if you lived here, you'd be embarrassed by now

It's been nearly a year since I bought my apartment. And as you can see, I've done a whole lot of nothing with it. The truth: I'm afraid. I don't know where to start. The kitchen needs renovating, the walls need painting, I need furniture. And I'm loath to change anything because I lived here with my former boyfriend and I still can't believe that he's gone. In my tiny little mind I think: "keep everything the same and you can pretend that he's just on vacation for a week."

Of course, none of this stops me from entertaining. Here's a default "before" picture from my Thanksgiving in December party. If you lived here, you'd be embarrassed by now...