Palm Springs Respite

Have you ever taken a weekend away from your real life to hang out with your girlfriends in a fantastic home?  This last weekend found me in Palm Springs with a "posse" of great women at the home of a generous friend.  She waited on us throughout the weekend, even serving us a homemade BBQ Surf & Turf, steak, shrimp and lobsters.  Ohh-La-La! House on the golf course with view of the desert mountains.

Let's walk in the entry together...

 Fountain out the sliding doors, herons I believe.

 One of the most fun parts of the weekend was living in a home fabulously decorated in a style totally different from my home, modern, sleek, minimalistic, and ohh-la-la (notice the theme?)  White and gray walls, white leather sofas with pops of red pillows and modern art. 

Do you notice that the ceiling is a darker color than the white walls but not as dark as the gray wall?  So what the interior designer says is that you cut the darker paint by 50% to paint the ceiling - and it works perfectly!  Ohh-la-la.

 Pool table felted in gray. Is the fixture over the table the most ohh-la-la?

 Fireplace filled with glass chards with lights underneath.  I missed taking pictures at night - bummer!  The lamps and fixtures were simply ohh-la-la.

 

Love the fabric of this chair.

Bar floating in the middle of the two living spaces. 

 Seashell close-up of bar art.

Two peas in a pod in chrome centerpiece. Wow.

Kitchen also floated in the middle of the house, not huge, but beautifully adorned with every modern appliance and stone counters.

Love the river rock back sprash and faucet to fill the pasta pot.  Love how the bananas pop off the counter with color, almost like art.


 Modern Art.

 Wall art.

Bedroom in grays and white, with black and white photographs of old time stars floating on the wall above the bed.

Master bedroom and bath all open to the golf course, water, and Palm Spring Mountains.  

 It's hard to see but this mirror is elevated on dark gray pots filled with black pebbles.  Fabulous idea.

 That's a putting green off the bath, just cuz.

 And a fountain off the bedroom where I slept.  Out to the pool and spa.  Wish I took pictures of the ladies around the edges with fountains coming out their mouths, spraying into the pools. Lovely. 

 It is good to get away and live the life of someone else, play with your posse, and then return to the home and family that you also love.  Ohh-la-la.  If someone asked me to design a fragrance, it would be called "Ohh-la-la" and somehow it would smell like this weekend.  Thank you friends.  I'm lucky to have you in my life.  XOOOXX
~CJ

Hmmming about Halloween

I have found a new blog that I love called, Sew Many Ways.  Today she posted a "Thoughts on Thursday" about costumes that she made her children over the years.  It got me thinking about some of my favorite designs. Ah sweet memories!

Sometime in the early 1980's, I made these homemade Care Bear costumes for my two cherubic boys, (and then made heads for Dad and I as well - he was Business Bear and I was Work Out Bear.)  The only picture I could find was of Kevin ....(stay tuned for the story that comes later about Kevin.)

The kids looked adorable, and when they were all grown up, they tried the heads on again, including Dad's head, and they looked even more adorable.

And then there was the year I made them astronaut costumes because I found a great price on ironing board fabric. I don't think they LOVED the astronaut costumes (not exactly superheroes in the 1980's) but I thought they were ROCK STARS!

I loved making those costumes, and I miss those little boys.  Last year, Kevin asked me to make him an Elmo costume, and his girlfriend a Big Bird costume.  Yippee!  I'm back in business.

This past summer Elmo and Big Bird married!  I know that they will have many beautiful costumes together.

McCormick Ranch Wedding

Elevenses Tea party

My very talented sister-in-law designed this lovely Tea party baby shower, called Elevenses (pronounced: Eleven-zees)
Urban Dictionary defines Elevenses as

	The name for a traditional English requirement for a hot beverage, usually tea or coffee and a light, sweet snack to go with it, usually biscuits. The urge arrives around 11am, hence the name, and is used to fill the gap between breakfast and lunch. "I'm starting to feel a little peckish, is it time for elevenses yet?"

 Beautiful buffet with tea sandwiches, scones, and salad.  Cupcakes for dessert.  How elegant is that?!

 Backyard set with three tables surrounding one giant rented umbrella.  We ended up with less sun than we hoped for, so the pictures are a little overcast.

 

Sachet with teabag-like tag, "Baby Dunn is Brewing"

 I was happy to partner my Pope-Gosser Rose Point with my sister-in-law's beautiful unpainted Limoges plates.

 All the teacups were in different patterns.

  Coffee pots served as vases.

Teapots awaiting the tea

Once they have stickily munched their elevenses, Pooh says that he had better be off

Elevenses is a traditional little mid-morning snack, complete with tea and often something sweet like a biscuit (translation: cookie), iced bun or slice of cake. Just a little something to get you over the hump until lunchtime. It’s a little respite that the Brits take seriously. Apparently, Winnie the Pooh enjoyed some honey on bread and condensed milk for elevenses and Hobbits eat elevenses to break up the time between their second breakfast and lunch. I highly recommend Elevenses as a great baby shower theme!