The Outside & In

At the end of each week, I share the podcast episode I listened to that stood out among all the others. Here is this week’s selection for your listening pleasure!

The best thing I heard this week was Dallas Clayton on the Creative Mornings podcast. This podcast is an offshoot of the live Creative Mornings meetings, which is free lecture series for the creatives held across the world. Dallas was invited to speak for the Chicago group’s meet up. Thankfully, they record these lectures and make them available for everyone to see/hear afterwards.

Dallas Clayton is a children’s author and illustrator. His message is always positive and inspirational. Dreaming big, showing compassion, loving each other, and staying positive are common themes in his work. His talk for this Creative Mornings podcast episode, entitled “Kid Lessons”, was a slam dunk as my favorite listen from the week. I loved it so much that I listened to it twice, and played it in the car for my kids to listen along with me the second time.

During this lecture with the Creative Mornings crew, Dallas weaved a beautiful message of hope and encouragement. The talk is colorful, a bit sad at parts, and very funny. One thing it is not is dull. My kids were thoroughly entertained when we listened together in the car. Using stories to illustrate his points, Dallas touched on the following topics:

The importance of having a dream.
How to maintain a child-like sense of wonder.
Using commonalities as a way of building a bridges with people you think you dislike.
Getting to know yourself and being that person instead of who you think you should be.

The actual recording of the lecture starts around the 8 minute mark. Before that, there is a prologue where the host gives the background on Dallas and does a phone interview. It’s not bad, but the audio recording of the lecture is where it’s at. I also enjoyed the question and answer session he does with the Creative Mornings group, but be aware he does drop a couple f-bombs during that part in case you have young ears around.

I hope you can carve out 30 minutes to listen to “Kid Lessons”. I promise you will not be disappointed! If you do, please let me know what you thought about it. I am itching for more people to talk to about it. And, if you like more favorite podcast episode recommendations, see more of this series HERE.

Posted by Ale & filed under Creativity, Podcasts. This post has one comment.

Our home’s exterior has not changed very much since we moved in 7 years ago. This spring, we finally came to the realization that we would not be able to ignore the outside much longer. This house is 20 years old, which is much newer than most of the homes in the neighborhood, but old enough to start showing wear and tear. The threshold of everything needing to be replaced is knocking on our door. In fact, it’s knocking on our roof, front door, windows, air conditioning, etc, etc.

Replacing everything at the same time is not going to be an option, so we decided we are going to try to make one major exterior maintenance or improvement every Spring. This year, as part of our monthly home project effort, we started with a fresh paint job to the exterior. Today I thought I would show you that, and then give you an idea of what we might be changing in the future.

The exterior is stucco, and the color was a pinky-beige that was looking extra dingy. Plus, there were some cracks in the stucco that needed to be patched up. So we went ahead and had it painted it Gracious Greige, which is a much cooler color. We also had the shutters painted Urbane Bronze to soften up the black shutters and all the trim repainted white.

Below is the before and after. It’s not an earth-shattering transformation, but it felt like we just took the house to a spa to get a mani-pedi. The paint job just really made it look cleaner and crisper. I also love the new front door light fixture. I wish you could see the old one we replaced. It’s the little things 😉

As you can see, the house style is traditional. Nineties traditional to be a little more specific. While there is nothing wrong with that, it really isn’t our style. We would like to add more charm & personality as well. Living near the historic district surrounded by charming homes of all different styles and eras, it would be great to infuse our exterior with some of the architectural details that give a house character.

You might be wondering why we don’t just move, or even build a new house with everything to our liking. Even though the exterior is not our cup of tea, the location of the house could not be any more perfect for our family. Everything is so close and convenient. It takes Brian a whole 2 minutes to get to work. There is a park about 30 feet away. And to top that off, our neighbors are the best. Living here adds so much joy to our lives and we are very grateful for this house. The fact is, there is not a place in this town we would rather be than here.

In our discussions about needing to do some updates to the exterior in the coming years, our thought is to push the current exterior a little more towards our taste. Our ideal home exterior is a modern cottage style. Something like this:

Adding Modern Cottage Elements to a Traditional Exterior

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Image Source: Unknown

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As you can see, the lines are very clean and simple. Modern cottage style is very similar to modern farmhouse which is very popular right now. There is a lot of overlap between the two, but I would say modern cottage is a little more compact and less spread out. Less country a tad more city. Modern cottage is more minimalist in nature than its cousin, modern farmhouse.

