A Few Decorating Updates

A month before we move, I've finally finished decorating our apartment. 

We added Maggie's shadowbox to the mantel but then things were feeling just too white, so I picked up some fun yellow candles at Target. My decorating mantra is when in doubt, go with yellow!

We have three shadowboxes, one with wedding mementos and one for each girl filled with baby memorabilia like their ultrasound photos, hospital bracelet, baptism candle and such.

In the living room, we also added a new canvas to our family photo wall. We've got one for each year of marriage so far. I have dreams of decades of these displayed in the dining room or something one day.

The hallway art gallery got a few updates as well.

We added a couple favorite photos of the girls. Claire's is from a free photo shoot we lucked into right before she became a big sister and Maggie's is one of those hospital newborn pictures.





Then I just re-did some sentimental art to reflect the addition of Maggie to the family.



Lastly, my sister made another little sign, to coordinate with Claire's, that we hung near the entrance to the nursery. It's technically supposed to be a shared room, but Maggie has never slept in there!

Apartment Tour

I know I've subjected you guys to a lot of apartment pictures recently, but for posterity I wanted to compile them all into one post. The place has come a long way since I first shared pictures right around this time last year. The only change we've made recently is purchasing a new desk chair {on clearance at Target} and now I'd say things are 95% complete. I just have some art updates I'd like to do once Maggie arrives. But that gives us plenty of time to simply enjoy where we live until we hopefully move to a bigger place next summer and start all over!

Living Room. 

Dining Room.









Kitchen.

Hallway.







Bathroom.











Nursery.

















Master Bedroom.









Also for posterity's sake, I made another little home tour video. There's a surprise Claire appearance at the end, but my phone ran out of space before I could get most of the nursery in there. Anyway, enjoy!

Kitchen Organizing

This is our kitchen. It's kind of an awkward space, with all the angles, but it works. 

The door next to the refrigerator goes to the laundry room. On top of the fridge, we store our cake stand, fondue pots, and a beverage dispenser. In front of all that, there are two canvas bins - one for cleaning supplies and another for random household items like extra laundry soap, tissues, and a lighter.

The freezer is jam-packed with meals at the moment. 

While the fridge is way emptier than usual. All these extra prenatal appointments have thrown off my usual grocery shopping routine!

On the counter between the refrigerator and the stove, we keep the stand mixer, a kitchen radio, and two utensil crocks. The turquoise flour and sugar canisters {from an antique store} actually hold tea-making supplies. 

In the upper cabinet, we keep all of our dishware. 

One of the drawers below is devoted to cutlery. The other stores potholders and more utensils. 

On the left side of the lower cabinet, we keep all pots and pans, as well as our colander and vegetable steamer. The top shelf of the right side of the cabinet holds baking sheets, pizza pans, cooling racks, Corningware, muffin tins, and all the lids to the Pyrex bakeware. The bottom shelf on the right holds cutting boards and Pyrex stuff {which is all currently in the freezer.}

On the awkward counter between the stove and the sink, we keep the knife block, spice rack, and electric can opener.

The cabinet above the microwave isn't that useful because it's really just there to disguise the vent. So, it's become our junk drawer of sorts, where we throw random things like ice cube trays and popsicle molds.

The other set of upper cabinets is kind of hard to reach, especially when you're nine months pregnant. We keep cake pans, pie plates, mixing bowls, measuring cups/spoons, and the cheese grater in here.

On the counter by the sink, we keep the paper towel holder, a serving bowl that doubles as a fruit bowl, another serving bowl holding cloth napkins, and the toaster. 

 We keep cleaning rags, the iron, and the hand-vac under the sink. The rarely-used compost bin also hangs out under here. It's hard to muster the enthusiasm for composting when you live in an apartment and don't actually get to use the compost in your garden, you know?

We keep dishcloths and dishtowels in the first two drawers between the sink and the dishwasher.

And we keep food storage containers in the bottom two drawers.

I've gotten really bad at updating our little weekly menu chalkboard. Probably goes hand-in-hand with the whole never grocery shopping thing?

We've been really lucky to have a pantry in both of our apartments. I know, I know, we have a lot of storage containers in here. But once you get weevils, you never go back. We keep appliances on the top shelf, cans on the bottom, and a recycling bin on the floor. Don't worry, there's plenty of processed food sneakily hiding behind all the pretty containers!

And that's a wrap! Here's the living and dining area, the balcony, the laundry room and hallway, the bathroom, the nursery, and the master bedroom.