welcoming august

the last couple weeks of july flew by for bryan and i. we spent almost all of our free time packing, moving into my parents garage for a week, cleaning, packing, more packing, more cleaning, then finally moving into our new one-bedroom apartment.

we are so thankful to joel for helping us move some of our stuff into my parents garage, and so thankful for my family helping us move into our apartment. we were able to completely move everything in on friday night, giving us the whole weekend to unpack. we got a lot unpacked, but it's far from complete. here are some progressive pictures from this past weekend:

some goals for august:

• maybe you remember and maybe you don't, august is welcoming month. i have a few more ideas to add to the list:
  
  • baking treats for my neighbors and letting them know that if they ever need a cup of sugar, they can knock on #9. also, if i see a neighbor, i'm going to actually talk to them, instead of looking down and half-running to my door
    
  • using my home as the meet-up spot. often i found myself wanting to meet-up anywhere but my home, but i want it to be easily accessible and a welcoming place
  • formulating a list and a plan to make our apartment, our home (i.e. decorating, furniture, organizing, etc)
  • spending more time with people then i "feel" like
  • being purposeful in my time with other people
  • having lots of snacks around so that when people do come over, i'm always prepared
    
• a major goal in august is to begin to put together our apartment. i know my mom was a huge influence in this, but i need to have "a place for everything and everything in it's place." i was seriously starting to go crazy in our disheveled apartment-and we only lived there for two months! i'm so excited to buy exact furniture, compartments, shelves, etc for each and every knick knack we have in our house. and i love that we plan on living in this apartment for 2-3 years-i won't feel bad about making it my own.
  
• sell, give away or donate EVERYTHING we don't have space or need for. i'll probably post something on here about the things we want to get rid of, and i'll also post on craigslist and amazon. but if anyone is looking for a quality loveseat or a tv with a receiver and speakers-let us know!
• work on a few D.I.Y projects. on the list right now are:
  
  • homemade pitas
  • homemade pizza crust
  • curtains
  • recovering a computer chair
  • pillow covers
    
• start putting together my home management notebook. i'll post more on this later!
  

hopefully those goals will meet their completion before the end of this month. but i have a feeling august is going to go really fast!