Our New Life in Nashville

I just realized that I haven’t really updated you on how we’re settling in to our new life here in Nashville. We moved about six months ago now, and I have so much to share with you!

The first few months were definitely a blur. We were in the midst of a major renovation, which stretched us thin mentally and caused me to take a lot of things slowly. I wasn’t ready to go out a lot; I wasn’t ready to make new friends. I just needed to get my home life normalized first. So for a few months, I was pretty quiet and stayed mostly focused on creating a good household situation for us while trying to stay caught up with work. I was working a lot of extra hours last season in preparation for the A Color Story launch and I felt very much like I was just trying to keep my head above water.

These past few months have felt different. We’ve started going out a lot more, making friends and feeling a LOT more social. We’re trying new restaurants like it’s our job and making new routines in our new town. It feels like the beginning of a really really good season!

Dolly + Suki–

The pups are doing amazing! We noticed a positive change immediately (which has nothing to do with Nashville, but more with the layout of our new home). Since our new home is one-level to them (they never go downstairs ever), it’s much more conducive to snuggle time and hanging out together. Our last home had stairs, which Suki couldn’t do on her own, and she was often stuck at the top or the bottom waiting for “a lift”. This house layout is a lot more practical for them, and we could tell an instant boost in their happiness!

Having both of us working at home has also been amazing for them. Jeremy works downstairs, so he’s not with them as much during the day, but they pretty much hang out with me all day, every day, while I work. And it feels really good to see how happy that makes them!

It’s a small thing and it might seem silly, but we’re extreme dog people and it’s so good to see them SO HAPPY.

Finding our new spots–

This has been fun. In Springfield we went to all the places we liked anywhere from once a week to once a month. We were extreme “regulars” at several places, and we worried we would really miss that lifestyle and comfort once moving here. I mean, it’s cool to be able to try a new place every day, but we also want to have our spots where we go all the time.

So far we’re still trying a lot of new places. We have one breakfast spot where we go every week and they know us now (which feels good!), but other than that, we’re still strangers everywhere we go. I think it will take a while before we find our regular places, and it’s definitely more important to us at this phase to keep trying things we haven’t tried. We’re still finding new favorites almost every weekend, so it doesn’t make sense to settle into a routine quite yet!

Nashville has incredible restaurants and coffee shops. The health food game is very strong. It’s VERY easy to find a good salad. It’s very easy to find good coffee. These are important things… so we’re feeling pretty #BLESSED.

Missing our hometown– 

Even though we are very happy here, we do miss Springfield a lot. I lived there my whole life and Jeremy had been there since high school. Our whole world was there, and we had no desire to move EVER… until we did. Springfield, Missouri is a great place to live.

We’re both living far away from our family for the first time, and to be honest, we’re missing things and it’s hard. Our nieces and nephews are at really cute ages, and it’s hard not being able to go to breakfast with our parents whenever we want.

On some nights when we see all our friends doing something together or going to our favorite dive bar, it’s been hard. A couple weeks ago my sister’s bar opened, and we didn’t get to go home for that because I was really behind on work. I won’t lie – it’s been sad at times. I hope Nashville/Springfield will get a direct flight in the future because that would make it easier to go home for a quick trip. But for now… we’re going once every few months.

On a positive note, I do feel like when we’ve been in town, it’s really good quality time. So that’s good. And I am seeing Emma A LOT for work trips, so that’s good. Emma and I are in a REALLY good place with our new workflow, and I’m thankful that our many work trips and cookbook photoshoots are keeping us seeing each other about once a month.

Our family and friends have been visiting us A LOT, and it’s made the transition 1 million times easier. It really helps to have that next visit to look forward to!

Jeremy’s career– 

We pretty much moved to Nashville for Jeremy’s career. Even though he could technically do all the same work in Missouri, there were just some intangible advantages to being close and making connections in person that we felt like we were missing. And so far that’s proven to be true for us.

He has had some exciting opportunities and is getting some really beautiful music written here. His new studio is coming together, and it really feels like we made the right choice. I’m very thankful for that (I NEEDED that validation) and am excited to see where this year takes him.

Our new home–

House shopping in a new area was SCARY. I had a full-on breakdown after we moved in, scared we had chosen the wrong neighborhood to live in. When you buy a home in a city you don’t know very well, it’s hard not to second guess your decision. During that time, Jeremy gave me a perfect balance of comfort and tough love and reassured me that it doesn’t matter anymore – WE’RE HERE. We’re committed. This is our home.

Laura went through a similar initial shock, so it was good to have a friend to talk me through those first few weeks.

What I do know now is that WE LOVE OUR HOUSE. It’s been so fun to work on and with every little update, I am bonding with it more and more. And lately, as I can see it really starting to come together, I can visualize us being happy here for a long time.

We’re putting so much love and energy into this home. It’s starting to feel really REALLY good here.

Our support system– 

We were beyond lucky to move during the same season as two of our other couple friends. One of the couples is Todd and Laura. Todd is Jeremy’s best friend, so that is very good for him. Laura is also one of my bffs, but also my co-worker. And having someone to work on ABM stuff with immediately was really REALLY comforting.

Beyond that, Nashville is a very VERY friendly city. I have been blown away by the amount of love and support that has been shown to us. That friendliness made our transition feel effortless and very natural.

New routines– 

In Missouri we had routines we loved and traditions for every season. And while some of those things are still with us here, some of them aren’t. So we’re working on developing a new weekend routine and finding special seasonal things that are Nashville based.

It’s funny because we’ve actually found that a lot of our favorite traditions in Missouri are things we just want to do there. And we want to do different things here. So it’s more a matter of finding new things we love than finding replacements like I thought it would be.

In conclusion, we’re LOVING Nashville. We’re really happy we moved when we did. It hasn’t been easy or perfect, but it’s been really good for our careers, our marriage and hopefully our future. We’re looking forward to starting a family here and planting our roots.

I think in the back of our minds we hope to live in Missouri again, near our family, someday. That’s not off the table for “someday”. But in the immediate future, we’re just focused on making a life here. And it’s kind of cool starting from scratch!

If you’re Nashville based and have any suggestions of things you think we would enjoy, please throw them at me! I (literally) have a list in my purse of things I want to try to do every weekend. We’re really enjoying our experimental phase of trying anything and everything. Thank you to everyone who has given us tips, advice and support during this crazy year. We love you!

xx- Elsie