What a year!

One year and 2 days ago, my husband and I packed all of our belongings into a Uhaul trailer and drove from Boston to our new home in Chicago!  I still remember whipping through the fog-covered hills of Pennsylvania, terrified that any minute our trailer would come unhitched or a deer would appear out of nowhere.  After 26 hours of driving, we finally arrived in the windy city with "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens blaring on the ipod setting the scene for our arrival.

Our old master bedroom.  It was so pretty and BIG!

Pics of our old Boston apartment.

The view of Chicago from the Hancock building.  The pictures I took when we first arrived in Chicago are on the computer that was stolen so this one will have to do :(

Since then, we've lived in THREE apartments!  The first was gorgeous but full of centipedes...yuck!!!  We spent our first anniversary moving into the second apartment which was decent but a little too bland for my taste and had extra space in all the wrong places.  Now we're happily residing just 2 blocks from the second place in a cute apartment with modern updates in all the right areas.  We've started painting, built a concrete kitchen island (DIY and pics to come soon) and are slowly making the place our own.

Apartment 1...absolutely GORGEOUS vintage details!!!!

Apartment 2...a bit too bland.  We tried to add drama with black walls and bright colors.

Apartment 3...a pic of my office.  This is the only picture I've taken so far though I'll hopefully have more soon.

This past weekend, my in-laws came to visit.  They had a AWESOME lake-view room at the Drake hotel downtown that was just steps to the beach.  We got to spend the weekend being tourists...going to the beach, touring the city, visiting the Hancock tower, and eating delicious food.  It made us appreciate Chicago even more.  We couldn't be happier!

The view from my inlaws' hotel room.  It was so beautiful.  You'd never guess this was the lake and not an ocean.

The Hancock Tower.  It's the second tallest building in Chicago.

The view from the top of the Hancock Tower.

With all the moving around this past year, Jerome made me promise that we'll stay put for at least 2 years.  Though I like moving, I have to admit it feels nice to know that this will be our home for awhile.  It's also nice to know that Apartment 528 has a new home for the next few years.  I've already begun mapping out all the exciting new things coming up, like the opening of the Apt528 Studio (finally!) which will be open by appointment only for those looking to shop us locally.  We'll also be hosting some great events for city dwellers and renters.  We're even diving into the furniture renting business for vintage-loving brides, photographers, and organizations.  We've got a bunch of furniture stored up here just waiting to be used!

We're so excited about where things are going over the next few years.  It's going to be a fun ride :)

Relaxing on the steps of the Hancock Tower