Kay Ellen

Never A Dull Moment

Back to work...doing what I love to do. This home was full of family and friends last weekend for a special daughter's wedding. The wedding was actually held outside in the garden, but with the high temptures we have been having in the Inland Empire my client wanted to make sure the inside of the house was finished too...

My Mom did alot of sewing...I added finshing touches to each room and moved furniture around...well, I directed the furniture moving:) I had some strong helpers!!

Freshly painted walls with selected accent colors to show off the curves of the space.

I selected arched upholstered cornices to follow the archway openings into the dining room and back hall area. The cornice's were inspired by my friend Jackie Von Tobel's window ideas.
I love her fabulous Design Directory of Window Treaments. Jackie has also released a new Bedding Design book as well! Click here to stop by her blog and order her wonderful resource books! She is currently working on a new slipcover book~~~I am really excited too see it completed!

I reworked the buffet server in the diningroom. I moved things around to add height and depth. The reflection of the mirror adds alot of sparkle to the space.

Here is an overall photo of the dining area...Sorry my photo it is a little dark, but I knew you would want to see the complete room. I selected white and silver accessories for the hutch on the back wall. When a china hutch does not have a mirrored back it is helpful to add accessories with sparkle or a high contrast color. You can really see the white accessory peices in the hutch.

These matching leather chairs were hidden in a back area of the house...right away I told the home owner we need these out in the familyroom stat! lol

Across from the leather chairs is an L shaped comfy sofa. My Mom made twelve new pillows and four beautiful roman shade valances for the windows in this area.

I placed fresh orchids in focal areas around the house. They really added an elegant touch to each room.

I am taking a few more days off again from blogging...Never a dull moment!
My Dad was hospitlized this week from a spider bite?!
Prayerfully hoping he will get to come home this weekend.

I took this photo a few weeks ago of my Dad, Mom and the grandkids at Newport Beach:)

Thank you for stopping by!

:Kay Ellen

Another Glimpse of Catalina

I know I promised a few more photos from our family getaway...

I took alot pictures! Please feel free to visit my Flickr photos to read more details about each capture...

This was our family vacation so we stayed on the island for a few days...It was a real treat to learn more about the history of the island, discover the old architecture of the city and venture out into the wilderness.

Happy Pink Saturday to all of Beverly's friends visiting!

Click on this photo of the playground so you see what we spotted...A group of bison on a playground! We were on our off road adventure when we came upon this site. Thankfully no children on the playground and we were safe in the unimog.

My son Kyle cut off his curls on our trip...Of course I love it because I can see his handsome face:)

Requesting prayer for Kyle...I took him to see a specialist because he had still not regained his sense of smell since the concussion a few months ago. We found from the new CAT scan no swelling and everything looked normal but they did find a cyst in his brain. Still waiting for the next step to see if he will need surgery or not to remove it.

Thank you for stopping by and for your prayers!

:Kay Ellen and family

Adventures on Catalina

Back to Catalina to share some of our fun adventures on the island.

My family enjoys snorkling so our first splash was in the water at Lovers Cove.

We decided to rent the snorkeling equipment when we got to the island. Very reasonable and one less thing to pack, right?!

A crystal clear cove, as you can see by my photo. I would also add the ocean is pretty chilly, we decided to jump in quick and that helped us get over the cold water feeling pretty fast.
We did see a few locations where we could have rented wetsuits, but we did ok with our method of warming up.

No life guard on duty...If you are planning to snorkle sometime in the future in Catalina, I would suggest you keep an eye out for each other while you are in Lovers Cove. The cove at times was very busy with tour boats, fellow snorklers and kayaks.

Look who showed up in the cove? A sea lion swimming around...not tame, but fun to see:)

The funniest part of snorkeling adventure was getting in and out of the water. Lots of rocks! I am glad no one had a movie camera ...we had a good laugh walking in and out of the cove with our flippers on!

The locals sell food to feed the fish at the cove, but I have to mention the fish go crazy the second you throw the food in the water! We decided to wait until we were done snorkeling to try it. I am glad we waited because the fish even flipped up out of the water to catch the food. My son had a couple good size fish nibble on his fingers and grab one of the bags of food right out of his hand! They didn't hurt him, just had a good laugh and now he has a funny story to share.

If you have young children or adults that want to stay close to shore this cove is perfect! You can see fish the minute you dive in :)

Oh my goodness, I have so much more to share...check back on my blog in a couple days OK?

