Beach comes to Scottsdale

Bins from storage.  Aren't they a nice decorating touch?  To the left is a window frame that I redid with pics of the kids.  That will be coming soon in a picture where you can really see it.  A project that was easy and super fun.  

One trip to storage on Saturday yielded 8 plastic bins of beach stuff. My plan was to unpack at least half of them on Sunday and finish today.  I know I need to reduce my collections.  Anything I do not use will be in the fall garage sale.  It is time to reevaluate all of this stuff.

Longaberger baskets from the last garage sale.  I need to sell about 200 more

Our yard looks bedraggled from the heat so I need a spark of color indoors.  You can see the couch with bright pillows that really brighten up the place.  The mantle is redone with generic, Mercury glass,  which will take us 'til fall arrives.  I am sure you are laughing and thinking there is no fall in Arizona and you are right, so we go by the calendar not the weather.  It could be in the 90's on Halloween.  But that does not mean that we don't decorate. 

In fact,  stay tuned for Halloween....I have a neighbor that goes so over the top on her yard decorations that there is a line of cars driving by each night.  She puts out thousands of Halloween lights and decorates her entire yard.  A few of us join in on the fun, but that will be a post for October,  so please follow me and you won't miss anything.  It really is amazing.

The costumes selected by the girls in 2014.

A word about a Halloween tradition that is super fun and needs to be thought about in August.  When our eldest Grandson was one year old,  I asked if I could pick his Halloween costume.  Every year from then on, as the kids were old enough, we have spent time pouring over the catalogs with the kids to choose costumes.  It is something special between Ya-Ya and the four Grand-kids.  I actually received a teaser catalog yesterday.  I know it seems too soon but we looked at it with the Grandsons already and will look at a bunch of catalogs together before the selection is actually made.  I would love to make the costumes, but I still have a full time job so I don't have the time....maybe someday.

Back to redoing decor for beachy theme.  The guest bedroom is right off the foyer and you see it as soon as you walk into our home.  So it changes often.  The base quilt is all white so it is easy to change up the pillows, throw a different quilt at the bottom of the bed and voila the room is redressed for a different season.  One of our sons is moving and is using our house for home base until the mover gets the stuff to their new house.   I did not get pictures before they arrived with suitcases and the boxes of stuff that they did not want the movers to take.  So it might be a while before there are any guest room pics.  

The guest bathroom is also easy to redo.  Towels and a couple of decor changes and redone for the next season.  The black and white base colors work really well with loads of different accent colors.

Thanks to my dear cousin for reminding me with this gift.  It is one of my favorites.

Just a tiny change with a towel to make it look like beachy colors.

The dishes in the kitchen are already beachy so I just need to redo the table and a couple of shelves and we are ready to go.

One of my biggest challenges is the dining room.  The table is quick.  Change the runner, redo the tablescape, no big deal.  The tough part is that several years ago I had a shelf built about 12 inches from the ceiling that wraps three walls.  I need to climb a 10 foot ladder a whole lot of times to redo that shelf.  I keep reducing the number of things I put up there but it is still a lot of work. 

I have not redone the dining room yet as you can see- It is a pile of Americana that needs to be packed for storage and put away for another year.  I wish I had helper to pack it away and I have not climbed the 10 foot ladder yet to redo the shelves.  Maybe tomorrow???

Our family anthem is American Pie by Don McLean"...........I knew if I had my chance I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while".......please dance with your kids.

A look at one of my kitchen shelves.

As I tell the Grand-kids, have a song in your heart and a dance in your pants....more on dancing later.  Please click follow on the blog.  I appreciate that you are taking a look and spending a few minutes with me and my loved ones.

Coming soon; more beachy decor, a three year old pastel birthday party, my top five, and my bookshelf

Love, Ya-Ya