07042024 Happy 4th-I Miss My Dog & New Arrivals!

Happy Fourth of July! Classic 4th photo on my mom’s deck several years ago. I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends.

I will be lying low this holiday because I have a very full weekend of activities planned. Friday night is Surf Rodeo to hear Chris Janson, Saturday is a spa day for my birthday and happy hour with friends that evening and then Sunday we are going to see Marc’s musical again. I am exhausted thinking about it all. LOL!

I headed out to the desert for the weekend this past Friday. I met Indiana and Larissa in North Hollywood to hand off the Cha. We had breakfast at a cute little place, Republic of Pie, and then I drove the last two hours to Palm Desert.

It turned out to be a super fun weekend in the desert. And, NO it was not too hot. About 100 degrees, very dry heat and beautiful. Brought back a ton of new fun items for the store.

Stop in Friday, Saturday or Sunday to see us. We will be closed, today, the 4th of July.

Mo and I hit estates sales and thrift stores on Saturday and then that night Mo and I went out to dinner at Skip’s Little Bar (one of my favorite places).

We ended up meeting Gabriel from Canada who plays the harmonica in a 5 piece band–Shakin’ Ground Blues Band. They were playing that night at the Desert Fox Bar right around the corner from Skips.

We decided to go and see him play. It was super fun!

The next day, Sunday, we took my mom’s cousin Gwen out to lunch at Billy Reeds in Palm Springs. Gwen is the daughter of Houston Sussex, my grandma, Cheryl Leaf’s brother.

Houston ended up also having another child (later in life) and Renato is 44 years old and Gwen’s half brother. He lives about an hour and a half from Palm Springs, but happened to be in town and went to Gwen’s house looking for her on Sunday. She wasn’t there as she was out to lunch with us!

So Renato and his wife Xochitl came to meet us at Billy Reeds. It was super fun to see them as I hadn’t seen them in 14 years. Yikes!

And I must share story #51 from my 1st 100 Best Book so that you can read about Houston and Cheryl and check out that photo. Doesn’t Renato look JUST like his dad?

Thank you for letting me share and back to present day. I headed back home on Monday and was supposed to detour to Marina Del Rey to pick up Cha Cha. The girls had decided they wanted to keep her longer and promised me that they would bring her home on Wednesday.

Well, guess what? Wednesday rolls around and they ask to keep her until Saturday….ughhhhh! I miss my dog.

But at least I know she is happy and well cared for and Carlos is beside himself with joy that there is not a puppy in the house to bother him.

I did get to face time with Cha Cha last night, but I think it just confused her because she was looking everywhere for me. Ughhhh!

But back to Carlos….Seriously, I think Carlos believes that I got rid of the Puppy. He is beyond happy. He follows me around everywhere and won’t leave my side. In fact, he puts his paws around my face at night and kisses me or sleeps on my head. I am not kidding! The weirdest thing ever! I need my dog back 🙂 Here is an example.

OK, back to the store. Tuesday was the third design install for Susan and myself. Exciting! A very Hawaiian themed living room that we took and adulted up. I think it turned out amazing and our client is THRILLED!

Here are the before pics.

Here is perfunctory photo of Susan and me with the loaded truck!

For this install, we decided to add an amazing capiz shell lamp to tie the entire room together. Thank GOD that Susan’s husband Brad came with us to the install.

Seriously, it took about an hour to install and Logan and I held up that lamp for too long…we were dying! And poor Brad had the worst of it. We thought about giving up, but shouldered through and thank goodness we did….It looks amazing!