a new place to call home

Thanks for all the comments regarding my hair. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but as it is a big change for me the encouragement and words of approval mean a lot to me! :)

Now for some pictures of our new apartment. There are obviously still a few things that need to happen, but for right now we are feeling quite settled.

When you open the door, we will greet you like this:

Just kidding...but for now, I will be your tour guide:

Looking out our balcony. We would still like to get some small, patio furniture to put out here, and I would really like to get a couple hanging ferns:

Our little office space in the corner of our living room, with a desk my Grandpa made me when we moved to the new house my sophomore year of high school. My Grandma refinished the vanity seat:

If you didn't notice, here is my wedding boquet, revamped for its new function! Cheap flowers that never die...BRILLIANT! [also note the postcard from NW..."all country roads lead home!"]

The canvases I painted for my apartment at college fill up this wall in our living room nicely, and the old army trunk that I found at a garage sale for $5 not only provides a nice tv stand, but it also helps with extra storage!

This is when you first step into our apartment. The "office" is in the far left, as is the balcony.

This was our project today: yesterday we did our final take backs and gift cards from the wedding. We purchased these cubes and awesome picture frame with our remaining gift cards [the frame was marked WAY down...a steal!]. Brent was enjoying some cereal after his Sunday nap...I think I caught him off guard:

Brent had the idea to print 4 X6s of a picture to fill out the frame and look like one giant photo. It took a little while figuring out the measurements etc, but we are really pleased with the way it turned out:
Here is a closer shot of the masterpiece, with a huge glare, sorry:
Here is more "art" in our living room/dining room. These beautiful, old plates are from a wonderful woman at my church. The note framed in the middle explains where they came from [her great aunt]. They are very special to me. Now we will venture to the dining room [can you find Waldo in this picture?]. Oh, and the beautiful and comfy and washable throw pillows on the couch were made by my very talented Grandma as well:

Here is our BEAUTIFUL table that my grandparents purchased at an antique store and refinished for us. It even has a leaf that folds out, and could easy fit 6 around it [come on over!]:

Isn't the table wonderful?

Looking back towards the living room from the "dining room." There is also a great walk in closet to the left that holds ALL of our storage, what a blessing.

I wanted a big mirror for this wall, but didn't quite have the budget, so I created this look with smaller mirrors and black frames, some empty, some with b&w photos.

Turn left and welcome to our kitchen:

We have more counter space then I thought we would, a garbage disposal, and a dishwasher. Not too bad for a first apartment.

I added this "window mirror" above the sink, as the kitchen tends to close in a little bit since there are no windows and not too much light.

We found the framed scripture [fruits of the spirit], on the clearance rack at BB&B for 5 dollars, since the glass was missing. I used the colors in it to determine the rest of the kitchen.

This corner cabinet is great! It holds a lot and made a HUGE difference when it came to finding places for everything... and it's very convenient!

Now let's go down the hallway [first door on left is another closet!] The second door is our bedroom, straight ahead is the laundry room [yep!! you heard me right], and hang a right at the end and that's our bathroom:

Our bedroom, complete with an entire bedroom outfit from Brent's grandparents, that my grandparents refinished beautifully [yet again!]. I didn't have any canvases that matched so I painted these shortly after our move. I also had this "coffee table" [at the foot of the bed], that was an olive green color, so I sanded it and painted it black to match the rest of the furniture. It serves as a nice bench where we can put our shoes on:

More closets! One for both of us:

We wanted to keep the well wishes from family and friends nearby, so it found its home here:

Another shot of the "new" bedroom outfit, complete with new hardware:

Don't worry, Brent doens't have two guitars, we moved it to the other spot shortly after taking this photo. I still would like to get curtains up in here. Next on my list:

This is how Brent sleeps [Dad, he wanted me to take this one for you]:

Our laundry room! Still need to get a shelf up in here as well, but this is wonderful to have right in our apartment:

Our new vacuum!! [You're allowed to get excited about small things when you just get married :)] We also found this on the clearance rack at BB&B, simply because the box was damaged! It was half-off!! It makes it a little more fun to vacuum :)

Now here we are in the bathroom. This over the stool shelving unit was a great addition, and helped me "spice up" the bathroom a little. I wish there wasn't wallpaper in here, but at least it's a bearable pattern:

We even found a shower curtain that matched our bedding [I liked to think of a future "master suite" that would have a consistent pattern :) Dream big, right?]

We found this Bible commentary at a used book store, and I thought the bathroom was a fun place to display it! The little photo is from a children's dictionary I found at a thrift store. It says "splash" and uses the word in a sentence :) . I also have "bath" on the second shelf! [By the way Dad, I know the root beer at The Battle of Lexington was expensive and you and mom never wanted to buy it for us, but I'm glad Grandpa gave in because I have kept this bottle all these years!!]

Here I thought it would be funny to frame a little piece of one of the wedding cards we received. It's obviously hanging above...what else...our towels!
Well, that's all for the tour. Know any of you are always welcome to come kick your feet up with us :) [to watch sport's center, apparently].