Happy to be (mostly) passed the “unpacking” stage and on to decorating. Here are some glimpses at how the apartment is coming together…

After living in Seattle for a few weeks without our furniture and belongings, everything finally arrived and we are slowly getting unpacked.

I’m sure it will take us a few more months to have the apartment completely organized and decorated, but I feel so much calmer coming home from work to a somewhat clean house. (And I’m enjoying cooking and baking again…we’ll see how long that lasts.) It’s a big sigh of relief to have the move over with. Ben and I are both loving our new jobs, walking to work every day, and settling into a new routine.

We arrived safe and sound (and very tired) in Seattle after our long flight across the country. We had a beautiful and uneventful flight with gorgeous mountain views. I can’t tell you how excited we are to be here. It feels like vacation and we’ve just been exploring and settling in as best we can.

I had the best time showing Ben the apartment since he hadn’t seen it yet. We have some fun features at our new place like a rooftop garden for us to pick and eat fresh veggies, a nice fitness center, and a community craft room. And we have a red accent wall in our space, which is so fresh and cheery after three years with boring white walls.

Our furniture is still in transit, so we slept on sleeping bags for our first night. However, today we got a queen size air mattress, blanket, folding table and chairs, a crock pot, a french press, and a hot pot from people we just met. How nice is this city!?

We found an amazing waterfront park just a short walk away from our apartment. I’m sure when the rain comes back around we won’t visit quite as often but it is the perfect place to walk around on a bright sunny afternoon.

Today I wore tights with leggings on top and wool socks. Even on the coldest days in Greenville I was just hurrying from the apartment to the car to work and back to the car so I never had to worry about that too much. I love all the walking we’ve already done on each day but I will certainly need to keep bundled up and get lots of sturdy shoes.

The above shows the view from our apartment window at a few different stages of weather. In the morning the Space Needle was completely covered in fog as if it wasn’t even there. It was great to see the sun come out and the skies turn blue on the second day we were here. It might be awhile before we get that kind of cheerful weather again.

Hello from Seattle…

My pinterest continues to fill up with ideas for what I now know I should describe as “happy modern” decor. I can’t wait to actually use our furniture and artwork and books and make the apartment feel like our home. (Side note—we are leaving way too many books behind :/ but I understand they take up lots of space and I’ve come to terms with this.)

Have I mentioned we might be camping out in the apartment as long as three weeks waiting for our stuff to arrive? Three cheers for cross-country moves!

Source: houzz.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

Source: amazon.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

As for the above tray, we aren’t sure yet if we’ll get a tiny table-for-two or come up with an alternative for eating our meals, like sitting on the couch with trays. To be honest most meals here in South Carolina are spent crouching by the coffee table and we use the kitchen table as a catch-all for junk mail. So we can leave that habit behind. But we also only eat dinner together on the weekends because of Ben’s current work schedule, and a fun new change in Seattle will be that he won’t work late, so maybe we’ll want a table for dinner after all. Any thoughts?

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A week from today all of our belongings will be on the way to Seattle.

Speaking of belongings, I have a lot. And I’m a little too attached to it all.

I always imagined my home being filled with things I love—and there is certainly room for sentimentality in a home. But I take it a little overboard.

Ben and I have been fighting (friendly) battles where he gingerly starts a conversation with “are you sure we need to take that to Seattle?” and I come up with a *brilliant* reason why yes, even though we haven’t used it in three years, I will need it in Seattle. Because I have a really hard time letting go of stuff.

One decent solution I’ve found is taking things back to my old bedroom at my dad’s house. I’m glad for now I live close enough to do that, and he doesn’t seem to mind too much. Maybe I can deal with things more rationally after some time and space has separated me. (For those who are parents of grown kids—I’m sorry we never really move out. You know we won’t ever go through those last few boxes of Barbie dolls and school awards in your attic.) The things in my old closet can maybe come join Ben and me later, when I have that house with a study and a couple extra bedrooms and a craft room and a laundry room. Oh, and why not a little yard for a puppy, with a white picket fence? Ok…ok. I will take my tiny one bedroom apartment in the middle of the city, with an amazing view of the Space Needle. I really adore it and I know we’ll be happy there, even if it means no puppy and endless trips to Goodwill!

Despite all my good intentions, we still have a lot of stuff. And next week it will be getting on a moving truck so I can make a new home in a new place, filled with things we truly love and cherish.

I’ve been scouring the internet recently searching for tips on decorating small spaces, design ideas, and organization/storage solutions for our new apartment in Seattle.

We have a small streamlined space with very modern lines throughout, and large windows with a lovely view along one wall in our living room. It will be light-filled even on the gloomiest Seattle days. The apartment has a very urban feel, and I think a neutral color palette with a few pops of color and an array of cozy textures will best serve the space.

Here are a few favorites I’ve come across…