It’s almost Summer time ya’ll!! (Did I just say ya’ll? Sorry, I’ve been catching up on Friday Night Lights and it must have stuck). Here in Miami we’re pretty lucky that its basically summertime all year round. This past Sunday, I spent the whole day at the beach and even though it’s mid-March, that’s totally normal! It’s a beautiful thing.  The only difference from now to real summer is that the water is still a little cold, at least for us Floridians it is -northerners come and think its warm.

Either way, it has me thinking about the very soon approaching beach and boating season. Additionally, we are blessed that our new house has a pool so I’m expecting lots of pool parties and bbqs this year!

Here are some essentials I’m thinking every summertime gal/dude needs to put on their list:

Chaise lounges: A must for good tanning! I’ve been trying to hunt down a “cheap chaise lounge” forever but I’m starting to think that phrase is an oxymoron because wow, those things are pricy! I finally scored two decently priced ones last week at Big Lots.

Here are some dream set loungers and set ups.

Love the look of the uniform loungers.

These modern loungers are low to the ground yet, they look real comfy!

Now that's comfort...for two!

These are from Pottery Barn but click thru to ShantyChic for a how to DIY!

1 umbrella, 4 chaise lounges, an end table, a beautiful background and landscape and of course, a gorgeous pool complete with waterfalls. Yea, I think this would work for me.

Love how there are loungers spread out all over the pool area.

This is one of the more affordable ones I've come across. $129 from Walmart.com. Not sure how sturdy that looks though...

A rock climbing wall! How freaking cool is that?!

You already have your shades on so its the perfect place to work on your Poker face!

This is for a game I like to call, Drink and Relax. This is my favorite game.

Beer pong anyone?! I actually own this little gadget! I've only played it in the ocean which didn't work out well because of the constant motion but can't wait to use it in the pool!

This cute $10 fedora from Target is on my things to buy list! A cute summer hat is a MUST to shield your face from those UV rays!

Bright colored bikini from VS (Sorry, body not included. I already asked).

The perfect summer shoe is the wedge. How cute are these from Target for $25?!

Did you know that Toms makes more than just shoes? Neither did I! $139 @ Nordstrom

How gorgeous are these Kendra Scott earrings? I have them in black but love this aqua color for summer!

Love this nautical bag...perfect for a summer weekend getaway!

Speaking of nautical, how cute is this simple, braided bracelet?

Once it hits mid April or so, I send my jeans into hibernation. It's just shorts, skirts and dresses from there! This is the perfect summer outfit. Light and airy.

I inserted this photo and then realized I have those shoes!! Total coincidence, I swear! Anyways, I knew I would get sidetracked into other non-home topics. To be fair, I did warn you.

But finishing up, here are a few more images to drool over. Summer lovin’ indeed!

Since one of my favorite pastimes is napping, this looks like an ideal tool for summer afternoons.

Speaking of napping, this would work nicely too. Actually, it would work perfectly.

How perfect is a private, outdoor shower after a day in the pool?

Remember those summer barbecue's I planned on having? Well how nice would they be with a built in bbq in the backyard?! Um, Yes. Please.

Well we have a lot of summer lovin’ ideas there. Some doable, some doable for the future. The far future. Either way, it’s nice to think of warm summer days, grilling with friends, cooling off in water (whether it be the ocean, lake, pool or a fire hydrant) and soaking in the sun- with sunscreen of course.

What are you some of your summer essentials?

My dining room is a part of my house I’m really excited to see come together because it has so much potential. Usually, I’m all over the place with ideas but for the dining room, I’ve known for a while what I want: Rustic Table, Modern Chairs.

I saw this combo at some point and loved it ever since. Every time I see it, I love it more and I’m sure that’s what I want. But even when you know the style you want, finding the exact pieces is always hard. My biggest fear is finding what I want and the next day, month, or year, finding something I liked better. I guess it’s inevitable so picking something you are sure you love right now is the closest you’ll get to a guarantee.

