This is really happening.... :)

Oh wow. That was fast!

She's sold! And I couldn't be happier about 

her new family:) 

I've been praying for the perfect people to love and cherish 

this old gal...

and then there they were!

Just like that. I probably should have asked the Lord for

a little more time? hahaha!! but as we all know..

it's in HIS time:)

When we left for Cali, the bathroom was not yet finished.

Like we were driving away while the plumber was there installing the

faucet! So Rio sent me these pics last night so I could

see the finished product.

Who are we kidding here.

I needed something to blog about!!

I'm loving how this turned out! 

The mini subway is adorable:)

You want to see this house up close and personal?

Well now is your chance.

Even though she's sold we are going to go ahead

and do the open house!

And yes of course! the sweet ladies at Waffle Love

will be there selling their ridiculously

delicious waffles:)

And hey! the waffles are going to be 50% off!

Courtesy of all of us here at Project Beautify:)

You're sooo welcome!!

This Friday the 18th from 9am-1pm

142 W. 2nd St.

Mesa, AZ 85201

Hope to see you there!!!

Bathroom update.... :)

Oh boy. 

This bathroom has come a long way baby!

We started by moving the bathtub to the other side of the room.

With it being where it was before, the water from the shower was

completely rotting the window trim:(

So moving it to the other side made waaay more sense! 

Just white simple subway tile, it's my favorite:)

With the window being in the middle of the wall, and the sink centering

under it,we needed to get

creative with the mirrors.

We did these shallow medicine cabinets that go from 

counter top to ceiling, and did a mirrored window

looking door:)

We kept the old door of course!

The back splash, sink faucet and hardware get installed tomorrow!

And you know what else happens tomorrow?

We get to head out for a two month vacay/house hunt in Ventura!!

I got butterflies.... :)

We will come back for the weekend of July 18th though..

Why you say?

Because we're going to have an open house here with our

friends from Waffle Luv!!

Yep, waffles and a house tour!

Are you coming??

July 18th 9am-1pm

Fun and games... :)

It's crazy town over here.

It's been a houseful of painters, electricians, AC guys, 

and peeing like a ninja because the roofer guys are working

just outside your only working bathroom's

(with no curtain!!) window!!

So not fun.

In stressful times like these, I find myself wanting to completely

escape reality and spend copious amounts of time playing

ridiculous games on my iPad.

My newest guilty pleasure?

 The Kardashians.

Yeah you read that right.

Come on!! I said I need an escape!!

And hey, you have no idea how much laser beam focus

this takes to concentrate while generators, nail guns and

Mexican music (which I love btw) are blaring 

around you!! hee hee hee

I found these old pics of the house on my iPad
and thought we could play a game of our own!
A game called-

You crazy.

You crazy for buying that place, and even
crazier for selling it.

Before:

Bars on the porch, two front doors, cracked and stained concrete,

4!! yes 4 layers of roof, and somewhere behind that overgrown

bush is a window. 

YIKES.

 After:)

Before:

After:)

Yes. That is in fact where they kept their trash cans.

Lovely.

After:)

Before:

After:)

Before:

That tree is actually a very old pittosporum!!

After:)

Before:

After:)

Let's play another game!
Let's see who can send me a buyer for this place the fastest!!
Ready! Set!! Go!!!

What if.... :)

What if you were born in the desert

....but your heart longed for the sea?

What if you could live your vacation...

What if what you dreamed about all your life

....could finally come true?

Would you do it?

Like really DO IT?????

For as long as I've known my sweet hubby, he has dreamed of living

by the beach. A dream shared by me and the kiddies:)

 And soooo...

We're gonna...

DO IT.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep. We're selling this place that we love and heading to

....Carpinteria, CA :)

*I'll post pics next week of the completed bathroom and house,

and the deets on an upcoming open house:)

The best medicine.... :)

I love to laugh.

Especially at myself.

And most especially with Rio:)

Nothing has made me laugh harder than some of our ebay purchases gone bad.

You know, the ones with the really fine print that we 

apparently can't see??

Like this one time, we thought it would be really cool to mount

mannequin arms to old silver trays and hang them on a wall for holding

necklaces and such.

