A Tour

When I went to my blogger dashboard tonight to write this post, my stats said I was at 1000 pageviews. I would just like to mark this moment. Huzzah! Now onwards...

Tonight you get a tour of my new room because finally I am all settled in my new house. Be warned: My room is definitely decorated Bethany-style. There is no rhyme or reason to why things are the way they are other than the fact that they are the way I like them to be.

Mostly I love my room because it reminds me of so many people who have been or are a part of my life. As I sit and type, I feel surrounded by the love and care of wonderful friends - some new and some as old as I am.

When you enter my room, here's what you see:

For starters, the quilt was made by my paternal grandmother for my high school graduation. Lovely, isn't it? The puffin photo above the window was a gift from my youngest sister as a memento of a family vacation to Acadia National Park and a whale and puffin boat tour. The fabric over the headboard of my bed was a present from my town homestay family in Tanzania. And on the wall is the Tanzanian flag.

Then if you turn to the left, you'll have this view:

There's so much here, I don't even know where to start. I'll give bullet highlights.

• Starting on the top left of the bookshelf you'll Swiss Miss, my chocolate lab puppy from Celebration, FL, when I visited Disney for the first time (and only time before moving down) in 2004; Loony is back!; the candle was a graduation present from my aunt; I'm plant-sitting Miss Cactus for my maternal grandmother while she's up north for the summer; and the kanga (a piece of cloth which, sadly, you can't see) was brought to me from Kenya by a good friend.
• On the second shelf, those binoculars traveled all through Tanzania and western New York on birding expeditions.
• The TARDIS makes an appearance on a mug on the third shelf - a present from my youngest sister.
• The little woodstove on the fourth shelf joined the collection during a family road trip out to Montana, during which we stopped at the Laura Ingalls Wilder homes. This memento, actually a pencil sharpener, hails from her birthplace of Pepin, Wisconsin.
• On the very bottom shelf you'll see a tile on the left. That was a gift from a good friend who spent a summer in Mexico.
• Above my bed on the wall you'll see a poster of a painting by Monet that's at the National Gallery in London. It's actually of the Thames River and Elizabeth Tower. You may know the tower as Big Ben, but that's actually the bell in the tower. Formerly known as the Clock Tower, it was renamed in 2012 in honor of the Queen. I don't tend to buy stuff for myself, but I got this in London as a reminder of my semester there. (True Confessions: The flag I actually bought in Epcot at the United Kingdom Pavilion in World Showcase.)

And moving on, you have the less exciting area of...my closet:

It does have going for it the plus that it is the largest closet I have ever had. By about 3x. So much space! The cloth you see there is a kitenge, brought to me from Tanzania by yet another good friend. On the door is a drawing of me with a frying pan in a tree as Rapunzel made by a good college friend. And on the wall to the left you'll some photos from the wedding of an awesome girl I've known since I was born, accompanied by a cool tiny quilt made for me by one of my college roommates. It's based off a photo of a boathouse on my family's island on a lake in Maine. Makes me want to be there.

And last, but not least, I have a dresser!!!

With way more drawers than I have stuff. That's a good thing, I guess. The t-shirt quilt on the chair was made for me by my middle sister. Soooooooooo many good memories associated with the t-shirts in that quilt. My mommy gave me the bird-ness hanging on the wall, and the kanga on the dresser was a present from my village homestay family in Tanzania.

And there you have it! I'm here for a whole year. That will be a first. I've NEVER lived in one place for an entire year. Ever. Even though my family has lived in the same house for almost my entire life, we would pack up every summer and move to our cottage in Maine for several months. So here goes a new experience: living in one place.

P.S. All the furniture was either donated or loaned to the good cause of getting me settled. Many thanks to a church friend, a roommate, and my manager at work for their thoughtfulness. The only way I can repay you is by passing on the favor to someone else in the future.