Allow Me to Introduce Myself......

I'm Melissa....I live in a small house in Austin, Texas. I can't fit all my shoes or clothes in my closet or my dishes in my cabinets, yet I still love our little abode. Well, ok....in all honesty it may be more accurate to say I put up with it because we love our neighborhood. However, there are truly many reasons to feel good about living in a smaller home! (of course, I have to convince myself all the time). For one, our utilities are cheaper. When we painted our house, it only took about 5 gallons of paint. I can clean it all in about an hour or two (depending on just how dirty it is & how thoroughly I clean it, of course). It has forced me to rethink "STUFF" and how much of it I am willing to put up with. I am forced to really think when I'm shopping...do I have a place for this? This saves an amazing amount of money also. Plus, it has a very intimate cozy feel to it which I have determined, through our experience living here, people must like....because they all tend to want to congregate at our place, even so everyone we know has a much larger place. Have I convinced you to downsize yet?

I'm not very good at describimt myself and my life in a nutshell, so I think I'll just unfold slowly as this goes along, assuming I stick with it, because I rarely stick with anything. For now, what finally inspired me to come up with this name and theme is something predominant in my life. I live in an 800 sq ft "bungalow" or "cottage" in Austin, TX with my husband - sans kids. I've been a proponent of small house living since we moved in here 4 years ago, (out of necessity, I must admit).  The concept has really caught on since then. We moved in mainly for the neighborhood, the house might have been bulldozer material to most people. Around here it is quite common to purchase the house for the lot, bulldoze the house and build a McMansion. Not us. We couldn't afford that, for one. Our realtor joked, we basically bought the lot, and they threw in the house for free! It was a great deal, but slightly stretched our budget at that time. The house was in overall good condition except for the kitchen, which needed major work. Structurally the rest was very sound, it just had a big case of the "uglies". It still does. The outside is likely the ugliest house in the neighborhood - definitely the ugliest on our street. But we are working on it.

What floors me, of our families and friends, everyone seems to want to always come to OUR house! I am not complaining however, because this I take as the greatest complement. I like to believe there must be something warm & inviting about our little abode (and/or us?) What's crazier, we seem to always have tons of company and the place is only about 1/2 finished being renovated. We don't even have any living room furniture at the moment and have tools/supplies all over the place.

My theme is not going to be so much about living in a small house....because there are all sorts of blogs about that.....but more about living fully in spite of living in a small home....maybe try to show you can live well regardless of where you live? I love cooking, gardening, crafts, sewing etc. and I'll share our renovating projects as we go. I like to think we LIVE LARGE in our tiny house....I strive to "do it all" in defiance. My family & friends teasingly call me Martha.....and I admit I'm a Martha Stewart junkie. While everyone else loves to hate her, I totally admire her intelligence, practicality (and impracticality), style and her HOUSES. I EVEN STRIVE to be more like her!! (not the mean bitchy part). I'm a really long way off from being anything like her, but I keep trying. I totally buy into her concept of "Living". Martha is very misunderstood. The concept is not really about perfection, it's about doing all those little extra things - like keeping your drawers nicely folded and smelling like lavender. It's about NOT sacrificing form for function with the items you use daily. It's about taking time to hang your linens out on the line! or dining outside with the good dishes and real glasses and silverware! or even adorning your table with some flowers you grew yourself! It's about taking a few extra minutes to send a real card on real paper, and not just sending a pre-bought card, or worse, just sending an email! Lastly, it's not about the price of the wine, it's about serving it in real wine glasses and enjoying it with friends. It's about living well. And, proving that it can be done on any budget.