Nestled In

When we started Nestled In about 2,5 years ago we had just moved into our first home together and inspired by many wonderful home blogs we wanted to have a place of our own on the Web too, to gather inspiration and to share our experience of transforming a rental apartment into our first home. Since then we’ve moved and bought our first own home, we’ve renovated and decorated and we have photographed it all and shared it here with you. We’ve met so many nice people and made great new friends. Blogging has sparked an interest in photography for us both and even helped me to realize what I want to study. It has been a wonderful experience and we feel like we’ve gained so much from it all, it’s been an important part of our lives these past few years. Blogging is so much fun but it can also be time consuming, and this spring we’ve decided to make more room and time for other things in our life by ending our blog. It feels like the right time to refocus a bit.

So, today we want to say a big thank you to all our readers! Thank you for your friendship and your lovely comments and emails, your support and advice. We’re so lucky to have gotten to know you! If you’d like to keep in touch with us and follow our home decorating or see how Lissu is doing you can still find us both on Flickr (Minna and Katja), where we continue to post pictures. We’ll leave Nestled In up for a while so even though this is the last blog post the blog won’t disappear right away.

Minna and I dream that one day we’ll live in a little house of our home and have a yard, a bit more space for more pets (although I’m not sure what Lissu would say to that!) and a little garden to tend. Today I’m really happy to share with you a peek into one of my very favorite real homes I’ve found via Flickr. Amy’s home (and her garden – she even has chicken!) is so inspiring to me, it’s a lot like what my dreams look like. Amy has a blog called Homegrown and you can also find her at flickr. We asked Amy a couple of questions, here is what she said:

Where do you live? I live in the US in a little town called Media Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia with my creative husband, Chris, who is a “jack of all trades” and our two daughters, Hannah, 7 and Norah, 4. We live in an arts and crafts style twin built in the 1920s. Our house was a true fixer upper when we first bought it almost 11 years ago. We have gutted most of the house, but we still have many plans like redoing our attic one day.

What are your favorite thing and least favorite thing about your home? I have so many lovely custom pieces in my home, built by my grandfather and husband. Every room in my home has at least one handcrafted piece — bookshelves, window seats, kitchen cabinetry, as well as a custom built-in bed complete with drawers and storage. I don’t think I will ever be able to move, mostly because of all the the time and energy put into my home by my loved ones.

During my last pregnancy, I went into major nesting mode and decided to paint a lot of the house in warmer colors. I have regretted this decision for some time now. We have northern exposure, which does not allow for tons of light and some rooms in my home seem too dark. I love the look of grey and even white walls that allow for fabrics and artwork to really POP! I am looking forward to painting soon.

If you could add one extra room to your home, what would it be? Lately I have been dreaming about a greenhouse/mudroom space which I would love to convert my front porch into. I am an avid gardener living on a small property. I have decided to stop wishing i had more space and instead finding joy in the challenge of being creative with my space. i manage to fit in chickens, rain barrels, a rabbit, a potting shed and fruits and vegetables. So why stop there. a greenhouse would be dreamy.

What is your favorite thing to do at home? i love to snuggle with my family, read books with my girls, play games, sing and make music, knit, garden, cook, and hang laundry while my hens cluck at my feet:)

Where do you find inspiration? i find inspiration from the outdoors, especially the woods, my home is full of feathers, twigs, antlers, pinecones and beautiful creations made from the forest by my talented husband. i also love the many beautiful things i find on flickr which lead me to some of the most amazing blogs, websites, and all sorts of resources.

Home is where …. i feel at peace and where i long to be. i really will miss my home even after only being away for just a few hours.

Thank you so much Amy for welcoming us into your lovely home!

(All images: Amy)

I have to say, all this snow is bringing me down. It was so lovely to have lots of snow for this winter but now it’s the end of March and all that snow is still here and it’s still snowing every single day. I took these pictures about a week ago when we had a break from the constant snow fall and a couple of days of sunshine. I really like our living room again (we’ve had our ups and downs), it houses many of my favorite furniture and art so it makes me really happy to spend time there. I only noticed after looking at these pictures that the table looks weird so close to the sofa -  and if you’re wondering why it’s there it’s because we often (OK, most of the time) sit down in front of the TV to eat dinner (Oh, the shame!) so it doubles as our dining table.

Continuing our visits to lovely real homes, today we have a chance to peek into Catherine’s home in Australia. I’m really inspired by her use of color in her home and I really love all the little details and vignettes. Catherine has a blog called Little Glowing Lights and she also has an Etsy shop. You can also find Catherine at flickr. We asked Catherine a few questions, here is what she said:

Where do you live? I live in Hobart, Australia, and my flat is in a big old house a short walk from the city. I live by myself, something I initially thought I would dislike, but actually it has been quite wonderful to have my own space and the freedom to do whatever I like with it.

What are your favorite thing and least favorite thing about your home? As I mentioned my home is part of a big old house so I have lovely high ceilings, mantle pieces, picture rails and floorboards. All these features are exactly what I would look for in a home if I was able to buy, so it’s very lucky to have them in a rental. I get a lot of light and while it’s only a small space it works very well for me and feels cosy without being too claustrophobic. On the downside there are some wonky floors, it’s not easy to heat, and I would love to have more private outside space than I have.

If you could add one extra room to your home, what would it be? I would love to have a separate study/workroom area in my home for my desk and computer with lots of storage space for all my crafty bits and pieces. At the moment everything is in my bedroom and it can get cluttered and chaotic, to have a whole room for this would be wonderful. Also I would love just a little bit more room in my living/dining/kitchen area so that I could add an armchair in, I’ve always wanted a big high-backed armchair.

What is your favorite thing to do at home? Sometimes it feels like I don’t spend as much time at home as I would like, so I appreciate quiet afternoons for reading in the sun, or baking in the kitchen, and taking pictures.

Where do you find inspiration? Ever since I was little I would pour over my mum’s World of Interiors magazines, they always feature beautiful homes in all kinds of styles, they have definitely been a big source of inspiration for me over the years. In general I am inspired by music, art, photographs and films, I love colour, flowers, and I’m getting more into geometric patterns at the moment.

Home is where… you can take time out and just be yourself…and maybe listen to music and have a dance!

Thank you Catherine for welcoming us into your beautiful home!

(Image credits: Catherine)

We’ve liked the picture ledge in the living room so much that we decided to go with one in the bedroom too. It’s just so easy to change the art around whenever you feel like it. The picture ledge is an old one I’ve had around for years, it’s from my apartment from the time before Minna and I moved in together, but it’s very similar to the ones at Ikea. So, here it is, above the bed. For now it’s just displaying a pretty random grouping of things so I think it will look much better once I rearrange it a bit but I wanted to show it to you already.

Looking at these pictures I realize that the room is way too blue for my taste all of the sudden. I think that the grayish blue wall color needs other colors to accompany it, maybe it’s time to make new pillowcases?