Greetings from Nashville

Well. I’ve been trying to write this post for months. Before and after making the move to Nashville.

You read that right.

I moved to Nashville.

If you’re following me along on IG then you already knew that. But before I start updating the blog again regularly I thought I would catch you up on what has been happening since December of last year.

I’m not sure where to start but to say that I had been trying to make the move to Nashville for around 3 years and the timing and situation just never seemed to line up. Even before moving into my old place I wanted to make that move and the decision was if I wasn’t making the move then I would have to find a place that would accommodate living and working and that I would be happy in. And so I stayed in Jersey City, NJ and made that apartment a home. Which you’ve seen quite a lot of from all of my One Room Challenge projects and home tours.

I was so emotionally invested in that home because I put so much time and effort into it that it pretty much took me an entire year to say goodbye to it. That mixed with trying to finish the book and everything else life was throwing at me. But after making a few more trips to Nashville over 2019, the last one being over Thanksgiving, I finally made my decision. I came home from that trip and I never unpacked my suitcase. I decorated for Christmas, I put George Jones on, and I applied for a home in Nashville, TN. My goal being that when I took the Christmas decorations down I would be packing them up along with everything else I owned.

I was approved and on New Year’s Eve 2019 I signed a lease for my first place in Nashville, TN. The greatest New Years gift I could have ever hoped for. Exactly one year after my partner left, one year after writing a book and publishing it and one whole year of finding my way back to myself.

I spent the next two months packing, planning and executing this move. After lots of trips to the Salvation Army, many Uhaul boxes, numerous mental breakdowns and two 13 hour drives later my things and I arrived in Nashville two days before my 33rd birthday. On my 1 week anniversary while I was celebrating with friends at Roberts Western World a tornado hit Nashville and its surrounding areas. Particularly devastating parts of East Nashville where I live. I felt very lucky to have a house to come back to after a 2-hour uber drive home through all the wreckage. That night I slept in my bedroom closet completely traumatized.

I spent the week after the tornado volunteering in East Nashville. Every day was different. Some days I was making sandwiches or packing lunches or taping up boxes or dropping off food to those in need. I couldn’t imagine unpacking the house I just moved into and was lucky to still have, while others just streets away had lost everything. So I earned that volunteer state nickname on my new Tennessee license.

A week after the tornado pretty much everything shut down due to Covid-19. All I can say is this isn’t the fresh start I was hoping for but here I am. I’ve spent the last two months unpacking, settling in and well, just living. It has been hard to think of anything else. And I’ve been wanting to write this post but so much has happened in such a short amount of time I just didn’t know where to start. I hope you’re all safe and I hope we can get back to normal life soon. But in the meantime, I thought I could get back to sharing some cocktail ideas and some home decor inspiration.

So I’m here to tell you that I’M BACK. xo Natalie