What does the rustic table/modern chairs combo look like? Well like this…

Pottery Barn. $3,173.00 – $4,253.00

This is the dream table, chairs and lamp. The Dining Room Dream.

Pottery Barn. $999 for table.

World Market

Via Pinterest

Not a fan of those chairs but its the right concept.

Via Pinterest

Victoria's Armoire

I had also seen, probably on Pinterest, this modern lamp that I really liked from West Elm. As a bargain shopper, West Elm is a source for ideas more than a place for purchasing. I love most of their pieces but few of their prices. However, I did love this lamp. And my husband loved it too. A double love equals a buy. It’s simple math, folks.

West Elm- $300.00

So this pretty little lamp has been sitting in its ugly little box for about 6 months now.

It’s not one of those “we haven’t gotten around to it” type of things (though we have plenty of those), its just that we wanted to wait until we had the dining table and chairs to install the lamp, basically to do the whole room at once. Well, I’m really happy to say that at least the lamp seems to be coming out of its box this week and hopefully, going up! While I don’t have the table or chairs just yet, I am very very close!

Trying to find this rustic table has not been easy. It’s been almost as hard as finding a true gray color (we all remember that saga).

I had actually found my dream table at Restoration Hardware- another store that is for looking at pretty things but not touching any of them and much less buying them.

Aren't I so pretty?!

You can imagine my heartache when I walked into my local Restoration Hardware store for the first time, saw the dream table I had seen online, found out that particular store was closing and everything on the floor was 50% off including the table, immediately saying “I’ll take it!” and then having the salesperson tell me it was already sold. I tried bribing negotiating begging asking the salesman in a totally normal way if there was any chance that I could buy the table or any chance the person who originally purchased it had perhaps changed their minds. He said no. Like 10 times.

So much for that.

After recuperating and moving on, I continued to surf the web, peruse the stores, check out pins and even search on Craig’s List every once in a while. I actually thought Craig’s List would be my best bet since I was looking for style AND price and it turned out that I was right, but not exactly in the way I had thought. Instead of scoring a great deal on a used or new rustic table, I found someone to make me one. Ahhhhh!

And way cheaper than any I’ve seen anywhere.

Double Ahhhhh!!

I went to meet my table maker man and check out his work and it was legit! We worked out a good price and a nice style and my table is literally getting built as I type and you read. Yay!

Now I jut have to find my dream chairs….in the dream price.  I’m sure it’ll be super duper easy. 😉

Here are some ideas!

World Market- 2 for $279.88

Home Decorators. $79.00 (sale)

Ikea- Henriksdal $69.99

Love, love, love, love, love. Restoration Hardware- $$399 - $479

World Market 2 for $299.98

West Elm $169.00 – $676.00 (On Sale) Love the blue/gray color.

Z Gallerie $299.00

Z Gallerie $349.00

Wish me luck!

I’m feeling gray.

But not in the way you think!

Also, I’m starting to think that every one of my posts might include the word Pinterest but oh well, can’t help it. It’s where all my inspiration for home, and otherwise, comes from. After I first discovered Pinterest ( coincidentally and amazingly RIGHT as I was putting an offer on a house I now live in) and started pinning away, I realized that there was a common theme amongst A LOT of my For The Home pins : The color gray.

I’ve always really liked the color gray for whatever reason and own a few gray tops and what not but had never taken a real look at it as a color scheme in home decor. My previous home had no gray color.

It’s funny because when you think of gray, it kind of alludes to feelings of dullness, cloudy days and just all around mopey-ness (yea, I don’t think that’s a word either).

But its actually nothing of the sort! A large percentage of my current, and lets assume future, pins include gray and they all look AMAZING!! Least I think so. Every time I see it in a room, I love it! It’s subtle enough that it goes with mostly everything and yet pops enough to make a difference. It goes beautifully with colors like yellow and pink.

So when I first moved into our new house a few months back, I decided I was going “to go gray”. Problem was, I wanted ALL the rooms gray. I mean, it seriously matches everywhere! Don’t believe me? Check it out.

