new {to me}

Our Thanksgiving break was exciting for more than just the friends, family and food this year.  As I shared earlier, we're working making our apartment feel more like a home by working through the Apartment Therapy eight-week cure.  So far, we've done quite a bit of cleaning  - including deep cleaning the kitchen the day after Thanksgiving!  So worth it.  And much better when you do it with someone you love.

We've also been working on developing our style.  The trouble here is that Grady and I would choose to have very different interiors if left on our own with plenty of cash.  Now, neither of the above are true, so we have some work to do.  We visited quite a few 'home' stores this weekend as well so that we could see and sit in sample rooms and discuss what we did and didn't like about them (and Pottery Barn gave us their book of color swatches, which is so useful!).

While we were busy deep-cleaning the kitchen on Friday, apparently other people in Chicago were busy shopping for furniture.  And one of those people had this old couch that they needed gone quickly ... so they gave it away for free!  (I have a new-found love of craigslist).  So we gladly welcomed to our house this new {to us} piece that we actually both like!

Yes, it's white.  It's also totally slip-covered.  And it's also super comfy.

The couch caused a total reorganization of the living room and some great inspiration as to a suitable floor plan.  Now we will just troll craigslist until we find the other pieces we're hoping for.  A desk also came for free with the couch and we picked up another bookshelf the next day ... but those are still in progress {no pictures yet}.

One last thing!!  My wonderful husband has been on the look-out for a good bike for me.  He is a biker {think long ride on country roads in spandex not loud rides on the highway in leather} and wants to share his love of biking with me.  I accept it because I love him and because I need to get in shape.  This weekend he surprised me with this lovely bike that someone was getting rid of! 

Now I have no excuse for not exercising.  It doesn't get much easier than just setting up in your living room.  And so begin the dreams of summer and where we will ride together and what we will see and do as we pedal along.  But until the warmth returns, I'll work on riding for more than 5 minutes at a time - funny?  yes.  true?  yes.

Before I leave off with, "oh the cleverness of me!" I want to acknowledge that we did almost nothing to get all of these wonderful things to come together.  Thank you, Father, for your rich blessings.  Oh what joy!