If we were to build a home from scratch, it might look very similar to the ones above. But since we aren’t building a home, I’d love to “marry”our traditional style exterior with a bit of modern cottage elements. Here are a few of the exterior elements we would like to update over the next several years. These are all elements that we feel could work with the existing exterior.

Front door

Our current front door is on its last leg. We have repainted it several times. Plus, there is a big gap at the bottom that I am pretty sure a small creature could get through. I would absolutely would love to replace the entryway with a new door that lets more light into the house. Either a solid door with square sidelights, or maybe something like one of these. I think a warm wood door with clean lines will work well and add some warmth to balance out the cool neutral tones.

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Windows

Next up on priority is probably the windows. If you walk by our house having a conversation, odds are I can hear you. Our windows seem like they are as thick as paper. In the winter, sitting in my office I can feel draft coming off them. We would love to replace them with a higher quality two over two window in a black or dark bronze finish. If we do this, we will probably remove the shutters and just add a simple white trim around them.

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Walkways

One cottage element that will definitely add to the charm factor is replacing the cement walkway with a brick one. I think the added warmth of a rustic red brick will be a nice complement to the cool tones of the house. Something like this…

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House Numbers

One of the easiest changes we can make and that I am excited about is updating our house numbers. Just making this small change will go a long way in changing the aesthetic of the exterior. I love that these numbers could modernize all kinds of home styles like Craftsman to Tudor.

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Garage Door

I think a good quality garage door can make the world of difference. Ours is the ubiquitous metal door with the faux wood imprint that fools no one. Our dream door would have panels and look more like one of these:

Taken with my phone in Carmel, CA

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Gate

Along with the brick walkway, the garden gate is cottage all the way. Maybe because ours is so hard to open and on it’s last leg, I dream of having an inviting gate that beckons you to the backyard.

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Two elements that also fall under both modern cottage and modern farmhouse that I didn’t include are 1) metal roof accents and 2) board and batten. I think both of these elements are great, and perhaps I would include them in a new build, but in our case, I think it would become a complete overhaul versus a marriage of the current style with the new one.

I put together a little mood board of our vision for the exterior updates we would like to implement in the coming years. Depending on the budget for that year, we will tackle one of these elements. One year, it may be a front door. Another year it might be windows. But it really helps to have an ultimate vision of what we are going for.

Have you made major improvements to your home’s exterior? What has the biggest impact?

PS: Feel free to follow along on my “Exteriors” and “Front Door” Pinterest boards as the ideas keep flowing.

Posted by Ale & filed under Home Decor. This post has 2 comments.

The best thing I heard this week was Episode 100 of the Elise Gets Crafty podcast, “On Time”. Elise Gets Crafty is a podcast for creative small businesses hosted by Elise Joy. Elise is a thoughtful and deliberate host who has a knack for being relatable. She also is the creator of the “Get to Work Book”, a planner I have my eye on getting very soon. She did not feature a guest on this episode, as it was her final episode of her second season. Elise chose to highlight a topic that I believe many people, including myself, struggle with – TIME.

Being that she has two young daughters, hosts a popular weekly podcast and runs her own small business, her thoughts on this topic carry a lot of credibility. Over the past year or two, I have really started to become more aware of time, and how quickly it can disappear if you are not intentional with how you choose to spend it. I could not agree more wholeheartedly with Elise when she says that time is the only real commodity we have.

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The points that she outlines in this episode of Elise Gets Crafty very much resonated with me. Some of them because I have adopted them. Others because I know they would be game changers in my productivity. I will share a few with you and encourage you to listen to this valuable episode on your next available moment.

Identify what you want to make time for.

This is KEY. Simply put, what are your priorities? I’m not talking about what are all the things you wish you could do. This should be a very short list. What are the top 2-3 most important things you would like to accomplish in this season of your life? Once you have identified what those priorities are, it will be much easier to make them happen. You will also have a clear vision of what time wasters can go. When I boil down the priorities in my life, meaningful family time, my health and living a creative life are on my shortlist. Whenever I am faced with a choice, I am learning to ask myself if it supports one of those areas. If it doesn’t, then it’s something I have to let go for now.

