Wow! Hello June 2023! This is going to be another life update with lots of photos. I promise, we have been working and the organizing content is on the way…but ’tis the season of celebrating. And I’m happy to share it with you!
The month of May was packed – Mother’s Day (in this post), my birthday, a trip to Palm Springs (shared here), my niece’s law school graduation, and more. Tomorrow, June 2, my little boy graduates from high school…will definitely be back to share those details and photos. SO excited about his celebration!
But today I’m sharing other May happenings.
MY BIRTHDAY
I’m not huge into birthday celebrations. I prefer keeping it low-key, being surrounded by the people I love and doing something active. Next year is a BIG birthday so I’m hoping to do a trip with a group of friends. This year all I wanted to do was golf in the morning with the boys, have brunch, see some friends and family, and chill out in the evening. Also do dinner one evening with the kids.
My birthday landed on a Saturday this year so golfing and brunch happened on my birthday – dinner with the kids happened Sunday. A great weekend!
In the morning of my birthday, I was gifted a golf lesson from our club’s golf pro. Met with him bright and early so I made coffee at home (my favorite) and arrived early for the lesson…
The last time I golfed was with a couple girlfriends a few weeks ago. My swing needs a lot of work, no surprise there as a newbie to this sport. He corrected my swing a bit as well as how I was standing.
When I golfed a couple weeks ago, I found I was getting really anxious to swing the club. I kept hitting the ground which was impacting and hurting my right elbow. So after hitting the ground multiple times, I stopped wanting to swing altogether – I was nervous to hit my elbow again. The lesson helped and I have been out since…more on that later in this post.
The boys and I hit balls for a couple hours after the lesson and it was fun to hang out with them in the sunshine…
After golf, we had brunch with a few friends, the kids and my sister was able to join too. She lives out of state and travels here frequently for work so I am grateful the timing came together to have her join us…
I’ve mentioned this on the blog before but the only gifts I ever want on my birthday from the kids are handmade cards, a photo of us together AND chocolate cake. It’s the one time each year I DO have cake like this and Susie Cakes is my favorite!…
I took a break from working out on my actual birthday because my body was sore from the week. It was a great birthday all in all!
LAW SCHOOL GRADUATE
The week following my birthday, I traveled to Orange County to attend my niece’s law school graduation…
This is my sister’s second daughter (she has four) and she was the valedictorian! SO PROUD!
She only had a few tickets and I was grateful to snag one. Of course I would NOT miss this special day!
We cheered LOUDLY for her as she crossed the stage…
Proud of this kid!
After graduation we took lots of photos and celebrated at her favorite Brazilian Steakhouse. Such a special day!
RECENT PROJECTS
Have been on a lot of beautiful projects – can’t wait to share more. And especially the story behind this one in San Francisco, just blocks from where I grew up. Nothing like some foggy weather to lift your spirits. This fog is what I grew up in…
We helped this sweet woman finish unpacking and did some space planning and organizing in her kitchen…
We’re heading back soon to take on her closet, which will be AMAZING!
We also helped this family move back into their new kitchen after a renovation…
I was recently called in to help with a VERY challenging pantry. This is going to be a custom build with her contractor. Will be very fun to design and help him bring it to life…the angles!…
Hard to tell but there’s seven walls coming together at various angles in this very small pantry. Let’s see how it goes!
Anyway, I’ll share more with you soon about these!
UPHOLSTERY CLEANING
My birthday gift to myself was getting the outdoor sectional / area rug and indoor family room sectional professionally cleaned. I’ve owned the Pottery Barn outdoor sectional for almost eight years maybe…have not once had the cushions cleaned. When I bought it, I added blue slipcovers because the kids were much younger. My long-time blog friends will remember this…
Last year I took off the blue slipcovers to reveal the white covers beneath. LOVE that I can have a light, bright sectional now that the kids are older…
I removed the cushions for the rainy season and stored them away in the garage. But when I brought them back outside a couple weeks ago they were showing some wear.
The upholstery magicians came the week before my birthday and made them look BRAND NEW!…
Both the cushions AND area rug. AND the family room sectional. I’ll share more about this project soon because I need to grab some photos of the indoor sectional, but as soon as everything was dry, I added these custom slipcovers to keep it all clean for the season.
There’s so many trees that drop as well as birds and I needed / wanted to get it all covered up so when we are ready to sit down it’s not covered with leaves or bird droppings. I have another patio with more furniture too…more to share on this one!
But it was the best gift I could have given myself 🙂
MORE GOLFING
With Aiden leaving in a couple months for college, I am spending as much time as possible with him. He is really into golf, so I’m trying to work on my game so we have an activity to connect over…
One recent evening we hit the course for nine holes. Really fun and beautiful, although cold! Good thing the bar was open so I could bring some wine to warm me up…
We had one broken light on someone’s property – oops! – but they were gracious when we knocked to offer to pay for the replacement. Poor Graham!…
It’s the memories that matter – lol!
NOVA AND MISC…
I need to get my act together to finally write a post about Nova. She continues to make us so happy!…
And she is getting very big. She’s determined to continue fitting on my office chair, squished behind me. You can see how kind she is to give me that small sliver of chair cushion to sit on – lol!
You can always find her with one of us, sleeping or playing. Mostly sleeping though. She falls asleep in your arms within moments of you picking her up…such a ragdoll!…
Did I mention that Graham got his driver’s license? On the first try??
This is my new seat in the car…
Still hard core into my workouts and trying to get better with the meal planning / prep…
Hoping the slow summer months will help with this.
This may be enough of an update for today. Definitely more to come! It’s been nice to take a break away from work / blogging / social with all of the May events. But I’m looking forward to getting back to everything once the kids are out of school and I have less time in the car with my new driver. 2 of the 3 are driving now! 1 to go!
More to come after Aiden’s graduation tomorrow! Hope you’re doing well too and enjoying the end of the school year / start of summer!
xo,
Sam
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