 

Our little apartment isn't perfect, but it's full of pictures and memories that make us feel at home when we're miles from both of our homes. 

And Then We Moved

On August 1st we took care of a few last errands and hit the road! As I mentioned, we were really busy  up until that point, so I didn't have much time to be sad, though it was hard to say bye (for now) to my family. I said goodbye individually at different times to each family member since they all had jobs, girls camp, etc. going on, which I guess made things a little easier. I was luckily able to say bye to Madie (my friend of 17 years!) last minute as well. She was so cute and put together a little goodie bag and note. We somehow had forgotten to get any snacks for the road so it was the perfect little gift.

             

 We made a last trip to the cemetery to visit my dad's grave. It was hard knowing that I wouldn't be able to visit it any time I want like I could in Provo. 

It technically took three days of driving to get to our apartment in Houston. We had all of our stuff packed in a Penske moving truck, pulling our car on a trailer behind us. The moving trucks cap at about 67 MPH, although sometimes going downhill we would get up to 75MPH which made us feel like speed demons :). On the first day we drove from Provo to New Mexico where we visited and stayed at my aunt and uncle's house. We were so grateful they let us stay over. Their house is so comfortable and nice it was hard to leave the next morning. After getting some good rest and having a nice visit, the next morning we left and drove (very late) into the night to San Antonio, where my sister's in-laws were so kind and let us stay at their home. I can't tell you how nice it was to have a nice hot shower and comfy bed to sleep in after the second long day of traveling (though Taylor drove the whole way, somehow even just sitting in a moving truck all day wears you out!). The next morning we only had 3 hours more to drive to get to Houston which sounded like a breeze after driving 12+ hours the previous two days. I am so grateful that Taylor drove the entire trip! For a boy who grew up only ever driving an hour and half at the longest living on an island, he was such a champ. We drove with my cello in the moving truck to make sure it didn't get overheated, which made for an interesting third passenger up front :).

Day 1 of traveling:

Day 2 of traveling--the picture speaks for itself: 

These next two pictures are the first things I saw that said "Texas" on them. The gas station is the first place we stopped when I realized we were in the state we'd be living in for the next 3 years! 

Once we finally got into Houston we dropped off the trailer and I drove our car following Taylor as we got to our apartment. My heart was so nervous as we drove to where we would call home for the next little while. Our street is very industrial and full of random warehouses, so I was pretty nervous, but then I saw our place (shown below), and felt a little better. For having never seen our apartment before we were really blessed to find a nice place to live that actually looked like it did in the pictures advertised. There is good security, pest control, and cleanliness, which are all very good things to give peace of mind! 

We had gotten in touch with our new ward and asked for some help moving our big stuff in. We had hoped to get all our small stuff in before they came, but we showed up only a few minutes before they did because we were running late, so they ended up helping us move ALL of our stuff in. I was so grateful for the help of complete strangers because at that point we were exhausted. 

Our first night in our apartment was relaxing, yet exhausting because we were so tired from traveling and unpacking. We ordered pizza from a place the apartment management recommended. The pizza took over an hour to get there (it ended up being in a city not super close to us but we had no sense of direction at the time), but it gave us time to get cleaned up and at least get our bed set up so we had somewhere to sleep. The pizza finally came and we had ordered salads with our pizza but we couldn't find any forks! We ended up using fondue skewers, which was interesting but we didn't care. We spent the next few days (and weeks) getting settled in our apartment. We really love our apartment, especially all the extra storage space that we didn't have in our old one! 

Perfect.

This is part of the waiting area at a restaurant we went to. So cute!

The title of this post was inspired by this. I'm in Austin, TX right now visiting my older sister Nicole and her husband Glen. My little sister Andrea came with me to visit them too. Anyway, while I've been here I've become obsessed with the new TV show "The Voice". I LOVE it. Now that the judges have all their teams picked, they are having pairs within their teams compete against each other while singing a duet. I LOVE this version of "Perfect" by Niki Dawson and Vicci Martinez, who are on Ce Lo's team. I love this version because the two girls sing with so much conviction and feeling.


This week has been so much fun. It was perfect timing to come out here when I did. I really needed a break from life. Andrea and I flew in on Wednesday afternoon. We spent most the day lounging around while Nicole was at work and Glen was studying for his last final of the semester for law school. On Thursday Nicole was again off to work and Glen was studying again....Andrea and I woke up to a GIANT storm. I've heard of these southern storms, but never experienced one. Because of the weather we stayed inside all day and I started a project I'd bought stuff for the night before. Here's what I made:

On Friday Andrea and I laid out by the pool and got some sun. That night we went to some old antique shops and went to dinner at a delicious place called Homeslice Pizza. SO good. We spent Saturday shopping all day (loved!!!), went to a wedding reception, and then went to dinner, surrounded by live country music, cowboy boots, and beer. Haha :) It was great. I really love it here! It's been fun to see new things and be with my family. Nicole and I did NOT get along growing up...but as we've grown older we've gotten along much better and I really look up to her. She's been in my shoes before as far as where I'm at in life right now, so it's nice to have someone who can relate to me. She's also recently mastered many domestic skills, which has given us a LOT more to have in common because I've always been really girly and have always loved baking, sewing, clothes, etc. If you would like to see fun pictures of these fun adventures, go look here :).

If you haven't gone to look at that song link that I posted at the top yet, go do it :). I hope you love it as much as I do. I love the message of the song, too. There are many, many times when I feel totally inadequate, so it's nice to have a reminder that I'm not (as cheesy as it may sound that I listen to songs to feel motivated and inspired, it's sometimes true). Recent events have sometimes tempted me with thoughts of self-doubt, given me insecurities, and have sometimes made me feel like I have too many imperfections to even be on a road towards perfection. However, I know that that's not true. I, as well as all of you, are just filled with perfect potential. I know this because we are creations of our Heavenly Father, which is perfect in and of itself. So I see us all as perfect creations with the potential to become perfect human beings. This is my hopeful inspirational thought for this post. And that's all.