Let go of habits that no longer serve you.

We are all creatures of habit. Routines are comfortable. But sometimes routines and habits are occupying the space in our lives that you need for one of your top priorities. It may seem like you have no time, but the fact is, most of us have time hidden behind our habits. Taking a closer look at where I may have hidden time, I know where it is – reading blogs. I love reading blogs! However, one of my top priorities right now is to get more consistent with my own blog posting. If I ask myself which choice will support my top priority of living a creative life, creating content trumps consuming content. It’s time for me to create some boundaries that will support my priorities.

Recognize that what other people are doing has very little (if anything) to do with what you are doing.

What a good reminder to keep our eyes on our own paper. Isn’t it crazy if we see someone doing something, our first thought goes to, “Should I be doing that too?” Not only is it a waste of time to continually do this, but the judgement of their actions is not productive. We should be happy for other people’s choices without feeling like their choices make a judgement on ours.

What makes other people happy has nothing to do with what makes you happy.

I loved Elise’s perspective on this point. When you see photo after photo on social media of people enjoying this or that, you get the feeling that if you did the same thing, you will be that happy too. In reality though, the attraction is often not to what they are doing, but the joy they are experiencing. Think about that. What are the things that you would truly enjoy doing? Do those! It seems so much of life boils down to knowing yourself very well. Once you do, you can become so much more confident in your choices.

While the first few tips have to do with knowing yourself and making some mindset shifts, the last two tips are more on the practical side. They happen to be the ones I struggle with the most right now.

Know what you HAVE to do and write it down.

Do you ever go to make a “to do” list and include 700 things on it? I do. As long as you are working on the list, you feel like you are being productive. But that can be so deceptive, because most of the time, the important things never get accomplished. It feels like you are so busy, but what do we have to show for it? Before creating our list, what if we took time to identify the truly important tasks that will move us forward in our goals and then actually worked on those first before moving on to the rest? I think this could be a game-changer.

Follow the “one-touch” rule.

The one-touch rule is to take care of something once you touch it. For example, if you are checking your email, instead of reading it and then telling yourself you will reply later, just do it right then. I am the worst at this. At any given time, I have a dozen half done projects. It really adds up to a lot of wasted time. I blame it on technology brain. The one touch rule is definitely something I need to start adopting.

This Elise Gets Crafty episode “On Time” is not about having factory-level productivity. It’s more about feeling satisfied with what you are accomplishing. It’s even having more time for rest if that is what you need. The key is learning how to feel like you are in control of your time as opposed to feeling like you are constantly racing. If more time in your life is something you are looking for, this episode is for you. Let me know what you think!

To see more of my favorite podcast episodes of the week, check them out HERE.

Posted by Ale & filed under Learning, Podcasts. This post has 2 comments.

One of my favorite parts of sharing these home tours with you is meeting the people behind the front door. Today’s gracious home tour is no exception. Although I had met Tracy once before, I really didn’t know her very well. As she showed me around the house, I realized how much I admired Tracy’s DIY know-how and her welcoming personality. Not surprisingly, these traits are reflected in her home as well.

Beyond my respect for the beautiful home they have designed and created for their family, Tracy and I connected as creative spirits as well. You see, Tracy is a talented fine artist. Her work is large in size and in heart. She is learning to bypass fear and taking baby steps towards bringing her work to the world. That takes a lot of courage, but if you have a creative heart, you understand how important that is.

I hope you enjoy this serene space that Tracy and her husband have crafted through the years. The bright and airy space is the perfect place to nurture her family and her art. See what you think!

Who lives in this home and how did you come to live here? How did you know it was the right choice for your family? My husband Mark and I live here now but we were blessed to raise our 3 kids here before they all left the nest! We had been married and renting for 13 years and were looking for a home to purchase. Our criteria was: Eighth Street Elementary School District, four bedrooms, and wood floors. We were living a couple of miles away and drove around all the time looking for a home. One day Mark spotted a paper plate hanging on a regulation-size flagpole in the middle of the yard of a very dilapidated home. It was a huge mess but, with my grandparents’ help, we purchased the house! We have been working on it since then, for 25 years.

