abundantly blessed: Our Apartment

Eeeeeek! Apartment pictures are on their way! Our walls are crisply painted and I'm no longer embarrassed by the filthiness that once adorned them. Its been so excited to finally start putting things on the walls! For the 2ish months we've been living in our apartment its felt like home, but not homey. Things on the walls really give it a homey feel, and after I put the first nail in the wall we were in business! I have several more projects to work on, but things are finally coming together, room by room. Its so great to hang up nicknacks and family photos.

I've now begun the adventure to figure out how to print photos in Italy. So I can put up more pictures of this cute guy.

He's really cute and too squirmy for the camera.

He turns 9 months old this weekend.

Stop growing up precious Finn!

I digress.

I was able to bring a few decor items over during the move, and they've integrated themselves throughout our home. But I was really needing a few more pinteresting, shabby chic items! So I went on the hunt for a thrift store. Most Italians are not big fans of used items. Only recently has 'vintage' increased in popularity. Through my internet research, I found several Mercatine Dell'Usato (Used Markets) throughout the city, but most of them operate for profit or consignment and aren't as budget friendly as my favs in Tulsa. (In reality, nothing here is as budget friendly as Tulsa :) ) But I was determined to find a charitable thrift store, hoping for more reasonable prices. And thanks to Google, I stumbled upon a website with a PDF of all used stores in the Bologna region! Someone loves used items as much as me! And there was ONE store that was a charitable thrift store!!!

I mapped out the location and noticed it was considerably outside of the city, so I went to work routing a bus to get there. It's only open 3 half days a week, so I scheduled my trek and set out after Finn was napping and Alex was home, backpacking backpack and reusable grocery sacs in tow.

After my bus dropped me off and I looked around, I noticed that I was considerably outside of the city. But I trusted google maps and continued to march onto my map dot.

And I rounded the corner to see this!

My sign. Mercatino Solidale.

The hand painting job confirmed to me that this was going to be a goood find. And the turn down an alley and into a large warehouse screamed awesome! I walked in through the large garage door, and I was too excited to take a picture. And this is what I texted Alex.

AKA Jackpot. Who needs spelling when you've found your new favorite store?!

Photo found online of the store.

The large warehouse was full of furniture, picture frames, home decor, kitchen items etc. I asked the older gentlemen at the makeshift desk/cashier station if I could make a pile. They seem confused, but I obliged. So I proceeded to scour the store and added to my pile 6 times. I left with all my bags filled and a 4 ft long world map in hand. I'm sure I was a sight to behold on the bus ride home. They had several great old trunks I'm eager to return for, but I'll have to bring some more muscles to retrieve those.

I consider it a true blessing to love used, 'junky' items. It helps us as a family remain good stewards of our finances and enables us to build a welcoming, unique place to friends to stay. And we've been blessed in the past week with 5 different guests coming through! If you're considering popping in to see us, have no fear-I'm working hard to make our place homey!

Here's the first official apartment photo of our downstairs living space/dining room/kitchen!