Perfect summer rooms...

     It is already so hot here in Dallas.  The last couple of days have been in the high 90's and hovering around 100 for the next few.  The thought of hot chenille couches or leather laden sectionals makes me just feel hotter.  Then there are the rooms that just seem to breathe, consisting of crisp linen or cotton and airy white walls.  Those are the rooms you want to be in this time of year.

This one is exactly the perfect kind of summer room up in Canada on Lake Muskoka...
It is filled with the most gorgeous rooms...
 I love this bed and all of the linens, not to mention that rug!


images via Adore Your Place
Cozy yet completely airy with all the white, pitched ceiling, and fireplace...
 image via Pinterest
image via Pinterest
image via Pinterest

Who cares if it's 100 degrees outside when you can linger in these perfect summer spaces...

Oy vey, things you do when you should be doing something else...

   

Big waste of time ahead people...

     So I've just spent the last 15 minutes of my life, time I shan't get back anytime soon mind you, time I could have spent writing the next great American novel, time I could have spent cleaning my closet (oh that's rich), time I could have spent doing sit ups for my latest vice (see crack food du jour), or made a bucket of money on a phone sex line (I mean not that there's anything wrong with it, I just don't think I'm equipped with enough colorful adjectives and a superfluous level of sketchy verbs and all), instead I've been applying every cream in the book to my apparently pre-pubescent face which is well, just a wee past puberty people.  Make it stop!  I'm like a fourteen year old boy here people...
I have no shame...Exhibit A...
 Exhibit B...
Settle down people, I know my beauty is pretty much blinding you all right now, but I am seriously over the fact that I have more breakouts than all three of my kids put together...

And BTW...
I can't quit eating this food crack...whilst watching Tardy for the Party on Bravo, my fave channel...
Food crack recipe:  Garlic bagel chips topped with goat cheese.  I can not stop.  I actually googled fat content from my computer, because I was too lazy and somewhat terrified to actually look on said package which is in fact in the kitchen a mere 30 feet away, and I've gone in there like 18 times now to feed my face and have eaten at least half of some serious goat cheese...but somehow, I can't put this combo down...

Clearly there are about 800 other more pressing/worthy things I should be doing besides puttin zit cream on m'face, and filling m'belly with crack snacks, and finding out that Ms. Kim Zolciack is in fact preggers again...




Take me away to someplace fabulous...

     It's that time of year when everyone is planning their summer getaways, and there is nothing I love more than planning a getaway!  I love everything about them.  I love the hotel, the room service, the new shops, exciting people, new smells and scenery.  I also love the simple vacations where we rent bikes, grill hot dogs and hamburgers, run up and down the beach with flashlights catching sand crabs and letting them go, and setting off fireworks on the beach.  Those are my most precious memories.  But sometimes the far away vacations, the exotic ones, the extravagant ones can be the ones we all long for.

Here are some I'm longing to go on...someplace in Italy, actually lot's of places in Italy, actually where wouldn't I go in Italy...
Particularly here in Sorrento along the Almafi coast at Villa Miragalli...
Villa Miragalli,Infinity pool on the Amalfi coast
This photo of Villa Miragalli,Infinity pool on the Amalfi coast is courtesy of TripAdvisor

image via Trip Advisor
Look at this view...
Villa Miragalli,Infinity pool on the Amalfi coast
This photo of Villa Miragalli,Infinity pool on the Amalfi coast is courtesy of TripAdvisor
So gorgeous...
Villa Miragalli,Infinity pool on the Amalfi coast
This photo of Villa Miragalli,Infinity pool on the Amalfi coast is courtesy of TripAdvisor
And here, another fab place you can rent along the Almafi Coast in Sorrento, kind of cray cray how beautiful this place is...

Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
I mean really...
Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Don't you want to go?
Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Look at this view...
Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Yes please...

Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
This place is insane...
Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Villa Sorrento
This photo of Villa Sorrento is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Pack my bags like yesterday...







The Bloggess...because wine people, because wine...

     Do you all ever read The Bloggess a fellow blogger, I say fellow blogger like I'm in some kind of club consisting of bloggingesque people in the know and that perhaps I'm on a first name basis with them, like we have lunch and chat about potential blogging topics like the latest Benjamin Moore must have gray for walls, the perfect Schumacher paper, the most abnormally brilliant farm house table for your kitchen...but sadly no, I have never met The Bloggess, but I love what she writes.  She's a complete hoot.  She posts things like this, that make me giggle...

And this...
 And her story about
Beyonce the giant metal chicken  is classic, one of the funniest things evaAH!...


