From where I sit...

The view from where I sit tonight. Nine feet of Christmas sparkles in our living room, raining outside and "The Hobbit" on TV. Well played, Saturday. Well played.

Favorites

My favorite shoes. My favorite weather. My favorite running compression tights. 

 Today was a good day :)

Wishing Tree

There is a unique little town close to where we live called Port Costa. It is like going back in time to a movie set...except it is real.



And that car below??? Major vehicle lust coming from me over this one:



We spent a day with friends driving around and exploring this funky little town. My favorite part was this large olive tree in front of someones house that had hundreds of old tags hanging from it.



Upon closer inspection, we realized that there were wishes written on each tag and a jar nearby with pencils and more tags. Some wishes were written in crayon by children, some written in other languages. The whole of the tree is then wrapped in multi colored Christmas lights. Isn't this world just fascinating? What a hidden treasure.

If you are ever in the Bay Area, Port Costa is worth an afternoon of exploring. 

Being Grateful...

If you are feeling overwhelmed/overburdened/OVER it all try a trick today: just start thinking of all that you have to be thankful for.  Seriously.  Start with the fact that you are able to breathe on your own without a machine...or that you have hands that work.  Or that you slept in a bed last night.  Start with the basics and build from there.  You will be surprised in less than a minute how much you have to be thankful for.

There are many times in my life where I start to feel like I am drowning under ALL of it.  And then I need a perspective shift.  For me it starts with remembering all that I have been blessed with, all that I have to be grateful for.

Give it a shot.  That's my challenge for you today :)

Glittering Risers

I saw this on Pinterest today and fell pretty hard.  Absolutely LOVE this...

 

Would you do this look?

Besties...

These are my besties.  My girls.  My peeps.  Some of the people on this great big earth who know me best...and love me anyway.





I'm a lucky lady to have these girls in my life.  We all met many many years ago in NYC before we had babies.  Now we have 16 kids and a lifetime of friendship between us.  I am so grateful that we carved out the time to travel from our far flung corners of the country for 4 days together in Rhode Island for our annual girls weekend.  It was epic.  We laughed, we cried.  We did some unmentionable things.  I'll just leave it at that.

Love you girls :)

Love Where You Live

I'm not sure if I have talked about this before...but I absolutely love where I live.  We have been in the Bay Area now for 10 years and each year that goes by I realize I love it more and more.  These are vineyard filled hills that surround my kids school.  The view doesn't get any better than this.

 



It took a good 3 years for me to fall in love with this place.  I was (well...am) an East Coast girl and living in NYC for nearly 7 years had me wound pretty tight.  But now I am fully invested with being a California girl.  There are a lot of uncertainties in life and certainly no day is completely free from problems but if you love where you live it sure helps.

DIY: Backyard Fabric Garland

See those big kids on bikes?  Those are my older two.  They are getting too big.  And see that garland hanging on my back fence?  I made that this weekend.  It is way longer than you can appreciate based on this photo.  I gathered up a bunch of my favorite vintage and colorful fabrics and chopped out some triangles and sewed them to burlap twine.  It was literally that simple and I love the way it looks.

Have you ever made a fabric garland? Are you looking for a use for those fabric scraps in your craft room? You should try this!

Board Books

Check out this incredible headboard made of books.  Perfect for the book lover...or possibly for someone who suffers from insomnia?  For tips on how to make this incredible headboard please visit this website - she will show you how to do it from start to finish.

DIY: Dressing Up the Foyer...

I have been looking for a long time for a storage savvy piece for my foyer.  Now don't start thinking I have a grand foyer; the very word "foyer" sounds grand doesn't it?  Well, my foyer situation is not grand but after lots of searching and thinking and more searching I finally found the perfect piece.

I found this piece at my local favorite flea/antique haunt.  It was olive green when I found it:

 

I knew that it needed to be French Louis blue. I used my favorite Annie Sloan chalk paint and cleaned this old girl right up.  It took a good 2 1/2 coats; I spent the bulk of my painting time talking to Sophie so I quite enjoyed myself. I finished the whole piece off with Annie Sloan wax and allowed a few days to dry completely before I styled it.

Here is this beauty NOW:




The drawers contain ALL of our DVD binders and Wii games.  We still have a whole spare drawer for whatever crops up in the future.  I loved the colors and lines of this piece.  Also, it weighs a TON, so it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Like, it seriously weighs a ton and I still can't believe that I hauled it out of my car and into my house. If I ever doubt my own strength I just have to look at this giant thing and pat myself on the back.

Pretty Twine

Want to see the prettiest twine EVER?





This just makes my heart go pitter patter.  Like seriously.  I have millions and millions of fabric scraps. This will be the perfect way to use them all!  Got to do this right now...

This quote resonated with me today.





Thank you Mr. Twain.  Those are some good thoughts.