The Happy Homemaker?

I'm going to confess that a month ago I was guilty of being discontent. I was tired of being cooped up in our apartment, I wanted to move forwards, move on, and move out. We dove headfirst into house hunting only to realize...

... it wasn't time for us to move out yet. There just wasn't a house in our budget in a good location that had a non-creepy/moldy basement. We needed to stay put. 

As hard as that decision was to make, as soon as it was made Nathan and I were both filled with a sense of peace. Looking at all those houses had made us realized how blessed we were to have our apartment in our location at the price we have. With the help of my mom and sister, I started brainstorming some ways I could better maximize our living space and make it a prettier, more restful place to live. Somewhere along the way, I rediscovered my love of homemaking and found new energy to pour love into this apartment.

Due to being sick for so long, I amassed quite the entertainment library. The problem is... where do you keep all those DVDs? My mother suggested putting up some shelves over the TV area, and after rolling the idea around in my head, I asked Nathan to make us some narrow shelves. With a few cheap boards and brackets, and some paint we already had, we put up these shelves for about $12. I feel like our collection looks so much classier now, and it frees up the floor space for books and displays, like that ship Nathan found at a thrift store once upon a time!

I've been trying to pay attention to little details as well. My friend Vicki gave us these cute measuring spoons as a wedding gift, and they really brightened up a corner of the china hutch when I put up some hanging nails for them.

I've also been encouraged to practice hospitality again, and created this tea caddy so we always have an easy way to present a good selection of tea for our guests.

One of the most annoying things about our apartment was the sliding double closet doors. The way they were made, it was impossible to have access to more than half of the closet at a time. This made it really hard to maximize space and view things easily. Finally we talked to the management and they agreed to take the doors out. I am currently making some simple muslin curtains to hide the closets away. It is so much easier to access everything, and the light muslin is so pretty and peaceful! I got the fabric for about $1.19 a yard on sale at JoAnn's, and we found the best prices on tension rods at Menards.

With the doors removed, we took the two bottom shelves out of one closet and put the laundry hamper in the space, which freed up some much needed walkway in the bedroom!

My sister came over and helped by forcing me to finally sort through some boxes of my stuff that had been laying around since I moved in. We also just plain tidied up. Moving the Lego display cabinet to a new location added more character and definition to the living room. I love it!

This shelf had basically been the home of anything we didn't have a place for until my sister sat down and sorted it out. I brought her everything I wanted to display and she stacked and organized it beautifully. Now this bookshelf is something that brings me happiness and a sense of beauty every time I look at it.

This was the bookshelf my DVDs were on. We decided to move the shelves around, add some hooks, paint it and turn it into...

 ...an entry hutch! We already had the brown baskets which fit perfectly on the top, and I made some simple canvas mats for the shoe shelves.

 The little mirror was something we picked up at a church sale for $.50!

With our former entry way on the other side of the door now cleared out, we moved my desk out of the sewing room (freeing up a TON of space) and put it in the opening. My sister painted a formerly gold lamp silver, and I painted the shade teal and added some beads and it immediately tied into the living room decor. Then we finally hung up the last of our wedding pictures and clock.

Here's another wedding gift I hung up in the hallway. I absolutely adore Willow Creek figurines. They're so peaceful and rustic and romantic!

I'm still working on organizing and cleaning the craft room, but my goal is to make every space in our apartment cute and tidy, right down to the little shelf by the craft room door.

And I may not be able to fulfill my dream of a garden completely, but I've renewed my efforts to cultivate my window garden and my basil, cilantro, oregano and green onions are growing very nicely! (Alas, I had to give up on the tomato plant and handed it over to my mother to plant in her outdoor garden).

I feel so much happier and settled and I really regret the discontent I allowed to grow last month. God has given us a really good place here, I just was too tired and impatient to see it.