Summer Changes

In Arizona since the transition of the seasons is relatively invisible, I'm always itching to make changes to my own environment to make up for it. I think I've mentioned before that I get bored easily, especially visually (I'm sure I inherited that from my mom). Although she was always on a very limited budget in an extremely crowded & tiny house with 6 kids, she was constantly tweaking things to get a fresh look as much as she could. In fact, we just went out a week ago and bought a new table and chair set for her to squeeze into her little apartment. She's still making changes at 85! I love her for that. My dream is for her to someday have the freedom and the funds to decorate a room exactly as she would like. I'd love to be able to somehow make that happen for her...we'll see.

So with that said, I had some time and motivation this weekend to make a few minor changes at the house. I had some photos that I liked from our trip to Hawaii and since the inside of our house leans toward coastal, I decided to hang some of them up. Coastal in the desert? I know it's strange but it transports me out of the heat and makes me feel like I'm somewhere else. It's a comfortable style and I've always loved blues and greens anyway, so it works well with that theme.

In the family room I framed this photo of the waves from the Hana Highway. I really like the color of the water in this picture. It's not necessarily a relaxing shot, so at some point I may change it when I find something better, but I do like the color. Cool thing is that our new photo printer will print up to 12" wide, so I got some 11 x 14" photo paper to work with. I also bought a 16 x 20" frame and mat on sale at Aaron Bros. I was thinking that it might look way too big on the wall, but turns out that it really doesn't even fill the space as it should, so I'll be looking to add maybe a few 8 x 10's or something to round it out.

In looking objectively at the room, it also reminds me that I'd really like to change the wall colors to some kind of pale sea glass blue or green. We originally painted the walls in the common areas this tan/beige color because I wasn't sure what direction I was going to go with the decor before we moved in and I thought this would coordinate with most anything. Now that we're settled, I'd like to change the family room and kitchen (which has very little wall space, but connects to the fam rm) to more of a coastal color. Most of the furniture and cabinets are white, so I think it will make it feel even more coastal cottage-like. I know it won't cost much money, but will be a big project with moving furniture, bookcases and all, so we'll see when I get the energy to do it.

Moving on to the Guest bathroom...

I've had this multicolored wooden frame for probably a year or more, but didn't have the photos that had the look and feel that wanted to put in it.

While I was looking at the Hawaii pics for the big frame, I decided to pull a few others for this frame. (Click to see larger.) Top one is a sand castle that someone had built on the beach, next is our initials in the Maui sand and third is a hammock hanging in a perfect spot right next to the beach with the waves lapping in the distance. Terry and I had a chance to try it out and it was a peaceful spot.

These all bring back fond memories of our wonderful vacation last year and perk up the bathroom a bit.