It’s taken some time and lots of effort, but Guillaume and I have finally mostly settled into our new home in downtown Austin. Little by little (or more like lots by lots), we’ve been acquiring the furniture and supplies needed to fill up the corners of our space. When we started looking for an apartment, we had grand ideas to live in Clarksville in a large but charming space with an extra room and lots of storage. What we ended up falling for was a brand-new, 765-square-foot condo located downtown with one bedroom and no storage. Not one closet. We’ve eventually made do.

The tricky part about our small space is that we do a lot of living in one, large open space. So, we started with the all-important living and eating areas where our open layout called for larger pieces of furniture to distinguish the two spaces while keeping the floor plan cohesive. The most difficult decision we had to make was how we were going to cover up the 20-foot wall that spans the length of our living and dining areas. We searched high and low for the perfect bookcase and when we’d just about given up, our friend, Carolina, sensing we were near defeat, sent me a link to The Brick House where she’d stumbled upon the perfect solution to our problem: the DIY Ace Hotel shelving unit copycat.

I’d heard that doing things like this with your spouse can either make or break you. Well, if there was ever a home-project that defined our marriage, it was this one. From the beginning, we’d decided to take our time accumulating and altering the supplies before diving into the project. But, once we’d had everything ready to go, I’d become suddenly busy with work and without a moment to work on the shelf. Then, when things didn’t come together like they were supposed to, I became so frustrated with the project that we nearly abandoned it. Obviously, we didn’t, and now we have a lovely place to display our treasures and a physical testament to the strength of our relationship. And, I’ve learned a lot about myself, too.

So, after our DIY shelving unit accomplishment, we gradually started pulling everything together and slowly but surely, it’s mostly all fallen into place. There is still a rather blank canvas in the bedroom, but we've got a few plans to add our own touches to it soon.

The park and bike trail behind our building give us the feeling of having the outdoors at our back porch (quite literally). We’re within a stone’s throw from many of our favorite restaurants, entertainment and watering holes, not to mention our friends’ homes; which means we spend most of our weekend not driving a car. And for a couple of commuters like us, that makes our world just a little bit brighter.

Enter chez nous.

That odd-looking tripod in the corner? It's going to be a lamp someday. We hope.

Finally! A cuisine Américaine.

The currently very plain bedroom. We're installing closet curtains today (finally), but we still haven't settled on what on earth to do with the headboard space. TBD very soon though.

"The" shelving unit. A true labor of love.

Gui has officially become a Texan.

Gui's maman arrived on Friday for her first visit to Texas. She'll be here for a couple of weeks, but we've been making the most of her time here already. This past weekend, we drove out to Lockhart for some good Texas barbecue and later that night we had a blast playing some intense games of bingo at the old VFW. We spent all day Sunday brunching with friends chez nous and enjoying some sun poolside before chowing down on a plate full of tacos.

We've been trying to cram in everything we love while she's here and this week we're planning a trip to Barton Springs, some divine dining at Uchi and hopefully a trip out to Fredericksburg and Gruene (pronounced "green"), where she can enjoy some small-town fun. Gui and I are both working most of the week, so she's been exploring a bit on her own, too. During a few of her walks, she's noted that everyone here has a dog, people go running at any time of the day despite the record temps, and folks say "hello" when they pass you on the sidewalk. So far, I'd venture to say that I think she rather likes Texas.

Philadelphia was lovely. We spent an entire day walking around town, indulging in sidewalk cafes, street art and fancy supermarkets. We ended our day trip with a dinner at Tria – a local wine bar that we had stumbled across on our way to the hotel. The food was stunning, the service was correct and the beer and wine menus took us back to visits in Belgium. A clever concept, executed to perfection.

The bulk of our weekend, though, was spent taking in the island life of one of Long Island’s most north-eastern land masses, Shelter Island. We were thoroughly spoiled by Gui’s aunt and uncle who let us squat on their beachside vacation where we ate inappropriate amounts of lobster, tasted amazing local wines, basked in the sun on the Atlantic and hung out with the quirky locals. I managed to get in a Long Island iced tea during a lunch break at the local biker bar, and it was honestly too strong for this Texas girl to finish. Long Islanders are no joke.

Before hopping the train back to Philly to catch our afternoon flight back home, we spent a night in NYC, walking around Tribeca and SoHo on a mild, late-summer evening. Spending time in the city made me nostalgic for big-city life; for urbanity; for Paris. I never knew I could love living in a big city before I lived in Paris, and now I almost feel like there's no other place that feels more like home.

Philadelphia

Tonton et tata

A New York view

I really didn't mean to be gone for so long. Everything just kind of happened all at once and I found myself struggling to keep up. I'm not big on bullet-points but I think it's the best way to tell you about what I've been up to since my last entry on July 5th:

• Working. That's right, folks! I am an official, contributing, tax-paying member of this world once again. I've got health insurance and everything (although, we'll be sticking with Gui's health plan since it's much cheaper and way better)! My job? It's at a company I worked for before I left Austin back in 2007. Back then, I was working in the legal department dealing with contracts and stuff, now I'm assisting the VP, working with buyers and running reports. Admittedly, it's not my dream job, but it pays the bills and I'm having fun so far. Not to mention getting free goodies for my hair. Have you ever used a hair dryer with a Ferrari engine?
  
  

• Getting ready to go back to school. I've decided to finally give it a go and take a few classes to get my CPA. Classes start next week, and I have to admit that I'm kind of terrified. Accounting? Haven't done that in ages. But, I'm kind of stoked that I'm finally doing something I've been saying for so long now I wanted to do. I just hope I don't find myself feeling like I'm way in over my head - especially since I'm plunging in with 3 classes in the first semester. Gulp.

• Moving into our own place. I feel like I've been moving for a century now. Tuesday will be a month since we "officially" moved into our own place, but we're still barely settling in. We have about 30% of the furniture we need - still working on getting a bed, some shelves and more seating options. The place is a brand new construction, and we had it a little rough at the beginning of the month with developers falling through on warranty issues for repairs, so now, we're aiming for September 1st for when we'll finally be "settled" in. Honestly, we really, really love our new place. It's a small (13 unit) complex in an unbeatable downtown location, with lots of modern charm and brand new everything. I just can't wait to have time to sit back and enjoy the space.

• Waiting on people. With moving, comes lots of waiting on people to come by and hook things up, deliver stuff and repair things. We've been doing lots of that lately. Our new place has no closets, so we had someone come in and install a shelving system, then there was the mess with the internet guy who finally came by 3 weeks after ordering the installation, and the water guy to find out why our water isn't working and the couch delivery guy and the bed delivery guys, etc. The hardest part about waiting was not having internet to pass the time. My iPhone was getting a lot of love until the cable guy finally came to install the internet.
  

• Spending time with family. I got to see a lot of my mom over the summer (perks of being a school teacher), and it was so nice to have her here during such a hectic month. She helped me out a ton during my move, and we caught up on life over lunch at good ol' Luby's. My nephews also spent some of their summer vacation in Austin and Guillaume and I were lucky enough to spend a lot of time with them while they were here. It was so much fun kicking back like a kid, staying up late eating junk food and splashing around in the pool all day. It had been about 7 months since I last saw them, and I couldn't believe how much they'd changed! Still cute as ever, though.

So, I'm back now! I feel like I've been away from blogging so long that I don't know where to begin! But, I have lots to say and share (going to Philly in a few weeks and the belle-mêre is visiting soon), so do stay tuned.