As I said, a lot has happened in the past year, including a big life change for us: Matt and I closed on the purchase of our first home! It was a tedious process, and it took a while for us to find the right place and then have an offer accepted, but we’ve been living in the new digs for a few weeks and absolutely LOVING it. It’s such a different feeling to live in a space that you own rather than rent, and we’re finding ourselves taking a lot more care in maintaining, decorating, organizing, and settling in than we previously have.

We are big Ikea shoppers. When we were moving in and getting settled, we were making multiple trips a week. It got to the point where we were a bit burnt out (and couldn’t even LOOK at another meatball) so we haven’t ventured out for a while. But today we felt the need for a shoe rack, so we hopped into the car, braced ourselves, and headed into the showroom.

As I’ve mentioned 12059 times, Matt and I have been trying for an “industrial chic”, “indoor jungle” theme in our new apartment. Meaning we’re going for lots and lots of plant life. We’ve accumulated lots of smaller plants over the years, most of which made it with us from NYC, but wanted a few bigger anchor plants to pull everything together. We picked up a few from Ikea and Home Depot but we hit the jackpot when we finally ventured to Mahoney’s Garden Center.

Ikea. Affordable, extensive, intimidating. It’s a bit overwhelming to navigate the showroom and the website can also be tricky. But after countless trips and never-ending browsing over the past few months, I’ve pretty much become an Ikea expert. Here are some of my favorite pieces. 1 – INGEFÄRA – Terracotta plant pot with saucer. We love the neutral, earthy, clay shade and these are functional and affordable. Great for both indoors and outdoors.

We officially moved to Boston in May, meaning we’ve been living in Beantown (is that a thing?) for almost 4 months. And we love it. There are a few things we miss about NYC, but so many more things that make living in Boston perfect for us. For example: NYC has way better public transportation. The NYC subway system is one of the best. It’s extensive, fairly reliable, and people (generally) understand how to use it.