Cheeky in Blue: 2014

Thank God fall is here and tales of much needed home improvements...

Today in Dallas it was a gorgeous breezy high of 74 degrees preceded by yesterday's weather consisting of 58 degrees and cloudy which means HELLO DALLAS…THIS BE FALL! We were in the 90's last week and I was in denial clinging to my jeans and light sweater fantasy after having taken my baby girl to school up in Chi-Town two weeks ago where it was full up in fab fall splendor! But now I have hope that I can pull out all my fall faves of boots and scarves and cozy sweaters galore. This is without a doubt my favorite time of year.
Having spent the summer at Beach Cheeky, this has been the first year that I had not planted any flowers in the yard so I could not wait to finally get some fall mums planted ASAP…

Lovin the mums!

And start decorating for Halloween…the spooky witch!

We had such a great summer at Beach Cheeky, but the first thing I noticed when we got back was how desperately our Dallas home is in need of a little love if you will. It needs some serious freshening up or an upgrade, enhancement, a little promotion! Basically it needs a full-on overhaul, because I had no idea how tired our house was until I was away from it for a bit. Immediately I was looking for paint samples, because we are currently dealing with early 2000 yellow everything and a kitchen of glazed Tuscany troweled walls meets central Texas and it's not pretty people…not pretty at all.

See what I'm talking about!

Now we are dealing with the ubiquitous perfect gray that everyone is searching for which is the color du jour…

I'm thinking Benjamin Moore Edgecomb gray perhaps...

or Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter…

or Cedar Key…

And once I change the paint, well you know the drill…everything else needs to have a conversation as well! We have lived in this house for eight years and it was built in 2001, so the house needs a major updo! Right now I'm focusing on paint first (least expensive biggest impact!) and then one by one knocking off each thing on the list like

1. Paint interior rooms

2. New sectional and rug family room area

3. New set of couches in living room and new marble around fireplace replacing it with Calcutta or Slate

4. Tear out carpeting in master, install wood floors

5. Tear out carpeting upstairs hallway install wood floors

6. Re-carpet upstairs bedrooms and game room

7. Gut and redo master bath

8. Gut and redo kitchen

Whew that is a lot! And it will take a long time because there are some major big ticket items in here like the bathroom and kitchen.

Now let's get shopping!

A little bit obsessed with Currey and Company...

There is nothing that is more fun and nothing that will drive you more insane than trying to pick out just the right kind of lighting for your home. Why?? Well there is so much great stuff out there and honestly so many different ways to go depending on what particular fab vibe you might be going for. The truth is people that the choices are endless and if you are anything like me you will change your mind 750 times. When I was picking out lighting for Beach Cheeky, I nearly lost my mind. Out of the many decisions in building a home, this proved to be the most challenging, because I literally kept changing my mind nearly every 3 days! My latest foray into lighting has been working with a client on their new build and there was so many great pieces to consider. Their taste was along the lines of contemporary to transitional so Currey and Company was the first place I thought of to check out their amazing wares.

This one is perfect for a foyer…The Bevilaqua Chandelier! It's hard to tell with this picture, but it's more of a pale green glass than clear, and the look is perfection!

It also comes in a smaller 3 tiered size…

Another great piece is the Stratosphere Chandelier…

The Paradox Chandelier…

The Hedy Chandelier which I put in Beach Cheeky…

This gorgeous chandelier is not the client's cup of tea, but I'm a bit obsessed! It's done in a blush quartz and called the LouLou Chandelier…

The Pastiche Orb Chandelier…OK it looks kind of nuts, but trust me in the right space it would be spectacular…

And in a rectangular size…

A trip down to Alys Beach...

One of my favorite things to do while spending time at the beach, besides eating and drinking ad nauseam, is taking a bike ride to all of the communities along 30 A. The other day Big D and I trekked down to Alys Beach on the bikes and it is such a gorgeous place. The community is like something out of Greece where everything is built in white stucco and it is really quite gorgeous. The homes tend to be built around an inner courtyard, and I'm dying to go through one of these gorgeous homes! It is only 10 percent built up at this point on a 20 year plan so it looks to be one of the larger communities along 30 A. Sadly I only had my iPhone with me that day and you can tell by the pics that there is some kind of sea haze on my lens, so the pics look as though I used some kind of filter.

update…just realized my excessive overuse of the word gorgeous. Must remember there are a whole host of words to effectively describe said gorgeousness. Like for instance exquisite, delightful, dazzling (not really my kind of word, but you never know), sublime, stunning, impressive, aesthetically agreeable, enchanting, lovely, and my personal two favorites: bewitching and fetching. Words in my opinion that aren't used nearly enough. Now go forth people and start using them as much as possible...

Love the rosemary growing out in front of this home...

They have these adorable outdoor seating areas…

Beautiful pathways…

Love the driftwood horses…

There is a wonderful pool and restaurant for the owners and guests called Caliza, they also serve dinner to the public. I'm dying to go down here for a drink one night…so swanky!!

Heavenly gelato in Seaside...

What's better at the beach than a scoop of gelato on a hot day? We stopped for a scoop at the famous Heavenly Gelato and Ice Cream in the heart of Seaside while perusing the shops around town. None for me sadly! This one was for my youngest who is now in fact bigger than me. It's a long incredibly boring story, but I can no longer have dairy and haven't for the past eight or nine months and yes people, it is no fun, no fun at all!!! No more butter. No more milk shakes. No more mochas. No more milk chocolate, fresh mozzarella, extra cheese anything, Doritos!! Are you kidding me?…no more Doritos!!! Cheese Nips, cheese dips, a la mode whatever!! Truly, the no cheese part is the worst, but c'est la vie, there are worse problems to have…so instead I live vicariously through my kid's food choices!!

Yum, biscotti gelato!!!!

A beachy 4th of July with the sand and symphony!

The house was decked out in Red White and

Blue too…

We were lucky to have a nearly perfect 4th of July this year with some of the god awful humidity rolling out to make way for warm summer temperatures which made it the perfect weather to spend the whole day outside. Last year during the weather from hell, the 4th was a giant bust because of the monsoon like weather we got! This year has certainly made up for that disaster! We started off the day heading in the golf cart to the annual Seaside 4th of July parade when upon arrival we sadly discovered everyone was going in the other direction as in the parade was over! Ugh!

This is us arriving apparently an hour too late…