Tell us about the process of renovating your home. We’ve done it in small stages, over time. I usually come up with the design and Mark engineers the process. We collaborate together on all the aspects – usually talking about every detail over and over. Mark had some experience in the construction field, as a carpenter and field engineer. He is self- taught and can frame a house, do the drywall, painting, stucco, roofing, plumbing, electric, trim, tile. There’s really nothing he can’t do. He’s done most of the hard stuff but I’ve had my hand in a lot of the painting and of course, the design!

Dining room

Welcoming and Gracious Home Tour - The Outside and In

Sitting area off the kitchen

How would you describe your aesthetic/style? Ha! DIY Eclectic! I edit and edit to get a clean, uncluttered look and white is a favorite color of mine!

Where do you find home inspiration and ideas? Before there was Pinterest, there was Elle Decor, House Beautiful, and tons of magazines which I have probably spent way too many hours scouring for ideas! Also, I was in faux- finishing for 10 years and was privileged to be in some of the most beautifully decorated homes in Marion County! Some of my close friends are also talented decorators, and we all glean from each other!

What are some of your favorite places to find inspiration for your home? Traveling to Atlanta, Ft Lauderdale, Denver – just a few of the places we’ve frequented over the years. All have very distinct nuances and styles – I love to pull from all of them. And the bookstore is a great place to peruse books from some of my favorite design experts – Suzanne Kasler, Mitchell Gold, Leah Richardson to name a few. I also enjoy Houzz.com, a great place to see photos of just about anything to do with home decor!

Kitchen

Which room in your home do you enjoy the most? We both enjoy our family room the most- it’s where we start every day with coffee and end some of them with a glass of wine! We love the light and comfort of the room- whether we are listening to music, watching a movie or just hanging out- it is comfortable and relaxing no matter what the time of day!

How do you approach a new renovating project in your home? We talk about it A LOT. We strategize and decide on our priorities- comparing the aesthetics with the practicality and the budget. I’ll look for pictures to show Mark and we start planning!

Family room

What advice do you have for someone thinking about renovating with their spouse? Take your time and try not to do it under time constraints (like two months before a family wedding). Get lots of advice from people who may know more than you and maybe invest a little money in a designer.

What do you splurge on in your home? Where have you saved? We have saved by staining our own concrete floors and also refinishing our oak ourselves (Mark does it- not me). We do all of our own yard work, planting and maintenance. We always do our own painting. We’ve splurged on natural stone in all the bathrooms and kitchen. Granted- Mark has laid all the tile, which saves a ton of money. We love the natural stone so much.

We’ve saved on a lot of the furniture because I’ve always like to shop at estate and yard sales, thrift stores and antique malls. We’ve splurged on light fixtures. They are important architectural features in a home- nice fixtures make a design statement.

What is one piece of advice you would give someone who is not liking their home decor? CLEAN OUT THE CLUTTER and paint some brown wood furniture!!

Hall bathroom

Master bedroom

Master Bathroom

You are an artist. When did you start painting? What inspires you to paint? I majored in fine art in college and I’ve painted for years, mostly for friends and family. I am inspired by color and texture. The color and texture you find in nature is best- I lean towards abstract with lots of blues and whites. Though I am hoping to grow and expand my viewpoint as the years go by- it’s something I really want to focus on.

As a grandmother to soon to be 8 children, how do you want them to remember your home? I want them to remember eating lot of good food, playing out in the back yard and not worrying about the furniture! The family room furniture is slipcovered so I wash it twice a year and it has held up very well with all the wear and tear from the little ones! I don’t have anything out that I care that much about if it gets broken.

Grandkids’ room

Thank you, thank you Tracy for being so gracious in inviting us into your home. Cannot wait to see where your artistic journey takes you!

If you enjoyed this “Step Inside” home tour series, check out more HERE.

Posted by Ale & filed under Home Decor, Home Tours. This post has 14 comments.

Today I will wrap up our California trip report with a few details on our last stops, including camping in Big Sur. As you know, not all things go as planned. And this is the part of the trip where we had a little glitch and had to change the itinerary a bit.

