California cottage

gratitude (the long overdue edition)

happy Wednesday everyone- i'm so excited to be back here blogging again! i hadn't intended to be absent for so long, but between the move to California, my sister-in-law's lovely wedding in Baltimore, and finally finding a place to live, i guess i should have figured it'd take some time to get back in the saddle.

i felt like a gratitude post would be the ideal way to kick off a new season here at Gather and Hunt, so today i am grateful for...


we're still settling in and have lots left to unpack, put away, fix, and update, plus i haven't even begun to decorate yet, but i thought i'd share a little instagramed sneak place of the new place and some features i'm grateful for...




amazing light in the kitchen. our last two apartments had terrible light in the kitchen, which makes taking photos in there difficult. i love the kitchen in our new place- it's charming and gets lots of natural light all day long.



outside space. when we decided to make the move to Pasadena i was hoping and praying we could find a place that had some outside space and somewhere to plant things. after living in a building surrounded by concrete and rock, it's such a nice change to have grass, trees, and even hummingbirds right outside! the front landscaping needs some help (that lavender has taken over), but the landlord offered to give us some funds to spruce it up. we even have a little space just outside the kitchen that we're going to turn into a patio for dining alfresco. 


hardwood floors! most of the places we looked at prior to this one listed hardwoods, but ended up only having cheap laminate floors. these floors are original, dating back to 1920, so they need a little TLC, but i'm so happy to have them. 


built in storage in the bathroom. i don't think i've ever had a bathroom with this much storage in it- there's more space than we even have stuff to put in it! 


charming french style windows. though they need a major cleaning (glass cleaner and paper towels just didn't cut it), i adore these swing arm windows on each side of the bay window at the front of the duplex. 


tons of built in storage. this rental was a bit more than we were hoping to spend, but was the only place we looked at that had enough room to store everything we had without having to rent other space. there's even room for the Gather and Hunt booth structure components and all the other stuff that comes with having a mobile business. 




original details. when we first looked at this place we had actually responded to an ad for another unit on the same property. that unit was amazingly charming with tons of built-in's and lots of the original details intact. unfortunately it was too small for us, but this larger unit was also available and though it didn't have quite as much charm, it is the perfect size and has many charming details as well. i love that the original mail slot is still functional (though i suspect the postman hates it)- it makes getting the mail so much fun. the former phone nook in the hallway may need to find a new purpose since we don't have a land line, or maybe i'll just find a vintage phone to display there. lastly, there's the old milk delivery door. back when milk bottles were delivered daily, the milkman would have opened the outside door and left the milk inside the cool compartment away from the sun's rays. the occupants would open the inside door and have their fresh milk for the day.

so that's our new place. i need to get back to unpacking, but i hope you enjoyed a little peak into our new life here in Pasadena. i'd love to know what you've been up to over the last month- leave me a comment so i can catch up!