life in baltimore: the loft.

moving to baltimore was one of the craziest, most high-stress experiences of my life (until i started johns hopkins, that is).

i returned from a trip to mexico late on a wednesday night, and after a few days of last-minute cpr classes, cell phone exchanges, ups box shipping, ppd testing, and packing, mateo + i hopped on a plane to wilmington, delaware with eight bags totaling over 350 pounds on saturday evening. 

looking entirely ridiculous, trying to drag bags with each of our limbs and sweating profusely, we eventually made it to our taxi and then to our hotel room for the night. since our flight didn't get in until past one a.m., we crashed immediately and got up the next morning, just to fight with our bags again... to yet another taxi and all the way to the "chinese" bus station in downtown wilmington. $12 later, and we were sitting with allll of our bags on a curb outside a run-down chinese restaurant, instructed to "hop on da big pink bus when it stop." 

well, the bus did stop. and we did hop on. and after a ninety-minute, terribly creepy bus ride down to baltimore, we were off to the races. we had timed everything perfectly, so that we could get the keys to our apartment, find a taxi to bring us the twenty-five minutes northeast to the closest ikea, pick out allllll of our furniture, and purchase it all before the three p.m. cutoff time for same-day delivery. 

we had a lot of our furniture picked out online ahead of time, so we rushed through the store, frantically scribbling down warehouse numbers and having the employees call downstairs to ensure that we'd make the same-day shipment group if we checked out by 3:00 on the dot. sooooo after literally sprinting through the warehouse with huge carts full of even huger boxes (and maybe almost taking out a few innocent bystanders in the process), we checked out at 3:00 p.m. on the dot. bolting to the shipping center, we were informed that we were misinformed by the other employee, and that we'd missed the cutoff. so unless we wanted to make ourselves a mattress of swedish fish, we weren't going to have a bed for the night. did i mention that my orientation was to start the next morning? ensue breakdown. 

i guess there's very little more pitiful than crying in the middle of ikea, so some managers had sympathy for me and made the same-day delivery thing work out. filled with gratitude (and frozen yogurt and lingonberry juice), we headed back to the city. my mom + uncle steve pulled up shortly thereafter (three cheers to them for being the best ever and driving our little honda from co to ky to md for us!). my dad showed up a few days later, and we all got everything rolling. and we built a home! 

we built a home. 

we live on the top floor of a historic building in downtown baltimore, squished nicely in between mount vernon and charles center. some maps say we live in the historic cathedral hill district, which  few people from baltimore have actually ever heard of, but it makes lots of sense because we're surrounded by like four old, beautiful churches (and lots and lots of church bells at all hours of the day!); in fact, the oldest catholic basilica in america is a block away. our building was constructed in 1894 and was used for years as an odd fellows hall. the inside has been renovated in the last five years or so with tons of modern apartments, full of fun little quirks. 

it's always been important to me to live in a place that i find inspiring. but it's been equally as important to live in comfort + happiness. we wanted to pull little pieces of us-- our interests, art, family, and travels-- into every little part of our home. mixing eclectic pieces with lots and lots of ikea (did i mention how many times we went back to ikea? no, this isn't a sponsored post, but it probably should be at this point...) we love our painting from mateo's town, carvings and posters from spain, wooden bowl from benny in hawaii, mask from africa, assortment of little plants, map from germany, and windows. we have this amazing view of the city from a massive window in our bedroom that lets in the prettiest natural light and makes us just... happy. we just love our little piece of the city! please ignore our serious lack of pillows and photographs and few other pieces we're still pulling together. 

but since we've had so many requests to see our apartment (and you might've just spent twenty minutes reading all of this), here it is. our not-even-600-square-ft baltimore loft. 

a special thanks goes out to: anthropologie + target gift cards, mateo's wrists of steel, my mom's moral support and decor advice, + my dad for keeping the whole lot of us sane. 

that being said, come visit us! our couch turns into a day bed, so the hotel de jaragleavefabian is open for visitors! we'll provide the crab cakes and harbor tours, since we're locals now and everything ;) 

post script: someday i will show you how amazing the outside of our building is! it's historical brick with the most beautiful windows. i will definitely show it to all of you... when i'm no longer scared to take my camera out in public... 

XO.