Do you really want to know?

I've noticed that different seasons of life attract certain questions from friends, family and acquaintances. For example, every time I was about to finish an internship or school, everyone would ask me what I was doing next. Most of the time I felt ill-equipped to answer due to the fact that I was asking myself that very same question. During engagement, everyone seemed to ask one of two questions, how is wedding planning going or are you nervous yet. I usually summed that one up in a short phrase of "Hard but good and, no." Now that Jake and I have made this major move to Pennsylvania I've observed a new favorite question (seriously, do people plan ahead of time to ask the same questions or is everyone dying to know??) "How are you settling in?" Hmmm... I haven't figured out how to answer that one. Ever since living in Europe where people ask questions because they actually really want to know the answer, it takes me much longer to reply. In America, when we say "how are you," most of the time, we don't really mean it. It's almost like a way of greeting someone. We don't actually want to know how they are. I didn't know this about us Americans until I left and found out how rude that can seem to people who aren't accustomed to using the reply we want to hear ( "I'm good, how about you?"). Settling in? Good question! Since I know most of the curious questioners are looking for a short reply, I haven't really thought about it. We have new routines, sleeping schedules, friends, hang out spots, jobs, apartment, and even cultures. Now, some of those things aren't totally new to me since I grew up in this area, but it is totally new to Jake and very new for me as a married lady. But, I think it's safe to say that we are settling in. One thing that has helped for me is to have our apartment change from bare and dull to colorful and unique. I feel relaxed and inspired when I'm there. Every little detail we add, whether it be small like a home made banner, or big like a new love seat, it feels more like home. It's fun going through this process with Jake. I have the privilege of partnering with an extremely creative and artistic husband in making some of these dreams a reality. Here's a few pics of some small projects:

Inspired by Valentine's day I made this simple banner a couple weeks ago.

And with our friend Jadah staying with us, I did my best to decorate our tiny spare room for her arrival. I figured you can't go wrong with burlap flags and tissue paper flowers. :)

I bought this zig zaggy towel at Target and had my mom do her special treatment to it. She likes giving these oven-towel attachments as house warming gifts, but I must say, I think this is the boldest one she's ever made. I love it!

Also, this past weekend we drove about an hour away to visit Ikea, Urban Outfitters, and Trader Joes. It was time well spent, but sadly we won't do that trip too often. We forgot how much we loved TJs!

Here's my handy-man husband putting our new loveseat from Ikea together.

And here it is in all it's purple magnificence! Yep, it's my favorite place in the whole apartment. The green pillow I had been wanting from Urban for a few years now and the lamp was also an Ikea find. Now, we just need to host people! We want to have lots of people over but I keep putting it off until the apartment feels more "done." I decided once I hang a few pictures on the wall, it will be complete enough. So come on over!!