It's coming together

Our little house is finally starting to feel like a home. I spent much of Eric's week away getting things done around here and making it feel like our own. I have always wanted a beautiful home, as well as a peaceful home. It's a big goal of mine to have somewhere I am able to invite people to spend time, and most importantly where people are comfortable spending time. I want my home to be a refuge from the world, and a place where people know they are loved and appreciated - everyone from our family to friends, and our kids to friends of our kids someday. Now, I do realise that decorations are not what makes a house a home in the way I just described, but I have been trying to make it our own place and to make the space organized and usable. Those things do matter I think. It's hard to feel comfortable at peace in a messy and/or dirty home. Getting projects done and photos on the wall is a start.
I am so so excited to present my favourite project - which I am not allowed to call our baby anymore.  I saw this on Pinterest of course, and instantly needed to have it in my house. It has taken it's sweet time (from Home Depot to our shed, to our living room, to my in-laws place and back again, and up in the wall in three shifts), but it is finally coming together and I could not be happier with it.

One of Eric's friends was over and paid the best compliment I could have asked for with our new projects coming together. He said our home made him feel like he wanted to sit down and read a book, kind of like a Chapters. Now I know that seems a bit silly, but I love Chapters. It is where I go when I need an instant shot of creative inspiration and brain stimulation. That's kind of the idea I am going for. I want it to be cozy and warm and soft and comfortable - I want you to feel like you want to read a book when you come to our home. Thanks Jordan!

The Start of a New Year

As I mentioned before, September is usually the unofficial start of a new year for Eric and I (as opposed to the traditional January 1st). Well today we made it official. This was a great last weekend of the summer, and we finished off by spending and afternoon in the park, setting goals and resolutions for this year. We each set physical, spiritual, financial and educational goals. Then we came together and set one of each for our family unit. We had some really great talks and it was a lot of fun. A great way to end the summer, and kick start this new and exciting season and time.
Eric took me to a place I've never been, here in Calgary. It was the Calgary Olympic Plaza downtown. Calgary hosted the winter Olympics in 1988, so there are lots of neat little monuments and plaques down there, as well as a great view of the Calgary tower, and a cute little fountain.

It also happened to be right off of one of my favourite streets/spots in Calgary. Stephen Ave. (starts out as Eighth Ave.) is almost all walking street, and it is lined with really nice restuarants and a couple of shops. If you're looking for somewhere to eat, that isn't Jack Astor's or something lame, Stephen's is a good spot to check. In fact, Eric and I accidently bumped into a spot I've wanted to show him for a over a year. I was taken on a date here once, a really long time ago, and want to share it with Eric now. It's really good and interesting food, and I knew it was in the bottom of a hotel, but that's all I knew. I found it though, and we will go there soon.

September

Can you believe that September is two days away already? It actually blows my mind. I always consider September to be the beginning of the year for Eric and me. I actually don't understand how to start a new year in January, I think it's just absurd. Okay, not that intense, but it makes so much more sense to get ourselves organized and ready to go for September. Goals in mind, life sorted out. At least while we're students.
So with September and the school year fast approaching, I've decided to spend some time trying to make Eric and I organize our lives. There are about a million organization blogs out there, and about a trillion free printables, but there is always something that needs tweaking for each individual person or family. These are some of the things I've come up with to organize Eric and I together, and hopefully separately as well.
One thing I really want us to do is make and follow a budget. Eric is really good with money, and has taught me many things. Together I think we are good with what we spend and what we save, especially with rent and food not being an issue for us right now, that makes it easier to save. But I just like the idea of both of us knowing exactly where everything goes and what we get with our money.

I also really want us to set and work on goals. With this being the start of our new year I decided to call them resolutions. I hope that we will set these resolutions at the beginning of September and be working on at least one of them each week. We have personal individual goals, and we have family goals. Just like we have personal individual schedules, and we have family schedules.

I also want us to develop better relationships with our families and friends. Eric and I have been, as you know, very transient since we got married. Even I alone have been all over the place for about 4 years now (crazy). It's hard for us to make and keep up good friendships when we're never around, always changing our phone numbers, and awful awful at using Facebook (which seems to be how everyone else does it). So I came up with these two to help us remember important people on their important days, and to keep in contact with people we love.

 

Yesterday I got out and found a binder and some dividers and a few other little things that I think will help us to accomplish these things. Ultimately I just want Eric and I to feel settled. This is hopefully the end of our traveling lives, although don't get me wrong I've enjoyed every adventure we've shared. It will be so nice to soon move into an apartment where we can sign a lease, and not live month to month. It will be nice to have an address and a phone number, aside from our parents', that we can hand out to people and let them get a hold of us. It will be nice to finally get out own furniture and our own set of dinnerware, in a home where we can hang our own pictures (of ourselves) on the walls. I can't wait for Eric and I to get our first home together, and when we do, I want it to feel organized and peaceful and lovely, a place where we really do want to stay.
I love September and am excited for it to finally be on our doorstep. Fall is my favourite season, and it always brings into our lives a certain freshness that I just don't feel as keenly on January 1st. This September is going to be a good one for Eric and I, and so will this year.