Monday, February 3, 2014

Object(s) That Make Me Feel at Home

It's Day Three of our Expat Blog Challenge.

Mr. Smith and I arrived in Sydney on February 25, 2012.  We lived in the Mantra 2 Bond Street hotel for a month until we moved into an apartment in Kirribilli.  We bought an inflatable mattress, a set of sheets, some towels and a few dishes for our new place while we waited for our things to arrive from America.  BTW, we didn't get our stuff until April 16th.

But OMG!  Once our stuff arrived and we started unpacking... it really started to feel like home.  Now, I'm not all that attached to many things.  I hate clutter.  But these things make me feel at home:


Our bed... Mr. Smith and I have had this bed for YEARS!
We bought it at IKEA in California.

OH!  The joy of the night we could sleep in our own bed again!  I don't mind traveling too much if it's to see family and friends or go on a nice vacation, but I don't like to sleep in any other bed.  Most hotel beds are so freaking stiff and hard and unwelcoming.  I love my pillow top mattress with feather bed topper.  So soft!  So comfy!  So full of pillows!  I bought these awesome pillows from Bed Bath & Beyond before we left the states.  Great pillows!



This is where I sit to do pretty much everything.
It's my armchair and ottoman where I blog, watch TV,
eat dinner, whatever.  And those are my little friends.

We bought these armchairs (there are two) and a sofa from IKEA here in Sydney for our new apartment.  It's my second favourite place to be when I come home from a long day at work (when I have a job...).  You'll notice that I'm a big kid at heart.  All my friends sit on my chair all day waiting for me to come home and keep them company.  LOL



My sewing machine.  I should quilt and create more.
I truly do enjoy it... I can just be a very impatient person.

And, of course, my sewing machine... it's all mine.  I've had it about 10 years and it still runs great with regular maintenance.  It has an embroidery component, but I really prefer to just quilt and do basic sewing.  I don't sew nearly as much as I should, but it comforts me knowing that it's there waiting for me to create.

Mr. Smith and I have another tradition that is all ours.

When we lived in Long Beach, CA we found something!  We were moving into a new apartment and there was a little girl's shoe (a cute white sandal) in our parking spot.  After discerning that it didn't belong to anyone else in the building, we decided that it was meant for us.  We kept it in a special place in our parking spot the whole time we lived there.  We called it our LIL SHOE.

Since Long Beach, we've lived in a few other places.  Fast forward to our first place in Kirribilli.  One day we were walking down the street and discovered this:


a new LIL SHOE !!

It was like a sign that we were meant to be here!  All was right in the world.  You know, it's the little things...

13 comments:

  1. Wow! What an adventure it must of been sleeping on an inflatable mattress until your things arrived. Really makes you appreciate a real bed. Love how your friends are so loyal and sit and wait for you to keep them company! ;-) Oh, and the lil show - how cute - a clear sign from above.

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    1. Yes, an adventure. A couple of old fogies getting up and down off the floor every night. We should have filmed it.

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  2. Your story reminds me of when we moved to the U.K. and had to wait weeks for our household stuff to arrive. It was freeing, but so good to get our things in place. Even here in Melbourne, when we shipped only an airfreight container with thirty boxes, it felt like Christmas when we unpacked the boxes.

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    1. Yes, but it just added to the clutter of the really small apartment, too. LOL!

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  3. I'm like you; I don't sleep well in strange beds. I envy people that can fall asleep anywhere anytime.

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    1. You know, Cosette... I can actually fall asleep anywhere. The problem is when you wake up in the morning and your back doesn't want to work anymore.

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  4. Ooh- I've never even thought about traveling with my bed... but now I wish I had! I love the little shoe, too- so cute!

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  5. I didn't get to bring my bed over (insert tear here) but did convince my husband to buy a new one as soon as I moved over. There's just something about a good bed! I like the sign at the end, I'm a HUGE believer in signs... Love the entry!

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  6. I love the Lil Shoe! And I agree- nothing beats your own bed. Worth every penny to get a good nights sleep!

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  7. Oh too cute for little shoes to find you at different destinations. Living out of a suitcase for any length of time takes an adventuresome spirit.

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