News!

By now this is week-old news, but here you have it!

I'm not sure this answers the question posed at the start of this blog - how does an expat "come home" after a decade abroad? One thing we've learned is that the US will never be 100% home. We left our hearts in Paris and probably won't "find home" until the day we move back, but our finances and our careers have other ideas for now. What does feel special is that we've broken the holding pattern we've been in since moving to the US: hunkering down, lining our savings accounts, living in tiny spaces with roommates, and paying our monthly rent in places that would never be ours. The roommate situation might not be changing for now, and we'll still be adult-bunk-bedding in our king size loft, so this isn't a 100% leap into full adulthood. But there are some big wins: we'll finally have a slice of our very own outdoors, a major gift to the fur babies. And we've finally escaped that landlord middle-layer. After the trauma of our arbitrary eviction back in 2017 from a beloved home for which we'd always paid rent, just because our landlord felt like taking it back, these keys in hand feel like a massive weight off my shoulders. It's funny to think that this is what home ownership looks like. I'd always imagined the big day would involve falling in love with the perfect home. This isn't that, but it's the right next step for us, and a very sensible two-bed two-bath in a charming community in a nice part of Emeryville, just a few miles from our previous place in downtown Oakland. And it'll soon be home. Here's to next steps, even if they aren't the big leaps once envisioned.

A few more themes

The ink has dried on our notarized contract signed two full days ago, and the final countdown has officially begun! While we wait to get our hands on the keys, I've been getting mine on a few more works of art. Etsy is just such a magical place.

 Theme: Boss Ladies with Fins
Remember those "few charmers" I off-handedly introduced at the end of my last post? Don't ever trust me to let the strays stay that way. The mermaid riso print from Four Eyes Illustration is now paired up with another mermaid riso print from artist Doriane Millet. I'm expecting these works will land somewhere around my desk space in a corner of our future bedroom.

Theme: Black Girl Magic
I've been trying to be more conscious of the default whiteness that exists in art depicting people. The fact that not all of us get to see ourselves equally reflected in art really eats at me, and I want to make sure that our home doesn't further propagate that issue. So when I stumbled across Tabitha Brown's prints, whose beautiful designs, vibrant colors, and modern style work perfectly with the look we're building for our living/dining spaces, I knew they were a must-have.

Theme: My cup of tea
The top of this pair, a piece from Anne-Julie Aubry, isn't entirely new to me - it's something that's been hanging in our current home for a few months now, but I'd like to port it over to our future home. I'm imagining it'll fit snugly into a corner of our bedroom, maybe near my desk and those riso mermaid prints. After a very long hunt for a proper pairing, I was excited to come across the works of Carlos C. Lainez. I had put a rule down that I wouldn't buy any new cat art for our home since the three feline residents already do enough to express our cat crazy without our walls doing just the same, but I found this piece to be so unique that it was worth bending the rules.

Theme: Cats!
Last but not least, these limited edition prints that I'd purchased from Jane Ormes back in 2016 for our big move to Brighton might just make the cut - we'll see once we've begun settling in.

We've also managed to frame the little piece of Brighton art that we'd used as the marker for our table of honor at our wedding back in 2017 as well as a photo or two from the big day, something that's never actually reached any of our walls in the nearly 5 years since. The only thing left on the docket is the potential purchase of a decorative clock or two. Nicolas may have won the fight on the front to actually have me wait until we move in before purchasing something. But there's still time, so no promises. 😅

T minus 4 days until - yes, I'll put it in writing - Nicolas and I will officially become home owners!