erika weekend! or, what the fuck is a norva

the ideal thing to do is probably drop everything and drive four and a half hours to northern virginia so you can spend the weekend with your college roommate and her husband.  highlights included everything: babysitting a toddler, watching penelope, going to the dog park, drinking lime-a-ritas, getting dinner and drinks at madigan's, visiting the humane society, shopping at national harbor.  perfect, perfect.  we fell a little lot bit in love with an american bulldog named kimbo who was the biggest saddest sweetheart ever.  he would lean up against the fence so he could be petted through the chain link.  i was THISCLOSE to taking him home, but ya know, speedy decisions, long distances, another dog on my want-to-adopt list, yikes.  the baby learned to say our names (or close enough anyway) and he was this perfect little angel boy until his siblings got home.  we ate sandwiches like we'd never had one before - the one at potbelly's was to die for, and i splurged calorically and besides the sub i got sour cream and onion chips AND an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie AND a frozen raspberry lemonade.  yolo, am i right?

anyway.  point is, i am so incredibly lucky to have this girl (and dude, what's up daniel!) who opens up her home for me and plans the best possible weekend after finding out i'm coming just a day in advance.  appalachian state was a wonderful place to go to college for so many reasons, but i think the most valuable thing that came out of it was the friends i made, and erika is top notch, one of the best.

moving: the before

yes, i have mentioned moving a bajillion times (and have thought about it a bajillion more times).  and monday, it happened!  a crew got together and schlepped all my things from one house to another house .8 miles down the road.  i'm head over heels excited to organize and decorate.  i planned to do a before and after post, but i'm going to jump the gun and go ahead and post the befores.

 

the living room!  i adore the natural light and plan to play it up with white curtains.  also, the hardwood floors are totally swoon-worthy.  i'm thinking of getting a little bistro set to put under the window, since i almost never have more than one person over for dinner at a time, but i'm not sure if that would be adorable and cafe-like, or just "why do you have patio furniture in your living room."  i'll figure something out.

 

the kitchen is the room i was most apprehensive about, but it's proved itself not too bad.  it's still tiiiiny, and almost all of the storage space is shelving, so everything - all the food and dishes - are out in the open and have to look pretty, which heck, may help me keep it cleaner.  i've actually unpacked most of the kitchen stuff (priorities, amiright?) and it looks a lot better already.  note to self: buy stove burner pans, they are the easiest/cheapest/only (??) way to makeover an oven.

 

the bathroom turned out to be my actual least favorite room, good job kitchen.  it also has next to no storage, just a couple of shelves and the medicine cabinet (discovered this morning).  the wooden toilet seat also kinda weird me out.  the worst part is that it's an older bathroom, so it has mildew where i don't want mildew (aka anywhere), so imma attack it with bleach before i do anything else.  the unexpected bonus is that when i shower at night, i can see the power plant through the trees, and it makes me feel like i'm in the iron giant.

 

the pink walls in the bedroom were initially a big whoa ew, but i think they're growing on me.  the lighting is wonderful, the floors are wonderful, the door that leads to the porch is wonderful.  the walls are going to be covered with art hopefully (my dance project girl with the wild magazine hair needs a home).  my bed is in it, and i like to be in my bed, so making this room an ideal place to be is a priority.

best for last - the screened in porch.  the problem with porches is that i'm an idiot and forget to use them, but with this one being right off the bedroom and all, i foresee a good number of cocktails being consumed out here.  my only plans right now are to throw up fairy lights everywhere and put some sort of chair or bench against the wall - there isn't room for much more than that.  but i think it'll be totally lovely.

the excitement doesn't end here - i have a whole lot of boxes to unpack and a long list of things to add to my little forest cottage to make it as charming as i can.  hopefully that'll all happen soon soon soon, and then there will be photos aplenty.