Gratitude, big and little...Bread and Wine

Hi Dear Inspired Readers,

My summer time is coming to a close, though sunny days will be here for a few months,  my son beginning school tomorrow and my daughter next week. Lucas will begin tomorrow as well. Whose Lucas? He is our international student living with us now! Happy & sad.

Do you ever have those conflicting feelings? 

Well, if you do, too...I highly recommend the book Bread and Wine, (see gorgeous picture below) for your summers end read! (I have a mutual friend in common with the author, who brought me another book by her) I could not put it down! I laughed out loud, cried (streaming tears) and found myself agreeing with her out loud, which prompted my husband and daughter to ask me WHAT was I reading?

My mom and I had a lengthy discussion today on the topic, of having a life to be profoundly grateful for, on one hand, and feeling so sad or disappointed about something, on the other. I think we all grapple with that to some degree, which is why I so loved Bread and Wine! She has clearly had a wonderful life, lovely family but has had some very difficult and heartbreaking life circumstances happen. While I laughed and cried my way through this book, I thought she was a girl after my own heart!

So, why do I share all this? Because I just had this recently. So after  DECIDING to focus on my gratitude...

I thought this book and these photos would be a good mix. I hope you get a good laugh out of my descriptions!

I'll be back posting about design and the beautiful things of the home, soon with some surprises, like a new business name and more...

I rolled down the hill, over and over, using my hands and hips to slow down,  from the tippy top of Catalina's White's Cove Mountain Top... Between laughing and squealing, my dad, daughter, hubbie, sister and I, had a blast hiking straight up a very steep, and slippery slope! The boat is down there! Thankfully, I did not roll down there, too!

Below, we look fairly composed, this was taken before I almost rolled to the bottom. (Slight exaggeration) Note: See what happens when I wear FLAT shoes, like tennis shoes?

 I absolutely love to focus on the beauty of EVERYTHING. I think even the docks in Catalina, at White's Cove, are beautiful. The cleats themselves are so beautiful, too. I think I feel this way because growing up I spent most of my summers on them, and tying up the boat to them! 

This salmon recipe (From the other book photographed at top, Gwyneth Paltrow's book It's All Good) is the best ever, ever, ever! 

 Hannah with Catherine and Sydney!

Justin helping Danny and learning the ropes!

 One of the most beautiful moments I have experienced all summer  were these dolphins. We spent more than thirty minutes in the center of these dolphins playing in the wake of our boat. It was a beautiful and magical moment from God. Really, once you spend moments in the midst of these beautiful creatures you feel as if you just spent time with our creator!

 The darling girls walking around Catalina.

My "sous chef" who is apparently a bit camera shy. So meet my "sous basket".

 Paella is Scott and my favorite thing to make together. This recipe also from Gwyneth's books! This one is seafood! It was delicious. I was trying to look "Food Network-y" with my sous chef holding up the Paella in front of Catalina, but since we didn't have a crew to clean the windows on demand, it isn't perfect, though the evening was.

 Beautiful Catherine loving the Paella, as did Eliot, Scott, Danny and my Momma.

 The best parents ever! (Ok, I'm partial)

 The darling cousins. I love them. Gratitude, is just delicious! I wish for you

Zephaniah 3:17! Love to you all. Big Love!!!!

Dusk in the Garden, Bon Boyage prayers for a friend

Good Morning Beautiful Women,

I thought I'd share some beautiful photographs with you.

It's one of those days, where words are just failing me...

So I'll let the pictures speak...

This was a bon voyage party for my dear friends: Marta and Tabi...

To say I will miss them terribly, well......

Hannah and I have grown to love them like sisters, as they help to shape Inspired31.org, and as they have become part of our family.....

Did you take me off your list & WHAT have you been doing? Exciting News...

Helllloooo To You All~

I bet you have been wondering where I've been....or NOT! But I'm going to give you a recap anyway :)

I'm doing it mostly in pictures, AND I have such exciting news. I'm designing professionally again. I have hired my  precious friend and excellent studio manager, Judy, back to work and we open the doors again in September, although we are working already on a few HUGE surprises!

I took two years off work/design: the first year to be FULLY PRESENT during my daughters Senior Year....which was wonderful!  It turned into taking another year off getting our family's "health" in order in a myriad of ways, by essentially going fully organic and trashing everything that wasn't grown from the earth OUT! While Scott and Justin were in Romania for 10 days serving orphans and loving on them I threw every chemical out of my house. I also decluttered every closet and threw out a ridiculous amount of items, or gave them away. I've pictured the beginnings of some shelves!

My hubbie and I started an awesome & fun project and you can see below our organic garden, from which I cook from. I also began to eat mostly vegan, attending farmers market, buying only organic and studying every aspect of every little thing I feed to my family! Yes, I threw even my makeup and kids shampoo's away and started over. I read about 15 very excellent books, the best being Gwenyth Paltrow's newest cook book, on nutrition and health and changed out our house.

 What does my hubbie and son think? He loves that for the last 6 months I can be found making veggie's and even homemake Sriacha sauce (thanks to Gwyneth and 4 hours of recipe!!!), however no sugar, or only honey & maple syrup, no dairy ideally, goat cheese, no gluten or really flour at all...not so much!

I took a trip with my mom back to Nashville (saw Lorianne :) for an appearance on a new show (some exciting news later) WHOA (like the magazine I have a column in) as the "design girl", went to Washington DC to the Smithsonian for an apt. to view my great grandfathers documents and dove into my roots in an effort to see how far back our design roots really go and had an awesome time. I realized my son is EXACTLY like the men on our maternal side, though he is a mini-me of my dad, and is a right brain thinker and changed his whole education plan because of it, more later.

We fell in love with my daughters college, Westmont, and were asked to be on the tiny "Parents Council" with mostly parents from across the country and began to help with their new "Montecito Institute" on leadership. We love the leadership, the school, and the President Dr. Beebe! We have spent quite a bit of time with him, and others, and love their entire philosophy. Westmont.edu

I'm changing this blog back to design and home and all it entails. To follow Inspired31.org blog please see our website, where I hope girls and their moms will begin their blog entries there.

I'm excited to share more, but wanted to do a quick update!

Today I'm cleaning out our cute camper (Our little airstream) and we hit the road tomorrow, organic veggies (grass fed, organic meat for the men for bbq) and all!

Love to all,

I can't wait to share some of the fun news in more depth.

So excited to be back to designing the home, the passion of my heart! 

Love & Blessings,

Roxanne