One Night in Santa Cruz

After we left Yosemite, the plan was to camp in Santa Cruz for one night, and then continue south onto Big Sur via Carmel. Brian had booked us to stay in a Santa Cruz state park there that was (in our minds) going to be nestled in a redwood forest. Please remember that we had already gone 3 nights sleeping in the camper van and not showering. We were ready to get cleaned up a bit. As we drove into the campground, it didn’t look bad, but it pretty much looked like most campgrounds look in Florida. And although we had driven past some beautiful redwoods before we arrived at the state park, there was not one big tree in sight here. I started to dread the idea of spending the night in this campground in the woods. Especially because Santa Cruz is a beautiful beach town. On top of it, we knew we had two more camping nights coming up in Big Sur. So, we made the call to ditch our reservations at the campground for the night, and head closer to the coast to find a place to stay. I’m thankful we changed gears because it definitely was the right call. It completely confirmed my standing camping commandment: “Thou shalt not go more than 3 nights without bathing.”

We made a quick decision to stay at the Seaway Inn right by the Pacific Ocean. Normally, I would have scoured the internet for hours to find an awesome location, good reviews, yada yada… But being that it was early evening and the clock was ticking, we jumped out at the first one that caught our eye close to the ocean. Luckily, it turned out to be just what we needed. The room was clean, beds were cozy and most importantly, had a strong hot shower. This hotel was right across the street and looked pretty cool too!

That night we went to a fun little retro vegetarian restaurant called the Saturn Cafe. They played 60’s music and served typical diner food, except it was all vegetarian. It was funny to hear the boys say that their hamburger and chicken fingers were the best they had ever tasted 🙂 After dinner, we rented a movie from the front office and enjoyed watching that as we fell asleep.

The next day, we drove along West Cliff Drive, a beautiful scenic road, which ends at a beach called Natural Bridges State Park. Natural Bridges had this really cool rock formation that looks like a bridge. We also stopped at a spot called Lighthouse Point for a while to watch all the surfers.

I wish we could have stayed longer in Santa Cruz. It had such a fun relaxed beach atmosphere with so many cool places still left to explore. If you have the opportunity to stay in Santa Cruz, I think you should. And if you can stay two nights, even better.

Santa Cruz and Big Sur Trip Report - The Outside and In

The beach at Natural Bridges State Park

Surfers at Lighthouse Point

Carmel

After grabbing some really good coffee and a grocery run in Santa Cruz, we headed south towards Big Sur with a stop Carmel. Carmel-by-the-Sea is a very charming coastal town filled with art galleries, shops and restaurants. If I had to compare it to something in Florida, I would say it is a bit like St Armand’s Circle in Sarasota. Brian and I spent a couple nights here on our honeymoon trip, and decided it would be a nice stop for lunch. We had lunch at Carmel Belle, which was so good. All organic and local, but casual. If you are going to be in Carmel with kids, this is definitely a good spot. There are also plenty of candy and chocolate shops for a sweet treat afterwards.

Blue Dog art gallery in Carmel

Big Sur

Big Sur is an amazing stretch of primitive California Coastline. There are no tall buildings, very little in terms of commercial properties or homes. Most of Big Sur has no wireless service either. Because of that, nature is the star of the show here. The winding road that runs north and south through Big Sur has a phenomenal view of the Pacific all the way. There are are little pulloff points all along, I am assuming so people can stop to soak it in without getting in car accidents.

Point Lobos State Nature Preserve

Our first destination in Big Sur was Point Lobos State Natural Preserve. Point Lobos is a fabulous hiking destination for families. The trails are easy and the views are breathtaking at every turn. The deep marine color of the water was beautiful against the bright yellow wildflowers that covered the trails. At Point Lobos, you might see whales, otters, seals and all kinds of other marine life. We saw seals the afternoon that we were there. If you come, I would say try to plan for 2-3 hours here.

Point Lobos

Camping in Big Sur

Our home base for Big Sur was Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Since we had spent the previous night in a room with comfy beds and a clean private bathroom, we were ready to camp again.The campground had a little river running through it, which is a big draw for the Cretul boys. They love throwing stones in rivers. Apparently there is some giant disgusting frog that is indigenous to the area, but thankfully I didn’t have any run-ins with it or or I might be singing a different tune about this place.

