Welcome to Casa Alberdi, I will be your tour guide today...

After numerous requests to see what the "digs" in Hawaii look like, I finally pulled my act together and moved the lawn furniture, plastic storage shelves, and foam mattresses out of sight so that we could snap a few pictures.

 Just kidding...

sort of.

Anyway, this is our spacious living/home-school/office/storage unit/library/playroom.

Same room, different view.  These sliding glass doors are the sole reason we rented this place.  I mean, look at them.  Look how much light pours through them.  This is a very important feature for a light freak like me. 

 Who needs bedrooms with light like this?

Now we will rotate 90 degrees and view the kitchen.

The heart of the home...

The height of culinary advancement...

Riiiiiiiight.

Let's be real.

This is the place where peanut butter and jelly sandwiches get slapped together and called a meal. 

 

My desk.

All mine.

Mine, mine, mine.

(From 4 to 5 a.m. and from 11 to 12 p.m.)

Stuff I love.

Can you stand it? Are these striped pencils not the sassiest thing you've ever seen? 

Isadora in Bellevue.

 Get you some.

More stuff I love.

A chair, actually.  Can you really love a chair?  Well, if you can, I do.  Not because it is super comfortable or anything, just because it makes a great backdrop for other cute stuff.  Like my favorite quilt.  That I made myself.  Okay, okay, the ONLY quilt I have ever made.  And probably ever will.  Oh yeah, and my favorite pillow.

That I bought myself. 

 Really.  

All by myself. 

 My mama would be proud.

My sweet friend Sariah called the other day to tell me she was moving to a much smaller house (like me!) and she wondered where she was going to put everything (like me!) and would she go completely insane with too many people in too small of a space (like me!)?

Okay, maybe she doesn't want to be just like me.

But here's what I've learned:

It's all about hidden storage.

And going vertical,

 which I'll explain later.

Allow me to introduce you to my coffee table.

Er, tables.

I bought these ottomans from the Country Living line at KMart. Who would have guessed?

 Linen. Tufted. Nailhead trim. Dreamy.

And the best part is that they have hinged with storage capacity.

I should be their spokesperson.

Seriously.

(This is the going vertical part.)

Garage? 

Who needs a garage?

  Not when you are married to a man who can wield a saw and a drill and a couple of two by fours like nobody's business.

 Screw those puppies together, slap on a little white paint and...voila! 

A storage unit in your living room.

.....

Are you jealous?

Don't you wish you had one in your living room too?

.....

 (Oh yeah, and that's Senecca's adorable bike that she repainted herself--it used to be pepto-bismol pink--that she never rides. We live at the top of a steep hill. Need I say more?)

 But it sure is cute.

And that's all that matters.

 This will surprise you I know, but there are absolutely no closets in this condo other than one in each bedroom for clothing, so I have enlisted the help of a basket (the one on the left) as my linen closet. I guess the builder assumed that a bunch of minimalists who never showered or changed their bedding would be living here. 

I have learned to adapt by having very few towels (1 per person), and no extra bedding.  I do wash our bedding regularly, I swear, but then I just put it right back on.

*** 

On that note, here's a bit of trivia to brighten your day and make me sound like Cliff Claven...Did you know that in Hawaii, they are not called lice, but ukus? (pronounced ookoos) Funny, huh? It somehow really describes what they are. And no, we don't have them.

***

What's that you say?

You say I've worn you out?

You're ready to go now?

Was it something I said?

Dang.

Just when I was getting my groove on.