And she was #1 on the New York Time Best Sellers List for this, which is apparently filled with awesomeness and cocaine, which is well, maybe the best selling tactic ever for a book unless it was filled with some Ryan Gosseling... I'm thinkin... I think the title captures the inner dialogue in most of us...words to live by people...

She is a riot, and has a true gift for writing in the way that makes people laugh for days.  Sometimes she reminds us of what is real, because let's face it, it's easy to forget, and she tells us of her numerous struggles with depression.  And again she's brilliant...because she's real.
And she writes about it here in I'm coming out of this eventually. 

Sometimes we just need someone to bring the wine...girls are brilliant at this, 
From the Bloggess...


Me: I’m having a nervous breakdown.
Friend: I’ll bring the wine.


I have true empathy for anyone going through the depression that The Bloggess talks about effortlessly.  I don't struggle with depression, but I do battle anxiety on a regular basis, yet I know so many people who do, and her words can make a difference.  Anxiety is a different beast altogether that can honestly wreck a person if you let it.  


    So how do you not let it wreck you...
     -you deal with it like you would if you had high blood pressure, or cholesterol...
     -you're honest about it so that everyone in your life knows this is who you are, (it's not like you are a serial killer people)
     -you recognize that everyone has a story, and I assure you theirs is way-haayy better than yours...
     -get moving, bloody well sweat people (don't I sound so very English right now, well yes, yes I do)
     -get out of your comfort zone, do something that scares you on a regular basis, (I don't mean drinking snake venom for god's sake...I mean something like going parasailing when you're afraid of heights, or taking a trip all by yourself...you can do it, you really can)
     -get out of your head, get outside, breathe in and out, because there are days you forget to
     - be with friends, loads of friends and yes...

Drink wine

why...because it's wine people...
And chocolate can be pretty bad ass too...    

Must have things for the beach...

    I'm heading to the beach to check out Beach Cheeky in a couple of weeks, and I need to get myself together people!  There are things to be buy, borrow, and steal because I've got to get my beach situation on dragging Big D and my 3 not so little ninos behind me, so Mama's got to get organized...

I'm kind of loving this from m'fave store Target...
Merona striped tote for a mere 35 bones, thank you very much...

J Crew is my hero in all things
like here...
Polka dot linen shorts...yes please...
And their pleated chiffon top
And how 'bout some blingy bling people!  My personal fave is Anna Beck jewelry made in Bali, and I have a few items from her gorgeous line.  You can find her things at Nordstrom...
I have her silver and gold beaded saddle ring, a cuff bracelet, and earrings and I wear them everywhere...


But I want, need, must have this!
Anna Beck tourquoise!
Or in silver...
And these chandelier earrings..
And something from L Space, it looks mildly cheesy, but I kinda diggin it people, Padma is clearly loving it...

Sea Folly's Indigo Bikini...

Let's not forget some serious SPF, everyday all day!  I use at least a 55, and at the beach usually a 70...
And some flip flops, I love me some Old Navy in this department!
For...wait for it...$3.94!  You can't get a Starbucks for $3.94?  Need more than one pair and the price goes down to $2.50 people!  What?!!!!!

And if you want to get your cray cray on how 'bout these fab shoe finds?  There's no place like the beach, there's no place like the beach...
image via Pinterest

Kitchen Faucets and Beach Cheeky updates...

     Beach Cheeky is moving along so fast people!  We are 43% complete, which I'm sure will slow down dramatically once they get the subcontractors in there, which always takes more time.  It is so strange building a home when you are no where near where the building part of it is actually going on.  I wish I had a live cam to watch it all in action!  I get weekly updates and it is actually looking like a house now.  Currently I'm trying to decide weather to change my faucet in the kitchen from what comes in the plumbing package that the builder typically uses.  I'm going to go with everything else in the house along the plumbing package lines, but I'm not in love with the kitchen faucet that they use.  I know, clearly, most people could care less about their kitchen faucet, but I'm kind of persnickity on such things!
Here's the one the builders provide...

This is by Grohe in their Concetto line...
It's not bad, I could live with it, and the price point is a good one.  I actually don't mind a more contemporary look in a beachy kitchen, but I'm not completely sold on this.

Another trend right now are the professional/semi-professional faucets you see in industrial type kitchens...
image via Pinterest

like here...
I've never used one of these, but I think they are kind of cool looking!  Again, most of these are great price points...

And then there is the one I kind of love it's by Rohl in their Perrin & Rowe series, but of course there's that whole price point thing, and this one is a wee bit spensive...
image via Pinterest

Love how this looks...

Here is the progress on Beach Cheeky, windows and doors are installed and a look at the front porch...


Back of house...


The fireplace is installed...

The upstairs back porch...

Kitchen and breakfast nook...
I can't wait to see it in person!