I’m right in the middle of remodeling my home office, taking it from blah blah brown to a more chic and glamorous space.  It’s getting a total overhaul from top to bottom, but on a budget. 

I purchased some cabinets with glass shelves from the local Villeroy & Boch outlet store that closed its doors, but I need to paint them and they’re 100 inches tall !  I’m also going to attempt to install grasscloth wallpaper, and make another no sew valance.  Plus all the accessories!  I’ll have lots of posts in the upcoming weeks as I update you on the progress. 

Here are some of the images in my inspiration file: 

Turquoise Design

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Exploring the big city of San Francisco is one of our favorite things to do.  Since the Golden Gate Bridge is about 40 minutes from our house, we took Friday afternoon to adventure across the bridge to visit the renowned Ferry Building Marketplace. 

Those who’ve visited the Bay Area recently may be familiar with this European style indoor bazaar, filled with vendors who feature the finest of California’s bounty.  We arrived at the lunch hour, with the marketplace filled with young executives from the financial district, mingling with the visiting tourists. 

Any food lover will simply love this place.  While you’ll pay big dollars to take away some of these artisan products, it’s still worth a visit just to sample California’s culinary best.   Here’s a peek at some of the displays:

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I happen to be one among millions of multitasking moms who never sits down during the day.  Funny as it sounds, for me it’s relaxing to stay busy, because I can’t relax until I’ve accomplished my tasks for the day.  Between my tiny law practice, raising two small children, cleaning my house, managing a growing blog and finding time for my projects, I have plenty to do. 

The lovely, gracious, and creative Camila at High Heeled Foot in the Door (my most favorite blog name ever) is featuring me today in her series called “IN HER SHOES”. 

For a glance at a day in my life….

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I see so much beauty in nature that I find myself bringing it indoors whenever possible.  River stones.  Driftwood.  Fresh flowers.  Beachy accents in the bath.  Acorns in the fall.  Evergreens during the holidays.  And branches.  I love branches, especially as accents. 

I once saw a designer spray paint gigantic branches in a hot coral color, and place them in an urn on top of a piano in a very grand living room.  It made me swoon.  While this look is a bit over the top for some, I have always wanted to spray paint branches to make them sculptural.

So I was pruning my wild oak tree last weekend.  It should be no surprise that I decided to use one of the Charlie Brown branches to make a jewelry holder. 

Here’s a peek:

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I am overwhelmed at the positive response to yesterday’s post about the staircase remodel.  Thank you so much for your kind words. 

As you can recall from the ‘After’ picture, I not only redid the railing, but for additional drama, I added a wallpaper treatment to the very blank and boring wall. 

Originally, I was going to play it traditional, and add plain white panels to the wall, with molding on top.  But I decided to kick it up a style notch, and add wallpaper panels instead.  It was more dramatic, and less expensive. 

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