Big Sur Bakery

On our first full day in Big Sur, we had breakfast at Big Sur Bakery. Every single mention of Big Sur I had read about before coming had mentioned Big Sur Bakery as a great place to eat in Big Sur. We had breakfast here two days in a row. I wish our schedule could have worked out to eat lunch or dinner here too, but it didn’t work out. The menus looked heavenly though.

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Once our bellies were full, we headed to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. This park is most well-known for McWay Falls, a waterfall that pours straight onto the beach. People are not allowed on the beach, so you can view the falls from the trails above. Even with the foggy sky you can see that the color of the water is incredible. We learned while we were there that a major landslide a little bit up the way caused all that sand to deposit in that nook. Before that, the water poured straight into the ocean. Natural forces are amazingly dynamic and powerful. If you are going to be in Big Sur, I would definitely recommend coming to Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park.

Pfeiffer Beach

By now, you probably think every place in Big Sur has Pfeiffer in its name. Because our next stop was Pfeiffer Beach. This beach is hard to find! There are no signs for where to turn off to get there. Someone told us that the locals take them down because they don’t want people going there. If you have a map you will have to follow it closely and make sure you are turning at the first right turn after the Big Sur ranger station heading south. Once you have turned, you drive down a narrow road for about 2 miles. If there is a car coming from the opposite direction, you’ll need to move over so they can pass. Halfway down the road you will wonder if you are in the right place. You are. Eventually you will arrive at the kiosk to pay to get in. It costs $10 and is cash only. We almost had to drive out of there because at first we didn’t think we had the cash. But we scoured that camper van until we came up with the $10. There might have been about $3 in change, but who cares. We got in.

Pfeiffer Beach is a relaxing and remote beach in an already remote town. It feels like a different world. From what I understand, once they have reached capacity, they turn you away and you are out of luck. We came with picnic supplies and ready to spend the afternoon.

Unlike the Florida beaches we are used to, the water is extremely cold, so no one really gets in. There are lots of rocks and powerful waves crashing. Max found a group of kids playing games and immediately left us to go hang out with them. Ben went running to the stream that ran through the middle of the beach and started playing in there. We just relaxed, napped and read. We had a picnic lunch. We saw a proposal at the top of one of the rocks. And we even saw two whales swimming by. It’s a very nice beach which we definitely recommend, but make sure you bring food and drinks, because there are no concession stands (or anything really).

Purple sand at Pfeiffer Beach

Giant rocks jetting into the ocean. Brian and Ben look tiny in comparison.

Garrapata State Park

Our next adventure after Pfeiffer Beach was Garrapata State Park. Garrapata State Park is a large state park, part of which is on the coast and has a beach. We were on the hunt for tide pools, and ranger at the Big Sur Ranger station said we might be able to find some here. Like most exploration in Big Sur, we just parked on the side of the road, got out of the car, and went.

Investigating sea anemones during low tide

Looking for whales

One of my favorite parts about Big Sur were the flowers that grow wild on the cliffs and dunes of the coast. There were succulents covering the vertical walls of the cliffs. And on the walk down to the beach, calla lilies just randomly blooming.

Big Sur is so unique and special. A place where the ocean meets the land in such a dramatic way. If you haven’t been before, you will want to put it on your list for sure. Camping in Big Sur was the perfect way to close out the week with our camper van. After that, we drove back to San Francisco and said good-bye to our little home on wheels.

That’s a wrap on all the details from our visit to California! If you missed them, here are the previous posts on our time in San Francisco and Yosemite. In case you are planning a trip to California in the near future, here is my Pinterest board that I used for scouting out many of our activities and food destinations.

Posted by Ale & filed under Travel. This post has one comment.

Best Podcast This Week: Kid Lessons from Dallas Clayton

Adding Modern Cottage Elements to a Traditional Exterior

Front door

Windows

Walkways

House Numbers

Garage Door

Gate

Best Thing I Heard All Week: Elise Gets Crafty

Identify what you want to make time for.

Let go of habits that no longer serve you.

Recognize that what other people are doing has very little (if anything) to do with what you are doing.

What makes other people happy has nothing to do with what makes you happy.

Know what you HAVE to do and write it down.

Follow the “one-touch” rule.

Step Inside: Tracy’s Welcoming & Gracious Home

California Trip: Camping in Big Sur

One Night in Santa Cruz

Carmel

Big Sur

Camping in Big Sur

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