Coronado Countdown



Pool surfing.  It is harder than it looks.  Practice for the real beach. 



We take our annual trek to California soon and really it can’t be soon enough.  It is hot here no matter how you slice it.  For anyone who has not experienced temperatures over 115, no matter if someone says it’s a dry heat, it is still really hot and Arizonans flock to the nearest cooler respite.  That may be the mountains of Arizona or the beaches of California; I am on the wagon train headed for the coast.

In the meantime, since beach time is not quite here yet I will redecorate with my beachy décor to try to pretend that we are already in 70 degree temps.  That means a couple of trips to our off site storage to retrieve the beachy stuff. 

Americana will be packed away today and tomorrow,  Beach stuff comes out of storage today. 

Why do I have a storage unit, you are asking yourself.  One of the oddities of an Arizona home is the lack of anything underground.  Our homes are built on slabs of concrete and we do not have a basement.  We do have garages but my husband thinks garages are for cars,  not decorating stuff.  So each season we make the trek to storage to bring out the new season and pack away the old.  My containers are marked and separated by season so it is not too horrible to change out the season.  The worst part is actually packing up the old season and transporting it.  Luckily I have help.

How to achieve the Beachy look?

First, I change the color scheme.  Now it is Americana, so cheers to the red, white and blue.  When beachy arrives the colors switch to bright colors, blues and greens with an occasional pop of orange.  Our couch is grey (all the time) so it is very easy to change the accent pillows  and achieve a new look.  So in the “great” room I change the mantle and the pillows and the décor items on the shelves.  Not too time consuming. Our home is the type without a separate living and family room.  We have one gathering place and it is our great room.

Wow Longaberger Americana.  It will be back in storage tomorrow.  Baskets take up a lot of room in storage.  I sold 200 baskets recently and I will be reducing my stash again in the fall. 

I am also a collector of sets of dishes.  I once had a friend who had a “dish room” in her house.  That might be my dream house.  My numerous sets are in the cabinets in the garage (the garage is really cool with chalkboard paint and all of the cabinets labeled but that is a story for another day), in the china cabinet , in a foyer cabinet and in the closet of the guest room.  I really do not know how many sets of dishes I own.  But more good news, I did not switch out my dishes for Americana because I had just bought a new set of the dishes that look like they are hand thrown pottery but are really melamine.  I had just purchased these so I did not want to use Americana when I had not even broken in the new set.  Mine are turquoise, bright green, yellow and red, solids for the plates and bowls and I picked up some patterned accent plates in an ocean motif.  I bought the basic dishes at Williams Sonoma and the accent pieces at Pier One.  Enough about dishes but you will see them change often.



This is my little guest room.  The bed was my husband's Grandmother's bed.  She was born in the 1800's.  It is just a full size bed but we have to keep it because we love it.  The pillows change with the season and sometimes it is really just black and white.  This room is the opposite of the bathroom, both black and white but one black with white and one white with black. 



Linens are super easy to switch out for the seasons and I have collected several quilts and coverlets that are summery and beachy.  The baths are also an easy switch with a change of towels and a few décor items it is completed.

Guest Bathroom.  I know it is black and white but the accents change with the seasons.  Sometimes it really is black and white.  Stay tuned.

So in summary:

• Change accent pillows
• Redecorate mantle
• Seasonal dishes
• Linens in bed and bath
• Redo décor on shelves

I heard this song on the radio today and I thought that it pretty well summed up my thoughts today.  This is from Chicken Fried by the Zac Brown Band- Enjoy…….

And its funny how it's the little things in life that mean the most
Not where you live, what you drive or the price tag on your clothes
There's no dollar sign on a piece of mind; this I've come to know
So if you agree have a drink with me
Raise your glasses for a toast
To a little bit of chicken fried…………..by the Zac Brown Band

I love music so I may be adding a few of my favorite lyrics, artists, and songs.  I hope it makes you feel happy like it makes me.

Please stay tuned for my next posting.  I told one of our sons today that I know the blog is a little disjointed and all over the place but that is a true depiction of me.  I am all over the place and into a ton of projects at once.  I dabble in numerous things throughout the day.

 

More pool surfing

Stay tuned for My Top Five, beach decorating and always more grandchildren pictures.

Love, Ya-Ya