Living Room- dark floors

Living Room -light floors

Baby room

Dining Room

Guest Bedroom

Reading Nook

Hallway

Master Bedroom

And so on!

Told ya.

But even *I* know it sounds crazy (and gloomy) to want to paint all the rooms in your house gray so I decided I’d go with the the bedroom I spend the most time in (mine) and the living room area. Easy right? Not so much. Took me, correction, its taken me, FOREVER to pick the “perfect gray”. Think i’m kidding? Again, I’m not….

Ah, my wall of colors. And this is just a section of it! Also mixed some browns and whites I’m testing for the dining room & kitchen respectively.

So after settling (because of time constraints) on a gray-leaning-towards-blue color for the bedroom, its time to pick the one for the living area. A true gray this time. NO settling.

The bedroom has dark wood floors with dark furniture so I thought it warranted a lighter gray color. The living room however has light floors with white furniture so I think it merits a darker gray. Enter more inspiration:

White couch and light floors like me- Pin

How gorgeous are those chairs and that whole Christmas look?!!- Pin

Love how this room looks both sophisticated and cozy. Ah, those soft colors.- Pin

So. Freaking. Beautiful. Seriously, a dream! – Pin

The dark gray looks phenomenal against the light couch and window treatments.- Pin

I would NEVER have thought that finding a true gray would be that hard. When I say “true” gray I mean a color that it doesn’t have tones of any other color. That I’ve even spent so much time on this blog taking about it is baffling! But alas, it is true. So this past weekend I tried two more colors. I keep going to Home Depot and buying samples. Thank goodness that they’re about $2.50 a pop. I’ve bought about 10 of them. Think I’m kidding? Again, I’m not.

None of these were a true gray.

I then see on Pinterest this picture of the look I was going for AND it actually had the exact name of the paint color: Early Morning Mist! Perfect right?

Early Morning Mist- allegedly a true gray from Ben Moore.

I skipped Home Depot and went specifically to a Benjamin Moore paint store and bought their $7.99 sample paint in Early Morning Mist. I had also gone to Benjamin Moore’s website and looked up Early Morning Mist and it didn’t really look gray at all but I figured , eh its probably just the computer distortion.

So went home, painted the wall and although it was grayish, it wasn’t like the picture. At all.

Back on Pinterest, I see the SAME picture with a DIFFERENT color name.

Meet Revere Pewter.

Lesson learned: I should not trust everything I see on Pinterest to be completely accurate. Please take pins with a grain of salt.

Anyyyyyyways, long story shorter, I painted a bigger sample area to try to get a better visual hoping that this visual wold help me truly decide and not just settle which I felt myself on the verge of doing.

These are Early Morning Mist by Benjamin Moore (I paid $7 for that sample, I wanted to believe it was “the one”) and Behr’s Gentle Rain, which is the darker one on top.

So I think, I THINK, I’ve decided Gentle Rain.

What do you think blog world? Do we like? Is it a true gray, not too dark, not too light? Think it will go well with the light floors and light furniture? Crown Molding would make it even nicer but that’s still on the future To Do List.

So before I make that leap of faith, before I go all the way, before I commit..what do you all think?????

Help a sista out!

Thanks! Have a great week!

Hello sweethearts! I hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day. I’ve had an ever changing affection for Valentine’s Day every since I can remember. In high school, when I was single and when Valentines was like, the biggest deal ever, I hated it!! Then I got a boyfriend and it was cute and fun and exciting. Then I got a husband and it was still cute and fun but nothing to go crazy over. We’re way too mature for that you know. Cue Facebook on Feb 14, 2011 and it was a montage of people’s pictures of flowers, gifts, chocolates, balloons, surprises, etc, etc, etc.  While my husband and I always do a nice dinner at home or bring out some bubbly or bake some heart shaped cookies or something different than a regular night, I wouldn’t exactly say we go crazy and celebrate. I can’t remember the last time we went to a restaurant for the holiday. It’s just too hectic. But after the Facebook montage last year, I remember telling my hubby that next year I wanted the oversized stuffed animal, chocolates (which I likely won’t eat because I’m not into sweets), jewelry I don’t need, expensive flowers delivered to my work, a card with a beautiful hand written message and so forth! I think my exact words were “Some of that first-year-together, still-trying-to-impress-me type of crap”.

