{local love} A Sonoran Desert Beauty

I think one of the reasons this home makes it to the blog is the fact that the designer made sure to off-set or balance such a rustic farmhouse style with things that are straight and modern. If you notice many of the lines on the light fixtures and cabinets are on the modern side. Secondly I love to find designers that don't have the typical "Sonoran Desert Style". To see more of this home go take a look at David Michael Miller's portfolio.

On my color radar {BORDEAUX}

Hello there..with being on the cusp of September I find my mind wandering to deeper and richer colors for fall. I really think things can be a little heavier and deeper when the temps start to cool down. That is why I think I am currently attracted to shades of bordeaux, maroon and burgundy. I think this season I wished I had saved my classic bordeaux colored penny loafers from the 7th grade.

{large image 1 via Lonny (JK Capri), 2 - Rita Konig home, 3 - AD France}

Get some trim and then do the splits

Today is your lucky day if you happen to be as obsessed with trims as I do.  If you are savvy with your trims then you know that great trims can be pricey.  Well being that in my mind everything needs to be trimmed out then you can imagine my joy when I found a little shop that sold pretty trims at $4.00 or less per yard.  The last few years I have slowed down on buying things even if they are a good deal because I don't want a repeat of 2006 when I was almost borderline trim hoarder...

Anyway I have been mixing a ton of blacks with blues and so when I found the above trim for drapes then I felt quite satisfied.  In case you were wondering..one time in junior high a girl told me that her biggest pet peeve was when people mixed blue and black.  Funny how that always stuck out in my mind all these years.  Seriously 20 years later I have this inner thing inside of me that wants to deny mixing those two colors.  Well I am happy to report that after intense therapy I am finally ok..ok to mix blue and black that is.  Seriously though Windsor Smith said it was ok..I asked her..and I really like her design eye.

Speaking of eyes I've heard another good way to to mix blacks and blues is to punch someone.....or have killer dance moves like me and somehow knock you eye on your knee..I know weird.

So I wasn't planning on sharing this but I just felt I needed to illustrate that fact that my body moves.  Something about a girls weekend creates this intense desire to do the jump splits even if it has been probably 20 years since the last attempt.   Did I just share that..well yes I did.



Oh and back to the trims.  You can find them here.

messing around

So a while ago we sold the girls beds and ripped down their wallpapered scrapbook paper pieces..remember those??  I needed a fun distraction so it was the easiest space to focus on for some inexpensive & quick results.  The room has always been a little too pink so I repainted. I used a color by Valspar called Apricot Ice. It has more peachy nude tones to the pink than the original color. Anyway I wanted to go for something a little more neutral and soft but the bedding I ordered is on back order until Oct.  So while cruising the bedding isle in IKEA I came across a fun duvet cover with an orangy-red border. It went perfectly with some fabrics that I already had. We will see how this all unfolds but for now a fun duvet cover $29.99 isn't too bad...plus that orangy-red color is so great.  Have you found any good little treasures lately?  I'd love to hear.

I drank a v-8 so I'm not as tippy over. (photo overload alert)

Well hi there..is anybody even still here?? Are you feeling a little awkward for me that I just up and abandoned this little blog without any exclamation? I'm sorry!!

Well here is the deal really..the day before I left for all of our summer extravaganzas my little boy from the back seat of the car said, "Mom, it's going to be the best day ever". I waited for him to expand upon why it was going to best day ever but only silence ensued so naturally I asked him why it was going to be such a good day and he simply said, "because the sunset", in which he clearly meant sunrise. I wanted that feeling..you know..to think this was the best day ever because of the sunrise. One of my favorite times of the day usually is when I open up the blinds in the morning and I don't think I had really opened up those blinds for a while (ok I really did open up the blinds but as a matter a speaking was not quite feeling the joy). Anyway just that simple exchange of words got me to think about where I was at in the present. Was I missing something? Because if I were I didn't want to be. I just plain felt burned out and not so much quality at anything because I had spread myself out so thin. So I devised a plan and it was called operation regroup and drop everything that didn't have to do with kids, summer and good health. It was just what I needed to do in the moment so I could reevaluate my life's plan. Feeling unbalanced is just the pits..ya know??

Summer was great. I had a brother get married, a family reunion and lots of swimming dates. We also got to spend a chunk of time in a place that in my opinion would stage a good reality show series for Survivor. I think on more than one occasion my husband and I fantasized about living the simple life in a cabin. We also think that if life offers us an opportunity for our family to own and work a cute shop during the summers in an apple orchard that we'd take it. I love how even in the most desolate of places there is beauty to be found...almost more sometimes. One of the highlights for the kids happened when we took them to the middle of no where desert to hunt for arrowheads and sharks teeth (crazy that there are sharks teeth in the desert). We didn't find either of those but we did stumble upon banks of fossilized clams...probably courtesy of the ancient Lake Bonneville. Truly it was a sight to behold.

Talk soon.

P.S. - A few additional pics of the family reunion, my brother and his new wife, my boyfriend (aka as my nephew) and goofiness found in a family. (below photos by my sister Annie who also happens to be the mother of the before said boyfriend)