garden party

Spring always puts me in the mood for entertaining. I love the idea of simple, impromptu parties in the backyard; the kind where people shuffle in with their sandy flip-flops (from spending the day at the beach) or tennis shoes (from a full day of shopping) and swap stories over a margarita and some great food.

I love being a host almost as much as I love preparing for the party - planning meals and coordinating drinks, creating the right atmosphere and choosing the perfect little details to make my guests feel important. Did I say simple??? Well, it does take a little work...but it's fun work...and fun work is twice as rewarding.

Here's what I imagine my little garden soiree to be like.










all images courtesy of Martha Stewart

lovely (grass-free) lawns

Sunset Magazine and their design blog Home by Sunset is one of my favorite destinations for beautiful images of the California dream lifestyle.

With the current water restrictions and the rising need for conservation all around, the phrase kill your lawn is popping up in landscape blogs and workshop titles everywhere. Sounds a little scary and mean, right?

Well, here's what it looks like...







...so are you ready commit the crime?

Kill your lawn and start fresh with some native plants- the only time you'll do is the time it takes to plan your gorgeous new lawn.

Featured Artist: Whitney Smith

I recently found Whitney Smith's beautifully functional handmade pottery on Etsy and was saving it for a rainy day (yes, today is gloomy and wet). Each fanciful piece adds a bit of charm to your serving collection and no two pieces are quite the same.









Whitney creates her art-ware in Oakland, California and her favorite materials are clay and bacon :)

Elephant Artists

I have actually blogged about this before, but it just makes me happy every time I see this!



This amazing piece of art is part of a collection of paintings done by, yes, Elephants.
They were introduced to me by a dear friend who is an ambassador for Exotic World Gifts, a Fair Trade member and the company whose owners took the now infamous footage of the artists in action. Check out the video and visit the site for more wonderful offerings from around the world.

Taking the Indoors Out

It's warm outside and it's all I can do to not just sit and fantasize about my dream backyard all day (seriously). I found this article from Sunset Magazine on beautiful backyards on the cheap.



The images carry me to a far-away place, but I was excited to find that it features a local landscape architect, Brooke Dietrich of Green...Landscapes to Envy.

Check out the article here:

Design an affordable tropical lanai - Photos - Sunset.com

and other great ideas at Sunset Magazine