a texan home
I say this every time but…it really has been a while. Following the end of this year’s very exciting Tour de France and my 27th birthday in Paree, I packed my bags for the next 6 months and headed stateside to home sweet Texas. A few days after landing, I signed(for us both) on a townhouse in Houston. Although I grew up in Houston, I haven’t lived here or been back for more than a couple weeks at a time since I was here in high school. From then on, we’ve been speed nesting and unpacking our California goodies. We’ve got a sweet spot with a DC inspired red brick exterior, a cozy sunny kitchen and dining room and room upstairs for ourselves, a tree lit room for bébé and a guest or two. When I say we started with zero furniture, I mean that we ordered a couch from Crate and Barrel and that was the main event for a while. Luckily, living near family lends itself to well loved antiques from my grandma, loans from friends’ storage units, and a plethora of guild and antique shops around the city to dive headfirst into. We’ll use this as our US home base and still plan to head back to Nice in January if all things baby passport go smoothly, before the start of the cycling season kicks off again.
Temps here have been triple digits for just about the entire month I’ve been back. I made it to Crested Butte for a cool air respite at the beginning of August and Neilson met me there. Breathing at 9,000 ft at 34 weeks pregnant is no joke, no matter how cool it was.
Finding our new normal here is comfortable because we’re surrounded by family and the conveniences of home cooked meals around every corner, but also challenging, settling into a space that we know won’t be our “home base” for the whole year and struggling to find routine knowing that in a few short weeks everything will be thrown off kilter.
The excitement of becoming first time homeowners quickly became reality, as we welcomed plumbers and contractors and HVAC people into our home for about two and a half weeks and awaited their departure by taking loads of laundry to family’s houses and stretching out on other people’s couches. I’ve been deep into the dives of thrifting with my sister, spending lots of precious time with my niece and nephew and watching all the home tours on Youtube for inspiration. Making a home homey in a short amount of time is not the easiest but I’m so easily affected by my environment that I know a lot of antsy-ness and discomfort comes from not feeling settled and surrounded by unfinished corners.
At 36 weeks now, I’m onto weekly doctor’s appointments and Neilson is gone for his last stretch of the season, so baby P has strict orders to stay put until their father is back. Some of my oldest friends and sisters threw me a precious baby shower last weekend, with a theme of all my favorite Texas foods! What could be better than iced lattes, queso, Barnaby’s chopped salad, petit fours and plantation tea.
I’ve gotten to spend some time with my favorite girlies at the new Mirth showroom and try on lots of their fall drop. Pants and skirts with waistbands are not my friend at this current time, but their knits and dresses for this season are to die for. I’m truly an accessories girl at this point in time, reaching for layers of gold and beaded necklaces, swapping out fun purses, and always seeking the perfect Houston “fall” but still 100º footwear.
I’ve soaked up too many interior books and videos to count and can’t help but feel torn between the California coastal minimalism, and the English townhouse maximalist patterned approach. I must say. The amount of choice there is when shopping in the US can get pretty overwhelming. Little trinkets feel like the last thing I should be oggling over when we need to buy drawers to put our clothes in, but it really is all in the details making a house feel like a home. When I’m hitting decision fatigue, I light a candle and draw an epsom salt bath-my favorite American luxury since we don’t have a tub in Nice.
I’ve been discovering all sorts of fun brands and drooling over fall pants and knits, two things that will definitely require a bit more patience for, so wanted to share some moodboards here…
things i’m loving
epsom salt baths
antiquing at local guild shops
mirth provence dress
gold pendant necklaces
this curling iron
our new headboard!
the office + late night bluebell ice cream
this Lucy Williams home tour
and this one
american water pitcher level drinking cups
crushed ice
Otherwise, baby P and I are hanging in there in the heat, waiting for dad to get home and nesting away in our little Houston home!