styled living simply achieved by Jacqueline deMontravel
Staycations may bring to mind kiddie pools and an excuse not to dent your household budget over a dollar-drenching theme park destination but now it’s a necessity. Thanks again COVID-19. The summer’s safest travel option is to remain home and practice social distancing.
Make an ice cream outing a regular part of your Staycation agenda.
If we were to create a line of fragrant candles, the first scent would be coffee. That sharp, aromatic scent of chicory dominates in the best of ways. Coffee is more than just a drink, for some, it’s a dependency. If a day doesn’t begin without that caffeinated jolt, the result could be limited productivity and overall grouchy behavior.
Forget wearing a mask and practicing social distancing while waiting for a cup of coffee, brewing at home is a safer, tastier option.
When we dress, we put everything into it. From the clothes to the shoes and all those accessories you bought on those click-happy pop up ads–you want to be noticed. Design is the same way, you just live with the vignette a bit longer. It’s also interchangeable, as you don’t have to style a table once the way you did with the coffee table you grew up with from elementary school till college. (Our moms evidently did not have click-happy pop up ads to feed shopping whims.)
Summer coffee table with no-fail accessories like a candle, books and tray.
Instead of rags and a desperate need for a manicure, this Cinderella story features a small, lackluster closet with a faint scent of cedar chips. Makeovers always inspire, and are a preferable narrative over a woman in the clutches of a sinister step family. Seriously, couldn’t Cinderella simply escape? Get a job? Turning something from nothing to compelling was the impetus of this half bath, especially since the bedroom already had two closets.
With the help of a contractor and plumber–along with the right materials, hardware, accessories, meticulous planning and a week of construction–a valued powder room addition upgraded the master bedroom experience.
Happy July 4th! Here’s some thoughts that keep me up before I return to stories on makeovers and inspired trends. Black lives matter, police lives matter, LGBTQ lives matter, llama lives matter, the life of the guy on the fancy bike who almost ran over me this morning—his life matters—lives matter. I support a united environment. We have an election in November, our amazing country was founded on equal rights, you have the freedom to vote. The number of likes is irrelevant, it’s the quality of the relationship behind the like.
There’s always a long drive to get to somewhere remarkable, a sort of quest, but instead of evil spells and dragons the challenges are from jostling for armrest space with your sister and having to wait twenty minutes till the next restroom stop.
Ice cream expedition with a makeshift mask.
Once the highway filters into a one lane road, then a sandy beach drive, your arrival is signaled by squawking gulls staking their territory. You leap from the car while parents inspect the environs, unloading groceries of snack pack cereals and a lot of condiments. This will be your home for the most memorable weeks of summer and you will find that needs are paired down–a good sunscreen, boogie board, cold drinks, sandwiches sealed in plastic wrap and snack-sized chips packed in an Igloo. (Pringles work well because they are protected from the sand.) [Read more…]