Sooo, Rio called all excited one day and said that we won

a lot of 25 mannequin arms!! We couldn't WAIT to open the box when

they came and get our craft on...

Well, we won the arms alright!

But NO HANDS!!!

Yeah, that was a whole other auction.

Who in the world sells  

just mannequin arms???!!!??

And who in the world bus them??

We do.

AAAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Fast forward to this last Sunday.

We got home from Cali on Friday, and we decided to 

do some things around the house.

I asked the hubby to hang my curtains that I got

on ebay. I left to get my nails done and he

sent me a text saying we have a problem...

What in the world??!!??!!

AAAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!

I couldn't stop laughing. Like when you get the

giggles in church laughing. 

WHO sells a "pair" of curtains like that??!!

Most importantly..

who BUYS them??!!?!

Me. I do. 

Oh how I wish I had a pic of the one time I "won" a landscape picture

with a cow in it, and when it arrived....

it was dollhouse size.

Awesome Dorie. Just awesome.

Please tell me I'm not alone with these ridiculous  purchases,

it would make me feel a whole lot better about myself!!!

(insert crying laughing face)

**do you love how I STILL have the ruined rug?? hahaha!!

I finally tossed it yesterday, much to Little Bully's dismay:(

Extra week.... :)

So we decided to stay an extra week.

Why return to the heat right?

We're staying here in Rincon, 

aka...the "Queen of the coast".

I guess it's the holy grail of surf spots here in Cali. 

My boys are digging it: )

Well just to the north of Rincon, is this adorable little town.

Carpenteria. 

Or Carp like they call it:)

When we were doing our normal drive around and check out the

town, we came across this tiny old church on the corner.

I HAD to go on Sunday.

Whyyy aren't there adorable little tinys like 

this back at home!!!

And just as I expected, the congregation was about 30 people

and the music was just a piano and hymns.

My heart was overflowing with happiness:)

How I wish I could have taken a pic of the adorable old

couple that was celebrating !!65 years!! of marriage that day

with a small table of refreshments at the back of the church.

She was wearing a pink skirt suit and a blue lace scarf on her head the entire service:)

Her hubby was wearing suspenders and bright blue sweater

like Mr. Rogers.

I know you can picture the cuteness:)

I must admit I found myself more than once drifting away from the sermon

to admire the ceiling and stained glass windows...

and stare at the sweet old couple:)

 After the service, we walked outside to see these adorable bungalows lining the streets.

That's when I turned to hubby and said "I can't take it". 

Cuteness overload I tell ya.

This one was finishing up getting painted only the best

color in all the land.... :)

I wanted to walk up and knock on the door and just say...

give it to me. now. 

Is that weird??

We turned the corner and happened upon this little antique store.

The hubby just up and decided he's going to start collecting beach art.

Ya know, to hang in our beach house that we don't have.

....yet:)

So this extra week of relaxing has finally forced me to face my fears.

The fear of pages and tabs.

But as you can see at the top of the blog....

I conquered it!!

It only took me 5 years.
Geeesh.....

AdVentura.... :)

Ventura. I'm totally digging you.

After we sold our house in Dana Point  I knew 

it wouldn't be long before the hubby would be wanting

another place by the sea:)

We had a place for over 15 years in Orange County,

and this time we wanted to try something new and venture further north:)

We rented a place in Faria Beach for a week to check out the

area:)

There's nothing I don't absolutely love about this picture.

This is the back wall of the house we rented, and the hubby and babies 

have been fishing here all day:)

They kept asking me to try it. So fiiiiine! I did.

And guess who caught 2 fish in her first two tries?!?! 

That would be me.

I say because I'm a Pisces, and these are my people:)

Little Bully has just been enjoying being outside without dying of heat.

It's 66 degrees here people.

Unbeknownst to me, the hubby took LB down to the water.

He's never been in the ocean before.

He loved it.

But kept drinking the water....

and you know what that means....

 Barfy Bully. 

And now we can't keep him out of water!

Seriously. Little Bully has absolutely no fear.

And has forgotten that he can't swim.

Don't know if you can hear the panic 

in my voice in this video... but trust me,

it's there!!!

Wallace needs a life vest.

And I need a Xanax.