2203 Maple Hollow Trail

That's right. We are the proud new renters of 2203 Maple Hollow Trail. We're officially moved in. (ok, maybe not so officially due to the amount of boxes I've yet to unpack) Either way, we're loving having space and a neighborhood with a wonderful pool, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts litchrally! (Parks and Recreation, anyone?) 100 yards from our house.

Our neighbors are wonderful and have walked out to meet us on several occasions. Linda even invited me inside and gave me lemonade while we chatted about the neighborhood. She's the one that knows everything about everyone. In a non-nosy, spying kind of way.

I've even got a little starter garden with tomatoes, onions, peppers and a few other mystery veggies! Which, let's be honest here, I know my dad farms acres and acres of this stuff, but my goal is to just not kill it this summer. I don't know that I got his green thumb gene.

So now that I've talked about how much I love our neighborhood, house and life, I'll tell you my dilemma: decorating. In our cozy little 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom downtown apartment, creating a warm, homy atmosphere was less than overwhelming. We had plenty of furniture and wall hangings to make things feel nice and inviting. Here, well, I'm struggling. So- I need your help. Without spending lots of money, I want to make our space original, inviting, warm, cozy.

Here are some areas I'm unsure about what to do with:

-The Foyer. It's tiled with lots of great light coming from the huge oval window in our door, that I have yet to get a curtain for. My vision is to have a few hanging vases like these. And maybe some whimsical slash vintage frames arranged ever so artfully on the walls surrounding the door. Maybe some hooks for keys and jackets and things. See? Overwhelming.

-The Walls: Our landlord has been hesitant to let us paint. And now she's in Germany for a few weeks, so I don't want to paint without her approval. But painting is such an easy answer to creating a warm room. I painted a room in our previous apartment a Marigold yellow and it was instantaneously inviting. So, I'm probably going to do this again if my landlord lets us. But until then, I want to hang the random photos and things in an organized, asymmetrical way. Any ideas on how to do this or photos/blogs on wall hanging arrangements would be fabulous!

-The Master Bedroom: It's huge. and bare. Here I go again referencing our wonderful apartment... but I LOVED our bedroom. Especially with Elle's baby nook :) It was shabby chic and the perfect set up for us. So I need some ideas on what to do when you have lots of space, but not very much money to fill it. Aish.