About Us
Our Nesty Beginnings
The much-anticipated apartment search had begun early 2016 in Palm Beach, Florida, of all places, surrounded by multi-million dollar homes. Sure, I’ll find a good deal, I reluctantly told myself! As luck would have it, a friend of a friend knew of the perfect little studio apartment nestled a block away from the serenity of The Atlantic Ocean. Martin, my boyfriend, had decided to escape the hustle and bustle of Miami. For the first time, we combined our lives and love into one tiny studio apartment, our nest on Oleander Avenue. Here’s our story, and beautiful journey with helpful tips on lasting love starting in a studio apartment.
Think of an actual nest. The birds are making their nest diligently, placing twig after twig in an organized matter overlapping the other, instinctively knitting together the structure. It all comes into place, not too cluttered but just right to bring safety and security nestled within a strong branch of the tree! This premeditated stage of life, which is naturally attuned in all of us, is survival. One studio, transformed from a house into four studios, is now our sanctuary, our place of safety from the outside world. A warm, inviting, comfortable space we definitely thought of as impossible and made it into the possible. A place we lovingly shaped into our home.
Our nest definition is, "A serendipitous adventure started under humble beginnings with one bathroom with no door, and a closet turned kitchen, a studio we made into our home, all divinely driven by our love."
It is never too late to take a new course in your life and restart from humble beginnings, especially when you have someone to share this new journey with. Be it a studio or small shack, it doesn't matter if the game plan is to grow into your greatness. Aligned values and a plan for meaningful achievements with your partner side by side is motivation. Living lean, mean, and within your means. A launching pad to strive out of survival mode and into prosperity.
One of our neighbors, Peter, jokingly suggested that we should write a book about this experience of two love birds living in a place built for one. The funny thing is we did not intend to move into a studio? Life rearranged itself into circumstances explained in more detail within our story in our studio manifesto. Why the 33 chapters? One of the definitions we found on Google was, "The ’33’ symbolizes the highest spiritual conscious attainable by the human being". That’s a pretty good definition to work with and be inspired by. It seems like the perfect number of chapters to encourage and excite others through our experience in starting from simple beginnings living in a tiny space. We gathered all the essential things we've learned in this experience in both functional, behavioral, and, most importantly, in love. Thank you, Peter.
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—Intro from the Book
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#studiolife #tinystudio #relationshipblog #blessthenest
Martin Casado
I was born and raised in the 305, Miami, Florida, and moved not so long ago to Palm Beach. My parents are quite the Spanish mix, my mother was born in Indiana, and later moved to Miami, her parents are Ecuadorian/Puerto Rican and on her father's side Venezuelan. My father is from Santiago, Chile and he immigrated here when he was only twenty-one years old. I was always involved in the family company, exporting to South America, but I was always so creative and restless doing the day in and day out of the business, my soul begged for more. I dove into graphic design, went back for a full bachelor's degree, never finished my business one in my early twenties, in a design university (MIU) and after a few agencies, I started my own company called Nitram Communication + Design. Over the years I have been expanding my skillset into design, photography, some video, and video editing, and honing my craft for over 10+ years. Recently, I have been collaborating with a few start-ups now as the main design/art director partner in a technology consulting company. In the process, I've also written my first book in collaboration with a mentor who inspired and changed my life in so many ways called, Friday's with Goodman, available on Amazon and on our site. I was actually in the middle of writing my book when I met my lovely Ashley in Delray Beach one lonesome night I was visiting a friend who lived there. She lived in Palm Beach and I was living in Miami, Florida and after about a year of commute, I decided to move in with her and leave my beloved Miami. It was time and I wanted to get out and explore. She was already in the studio and what we thought was temporary turned into a blessing and here we are in this phase of our life. A block from the beach and the intercoastal we are living in a paradise. A studio with no walls represents the boundaries we make up and since we have no walls our love has grown into something beyond what I could have imagined. So much so we even wrote a book about it. Inspired by the trials and errors of my first book it felt only natural to set off and do another book about our experience amongst our tiny studio. The blog has been the next step in cross-promoting the book and an extension of our journey in the studio and into a future nest that lies ahead. I hope you enjoy the book and the creative writings of our experiences and our ever-growing love in our nest and nest to come.
Ashley Martin
I was born in Seattle, Washington and spent my younger years growing up outside of the desert covered and mountainous outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona where our family moved. I was a ballet dancer and loved exploring nature on hikes in the mountains. After a series of events that unfolded, my sister and I eventually moved out to New Jersey where we spent our later childhood and graduated from high school. In my mid-twenties, after studying a few years of psychology and biology courses, I postponed college until I could find out what I really wanted to do. I knew there was another path, but couldn't quite figure it out just yet. My sister had decided to move to Florida for a job offer and I would go and visit her there. Tired of the snowy New Jersey winters and missing my big sister, I decided to move to the sunshine state, Florida. It was the best decision I've ever made, and my new life in Florida blossomed. I found myself working in a restaurant in Palm Beach, managing the catering aspect and dabbling in food photography which I loved immensely. I grew into my passions in the culinary world, with photography and writing ultimately becoming my happy place. I met my best friend and love of my life, Martin and our lives have been an adventure of a lifetime ever since. He is my world and I am so blessed to have him as my partner in our life journey together. We have made our studio and nest into our safe place of nurture, where are roots are growing deep into our tree of life. This book is based on our experiences about life in Palm Beach while living in our tiny studio. I have always been a believer that when you better your life and yourself every day, beautiful things come your way. Sometimes, your most vulnerable times are ultimately your greatest gifts. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as Martin and I enjoyed writing it, here's to "Blessing your Nest." Cheers!!