I was, of course, kidding (mostly kidding) and whether it stuck unconsciously in his head this year I don’t know because while I (thankfully) didn’t get the stuffed animal or the chocolates, I did get a quite incredible and memorable Valentine’s Day. This year, apparently, we celebrated for real.

But before we get to his celebration, I did a little SusyHomemaking of myself on Sunday morning. I of course got the inspiration from the only place I get inspiration from these days, Pinterest! Ah, my beloved Pinterest. I decided to make a recipe for Heart Shaped French Toast. Don’t they look pretty?!

Well of course mine don’t look exactly like those but close enough! These were actually pretty easy to make though I will admit, my hubby did help in order to speed up the process. I had never made french toast before so I was excited to take on the challenge!

Here’s the recipe.

I started with slicing the Italian bread.

Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, we cut the bread into heart slices. I almost ran into a problem when we realized the cookie cutter was bigger than the length of the bread but we made do.

I whipped together the Half and Half,  eggs, and vanilla extract. Then we were ready to dip the bread into the mixture.

The recipe also calls for strawberry butter which is basically butter and strawberry preserves blended with sugar. This was a nice twist to plain butter. I used Brummel and Brown nonfat yogurt “butter” as my butter. If you haven’t tried this stuff, its awesome. Tastes great but much better for you than real butter. The strawberry preserves were Smuckers, my fav! The Half & Half was Land O Lakes, since they were the originators of the recipe, thought I owed it to them buy at least one product!

Of course, while one is cooking any sort of long meal (read: anything more than pouring cereal) one should have a tasty beverage to keep them entertained. Bring out the mimosas! Ever since my half marathon, I’d had a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge that I never got around to so we popped it open and made some mimosas. I’m a huge fan of orange juice (Tropicana is a favorite) and a big fan of champagne so you can imagine my love for mimosas.

Back to the food!

After letting them little heart shaped breads soak in the mixture, we “buttered” up the pan and cooked them on each side for a few minutes. I topped them with some raspberries (was out of strawberries), spread some of the strawberry butter on them and voila, breakfast!

I’m personally not the biggest french toast fan because just like pancakes, I find them a little bit repugnant after a while. So while my hubby had like 5 of them ( he doesn’t share my repugnancy problem), I had one….AND some bacon I decided to make on the side!

This was also a recipe I got off Pinterest but its from Martha Stewart. It’s called Less-Mess Bacon and here is the recipe. Makes sweet, easy, delicious bacon. Vegetarians, look away…now!

Yes it was as delicious as it looks! Way I see it, I had protein (bacon) and vitamin D (OJ) with my breakfast while my husband had most of the carbs. Who says dieting isn’t easy?!

Valentines breakfast was a hit and I recommend the french toast, heart shape optional, to anyone wanting to spice up a weekend breakfast.

As far as my Valentines night, my husband basically turned our backyard into a romantic little bistro complete with table settings, champagne, sushi, music, and candlelight. We had an al fresco dinner under a beautiful sky and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a beautiful night and wonderful partner but I’m in awe of him and this life every day and eternally grateful for both.

I wish I could go back to 15 year old, high school me and let myself know how much better my valentine would eventually become! Even if its not a significant other, we all have someone to love. While some say its a silly holiday and they may be right, it’s almost like Thanksgiving in the sense of…you are supposed to be thankful everyday and not just the 4th Thursday in November. Well, you’re supposed to show the people you love that you love them everyday, not just the 14th of February. But sometimes a little invented holiday gives us the excuse we need to show a little more love. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that.