I am joining Susan at outdoor wednesdays, come stop by and celebrate outdoor adventures! her blog is :
http://a southern daydreamer.blogspot.com

Bye Bye for now,

:Kay Ellen

Time Away

Leaving Newport Harbor for a getaway.

Twenty six miles away is Catalina Island our vacation desination!

We took the catalina flyer over to the island.

One hour later we arrived...

Beautiful Catalina Island!

I will share more photos soon...

Thank you for stopping by,

:Kay Ellen

Puttering

I am puttering around my garden this morning...

Still on a spiritual high from this past weekend. Singing all the songs I heard...and very thankful for the lives that were changed at the Harvest Crusade.

Wow, my morning glory vines went crazy the past couple of weeks...I am trimming them way back before they take over my garden!

This is my little hidden gardening corner where you can find me puttering away. The chippy garden table belonged to my Grandpa Dean. He let me have the table over 25 years ago. Originally the table was used in his workshop everyday for over 40 years. I still love it, all weathered and worn. A special gardening table the holds lots of memories...

and I also enjoy creating little things that make me smile in the garden:)

Ok friends, I am headed back to the garden to create, trim and putter some more...

The newest piece in my gardening area is the galvanized barstool. Perfect for outside in the weather. A sweet blogging friend Ruth from "The Beautiful Life" told me about it... so I headed over to the website overstock.com and ordered it! Make sure and stop by and say hello to Ruth...thanks again for the hot tip!

I am taking a few days off from blogging, working and ready for some much needed vacation time with my husband and teens.

See you later!
:Kay Ellen

The Harvest Crusade has arrived!

The weekend has arrived and we are at the Southern California Harvest Crusade!

Our church, Harvest Christian Fellowship takes over the Angel Stadium for a few days each summer.

Many volunteers and staff started setting up the stage, sound, cameras and signage at the beginning of the week.

We are expecting 100,000 guests will attend over the three nights.

My husband is on staff at our church and each summer he is in charge of the design of the stage ~~~ along with a huge install crew and design team supporting him.
Maybe you can tell by this capture he is a pretty funny guy, but a very hard worker too!

The stadium fills up quickly...

Amazing Christian artists blessing thousands with there musical talents!

Each guest that attends the event will receive this Harvest Newspaper...filled with information about the Harvest Crusades and our church. My husband's design team and Pastor Greg created this awesome paper.

Our Pastor, Greg Laurie, has a message of hope to share...
You can watch the program live or archived on our churchs website HERE

Lives are changed each night and thousands come forward to except Christ in their heart.

Take a moment and visit the website or come on out and join us at the Anaheim Angel
Stadium!!

Thank you for stopping by,
:Kay Ellen and Family

If you love blog gatherings...Stop by Spirtual Sundays and say hello to Charolette and Ginger.
http://www.bloggerspirit.blogspot.com

Beach Feeling

Happy August friends. This Summer is flying by! A busy working summer for myself. Remodels and design work that I get involved in can last several months, so I try to fit in little getaways when I can. My family and I went to the beach this past weekend and had wonderful time.

Here's a beautiful beach inspired bathroom I designed. This could help keep the beach feeling alive all year long. Right?

I fell in love with this scroll border the second I saw it! I knew it would be perfect for the backsplash in this bathroom. Did you notice it resembles a wave? Can you see it? The countertop is a creamy white marble, a very soft look and it compliments the backsplash and the dark cabinet color. I added a few seashells to display on the countertop to continue the look.

The oil rubbed bronze fixtures and the dark stained cabinetry have become a rich warm anchor in the room.

The sail boat art and color coordinating towels add a finishing touch to the bathroom and a little daydreaming of sailing is nice too:)

I was tickled to see the sailboat art reflecting in the mirror nicely. You can see how the room flows...

The venetian plaster walls are my favorite element in the room~~the aqua color is so soothing and it pulls the entire space together.

Beyond the pretty glass block window is the new shower finished!

The brown tones and textures in the tile add an additional sandy beach feeling.
A tumbled stone tile works well for this look. I love the light grout we used, it really makes each tile pop! The seamless glass door adds a polished and completed look to the shower.

We were able to keep the creamy white floor tile that had been installed five years ago, it was a perfect match for the bathroom.

The new glass exterior door lets beautiful light in the room and leads you right out to the pool to jump in!

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour...

Have a wonderful week.. Back to work:)

:Kay Ellen