Two Trees and a Tree House

In the two and a half years I have been blogging, I have only featured the homes of friends a few times, but each time, the response has been good.

Most people enjoyed seeing Lisa's house

and Leslie's beach house was a big hit.

Both my house and my life are topsy turvy at the moment - nothing bad, just lots of balls in the air - so I thought today would be a good time to feature another friend.

 Recently, I photographed Michelle's home and creative space.

I met Michelle over 20 years ago when our classrooms were next door to each other.

Nowadays, this is where I usually see Michelle, while we are both walking our dogs.

The front yard of Michelle's little beach cottage is welcoming, but she spends little time sitting there.

Every day when Michelle gets home from school, she goes right to her garage where she has carved out a place to create beautiful jewelry.

I love the story of how Two Trees Jewelry came into existence.

Michelle was going to New York to visit a good friend who had moved away and wanted Michelle to bring her something that would remind her of home.

Two Tree Hill - oil on canvas - Steve Cook 

Two Tree Hill is an iconic feature of Ventura so Michelle created a piece of jewelry for her friend depicting both the ocean and Two Trees- 

and she found herself with a second career- Two Trees Jewelry.

Michelle grew up in the same beach neighborhood where she now lives and says she has been collecting heart shaped rocks and bits of shells her entire life.

She turns those found pieces into unique pieces of jewelry.

She also combines silver with semi precious stones such as lapis lazuli to create beautiful pieces like her popular lotus flower.

In addition to the Lotus flower, Two Trees and a Peace sign are Michelle's top selling pieces.

Michelle found some driftwood on the beach and created a piece to hold her tools.

She is a woman with many talents - she made the TO BEACH sign for herself one Christmas and also for each family on her lane.

I had not planned to take any photos of the interior of Michelle's beach house, but after admiring the stepping stone mosaics she made, Michelle showed me the tiles she created for her kitchen island.

I peeked into the back yard where I found an amazing tree house .

Years ago, when Michelle's children were little, a neighboring family built the 3 story tree house and it still stands today.

I climbed to the top of the treehouse - very carefully - and was rewarded with

views of the the Ventura hills and the Pacific Ocean.

I was shooting right into the sun so this photo does not do Michelle's treetop view justice.

I hope you enjoyed peeking into Michelle's garden

and her creative space.

You can see more of Michelle's work at twotreesjewelry.com.

If you are interested in purchasing anything, let Michelle know you read about her on my blog and she will give a discount.

On a whim . . .

A lot of my decorating is done on a whim.

I can look at something every single day and then all of a sudden, I decide things need changing - right then.

I spend a lot of time on my window seat blogging, reading, eating . . . 

and yesterday, out of nowhere, I decided I was tired of the vignette on top of the porch cabinet.

All it took was about 30 minutes 

to have a new view from my perch on the window seat.

The first order of business was to remove the pitchers on top of the cabinet and replace them with baskets that had been sitting in the garage just waiting for a home.

KC gave me the roses for Mother's Day and I never even put them in water - they went right to the drying stage so I would have the flowers for decorating.

I decided to go with blue and yellow inside of the cupboard.

A favorite bowl that KC brought me from Spain 

and a fish plate I found in my mother's cupboards are now easy to find and I will use them more.

My fiestaware pitchers are now easily accessible as are the tablecloths I use on the garden table.

Beneath the cabinet, a vintage basket (will anyone notice that it is green?) holds pillows for the garden chairs.

I have had a lot of different vignettes on top of the cabinet and I must say this is my all time favorite.

Today's project is not a whim.

Painter's drop cloth, stencils, paint and sachet are my supplies for an idea I came up with - I hope it works.

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I am joining

Lavender Garden Cottage for a Cottage Style Party

Rooted in Thyme for Simple & Sweet Fridays

Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday

Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

Sun Sea Sand

My calendar tells me that it is the end of August, exactly one month since I returned from vacation and I question where the time went - not much to show for it

other than some fun vignettes I posted for Instagram.

On Monday I yelled at myself for being so lazy and decided that I needed to accomplish something in the month of August.

I made a new window seat cushion in July 2013, and have tried all sorts of different pillow combinations on the window seat, but the only pillows I liked were the lobster and crab pillows that belong to my next door neighbor.

I found these pillows here and thought they might look cute on the window seat.

I printed out the words on computer paper,

cut the letters out and using fabric I bought at the beginning of August, 

I painted the words with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

Unfortunately, I had eyeballed the placement and the word sun was too close to the right edge so I had to scrap that pillow and start again.

This time I went with blue at my daughter's insistence.

I like the crisp white pillows, but I was a little concerned about using beach themed pillows.

I decided that since I do live in a little seaside cottage, it is okay for me to have a beach theme going on in the house all year long.

There are still some changes coming for the dining room,

but for now, I am happy with the pillow combination and

a new painting, "Ha'ena From Tunnels Beach" hanging on the wall.

I feel like I accomplished something more than just changing up vignettes around the house.

Life is Good and I am ready for September and a long list of projects!

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Join me at

The Dedicated House - Anything Blue Friday

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup Thursday

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Rooted in Thyme- Simple & Sweet Fridays