Altadena Beauty

Here it is, my first friend feature! My feature person is a girl who went to Citrus College, joined the dance team, and later married a cop. Sound familiar??? But I swear it's not me, it's my amazingly beautiful friend Kin-Ming. We met while on the dance team at Citrus together in 1996. (We are the two on the left) (And here she is in her beautiful kitchen)

I have always dreamed of owning a small Spanish style house in Southern California with fun details like arches, wood floors, curved windows, and a fireplace. It would have a cute little backyard with a place to dine and a little water feature, and maybe a fruit tree or two. I also love to decorate in blues and greens, and I LOVE white kitchens. One day while looking through Kin-Mings pictures (after we had reconnected on facebook) I saw she had an album with pictures of her house. I was amazed to see that her house was my dream house. It had everything I had always wanted, and she has decorating tastes that are so similar to my own. I feel in love with her 1926, 1050 sq ft, Spanish style home in Altadena, California. I will warn you now that there are a lot of pictures in this post, but I wanted you all to see the little charmer for yourself. Kin-Ming and her husband made such smart choices when doing the remodel on their home. They kept things like the original curved window in the living room, and the arch in the living/dining room. (Two of Kin-Mings favorite parts of the house.) But when they did total re-do's on the kitchen and bath they mimicked that original arch, and made smart choices to stay with the period of the home while giving it all the modern conveniences of today. They were true to the house when they put down new wood floors instead of choosing tile or carpet, and they picked beautiful wall colors when they painted the whole inside of their house. Everything is beautiful without distracting from the gorgeous bones of the house. Even the landscaping (which Kin-Ming's husband did himself) just makes the house a complete package and looks like it belongs with the neighborhood. So well planned. I just love pretty much everything about this house, and thought you guys would too. Congratulations to Kin-Ming and her husband on creating such an amazing place to call home, and thanks for letting me spotlight all your hard work! (Isn't it so charming?) (Such a warm welcome, and the "S" is one of my favorite little touches.) (I love the fireplace)

(I love a kitchen with a desk)

(Sigh!...Even a Sun Porch!)

(What a beautiful place for a warm So. Cal. evening)

JUST GORGEOUS!!!

Feel Like Sharing?

Until I can get in my own place and start decorating I am living vicariously through others. This has given me the problem of having very little of my own decorating stuff to write about. Want to help??? (You know you do!) I would like to start to feature some of the cool things that you, my friends and family, do to your spaces. For example, my sister Kim got some used chairs for her back patio that needed a little pick-me-up. She re-painted the metal on them, and bought some cute outdoor pillows and they turned out so cute!! Send me your photos and a few words about what you did and you just might find yourself in my blog.

My first guest spot will be coming soon, and it is an amazing one!! I can't wait to share my friend's amazing house with you. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do, and that you will be thinking about what you might want to share with me. :)

Daybreak, how I love you so!

I talked in a past post about how I loved this community in Northern Utah called Daybreak, but that Jon and I were thinking we were going to move to another community instead... yeah well! I think we are changing our mind again and are leaning back towards Daybreak in a big way!! I can't wait for spring and so hope to be moved up there in our own house by next spring so I can enjoy views like this!! This community has style in everything they do from the design of the houses, lake, and landscaping to the fact that they only build houses that exceed some of the highest "green" standards out there. I just can't wait!!

UtahStyle

This post will be more for those that live in the state I now call home, Utah. I have already said this on my facebook, but I love this magazine so much I thought it deserved a post on here as well. I love the design magazine UtahStyle!! It's awesome. It comes out quarterly, and I can't wait for the spring issue that will hit the stands on April 1st!! Here is a past cover that was a fav of mine.

All Polished Up Part 2

A big thank you to my sister-in-law Lauren who commented on All Polished Up that I forgot to tell you all the name of the Red Polish from OPI. It is called... I'm Really Not A Waitress. I love that as a name for red polish. I think it is fun and cheeky!

All In My Head

As you all know we are trying to sell our house so that we can move up to Northern Utah were Jon has been working since September. I have always loved this community in South Jordan called Daybreak and was sure I wanted to live there (and if I had more money I probably would). But Jon and I decided to make sure we "educated" ourselves on more communities that were out there that might be more friendly to those working on our budget. We have found it! We have fallen in love with another planned community called Rosecreast in Herriman. Especially the part called The Villages of Rosecreast. It is very similar to Daybreak in that it has all of the things we wanted like a gym for Jon and I and playgrounds and splash pads and pool for Noah. That was important to us. But where it differs is on the price for the type of townhouse we want to buy.

Now, as I have talked about before I love design and I am good at seeing possibilities when it comes to rooms and what I could do with them. I have fallen in love with the "bones" of one of the townhouses they offer in this community. It is a two bedroom two and a half bath model that has a formal living room with a fireplace, but also a separate great room with the kitchen being open to a family room/dining room area. I never would have thought I would be able to find something like this in our price range. Now let me explain that these townhouses are "contractor specials" in that they are cheap as far as the finishes go, but those are easy to change. The things that are not easy to change like the location, outside look and floor plan are perfect so I am totally up to the challenge of buying one of these little beauties and turning it into my own little slice of heaven. I have already filled a composition book full of my ideas, and I can see it all in my head. Now if I could just sell my house and get a hold of one of these...should be easy enough, right???
(Pictures are just to show you the bones of the place. Please ignore all the white walls and furniture because when I eventually get a hold of one of these, it will look nothing like these pictures.)

All Polished Up

First a short update. The Christmas stuff is put away and so there is no longer a Christmas tree in the way of taking a picture of my new accent wall from the angle I want to show you it's "real" color. From this angel you can really see how rich the color is and how it pops away from ALL the WHITE on the rest of the walls of the house. I love it more everyday, and especially now that it doesn't have to compete with Christmas colors.

Next, I can be down and out in my PJ's and if I have polished nails somehow I feel more put together. Is that weird? Am I the only one who feels that way? I haven't written about personal style in awhile, and there is good reason...I have very little right now. There have just been too many other pressing issues to deal with, and so I haven't put much effort into how I look lately. This has to change because I have noticed when I get in a rut like I am now it can bring down my whole mood. I started very simple on New Years Eve and polished my nails with my two favorite shades. They make me happy, and so I decided to tell anyone else reading about them in hopes that they might make you happy as well.

The first is the color I love to wear on my finger nails. It is by OPI and it is called Sweet Heart. I LOVE this color. In the bottle it looks very pink, but on the nail it has just a very small hint of pink. What I love most is it makes your nails look whiter and brighter. It's a great "everyday" polish.

The second is one that my sister-in-law (Lauren) told me about that is also by OPI. It is my absolute favorite for the feet (please ignore how ugly mine are) where I like more color. It is the perfect shade of red because it is not too orange or pink, and not too "vampy" at the same time. It stays on forever too.

Looking at the pictures now, I guess I will mention one other thing that could be considered a style tip. I wear very little jewelry. I wish I would wear more. I have lots, but when I put it on I always feel like it doesn't look right on me. The one exception is rings. I LOVE RINGS! I don't know why. My favorite color is green and I realized I didn't have a single ring that was green, so I ordered myself one the last time I closed on a house. The ring in the picture is a green amethyst in white gold and I adore it. The great thing about amethyst is that it is a real gem stone, but it is not at all expensive so you get a lot of bang for your buck. I think people automatically go towards costume jewelry when they think of buying rings, but if you get the right gem stones and do your homework, you can find rings with real gold and real gems without spending a lot of money. Just a thought. :)

Anyways, here's hoping for a more stylish 2011! I need it!