Walls

Mario and I are really enjoying our new place! It's one of those places that we just like to hang out at. Which means we have become homebodies. Don't worry we are not complete shut ins...we just like our new digs a lot. Mario works all hours of the day and night, so I think he just likes to be out of work some times. I'm sure that makes home popular by default. I, on the other hand, am just a dork who enjoys spending time at home doing random crap, working and hanging out. I have always been a homebody. I just happen to enjoy this home a bit more! More space, better energy, better neighborhood. What's not to love!

One of the things we didn't do at our last place was make it totally ours. From the moment we moved in, we always knew it was temporary. It was small and we figured we'd only be there for a short while. So, we never really put a lot up on our walls. I was a photographer with no photos up. Mario was an artist with no art up. Why put stuff on the walls, we'll be moving soon enough. Five years later, we still didn't have much up.

We decided this apartment would be different. We were going to put shit on the walls, even if it meant that we were moving in a month! Of course we are not moving in a month. The point is, we need to make it ours and really enjoy it. Yes, it is still a temporary place for us. We will likely live here until we buy a house...how ever long that takes. We just need to make it exactly how we want it now. Which means that things went up on the walls before we even had our couch in place.

Here are my favorites so far...

This is in the dining room. I have had the little woven plate and bowl in storage since I met Mario. Mom, Lindsay and I each made some when we were in Maui. I put them up with Mario's little coo coo clocks that I'm in love with. It's random but I just love it!

This little set up is just inside the front door. I had seen an expensive version on Pintrest, and decided I could do something similar with what we had. The basket we had, the artwork was done by my grandmother's brother of a building in Germany and the broom is my ride. The rest is Ikea. I think some more will go on that wall. I have a quote I want to put up still, but I love the start!

This is in our hallway. It's just a happy random grouping of strange shit. It started with Mario walking around the apartment trying to find a place to hang the boxes...to Mario realizing that he could use the boxes cover up the eyesore of a thermostat in the hallway. I think I love this the most. Yes it covers the thermostat (points to those of you that can find it) but it has all these important little doo-dads on it. Cameras that my dad and I bought, my first shoes that my mom finally gave to me, The elephant from the first time Mars and I went to the LA zoo, a piece of Mario's dad's violin and his metronome, a train whistle Mario bought be for my birthday at Travel Town, a couple of turtles my dad collected, a few trinkets from Mario's sister and a photo of my sister. It's been fun seeing the transformation of it. It started out completely different and has changed and rearranged into this random fun area in our hallway.

It makes me happy to have stuff on the walls. It makes it ours. There is still a big wall in the hallway, the dining room, the living room and some bedroom wall space to work on, but we are already ahead of the game compared to our last apartment. We are determined to make it a place we love to look at and be in. After the last apartment, I think we tried the best we could to make it ours, but I don't think we ever could after a certain point. A small part of that was artwork, but most of that was loosing the feeling of safety. This time we make it ours from the beginning.

Once the girls went up on the wall, we knew it was home!