Breathe

  It's time to put down the iPad and step outside. With the new season comes another opportunity to contemplate our lives. Now, I'm not saying that we all have to follow in Madonna's dramatic footsteps of reinventing ourselves. However, one idea is key for this transformation: family. Over the winter months we've forgotten that there's more to life than work, than surfing the internet, and checking Facebook. We've forgotten how to simply... breathe. 

More often than not, it's the simple moments with family that can inspire and catalyst the most profound changes in our lives. For me, given on a particular day, this feeling can be discovered by an afternoon at the beach. The first spring day exciting all of the senses with freshness in the air, and the sun recharging my exhausted and thinly spread life. Even repainting the living room wall, buying a spontaneous bucket of paint with my daughter and bringing the outdoors in. Whatever the case may be, the time has come to make the home the center of your life again. The time has come to take charge, turn up the music, and get to it!
Capturing this sense of relaxation and ultimate content may sound as impossible as catching lightening in a bottle. Yet, it's not only vital for your mental health, but it's as simple as deciding what to wear in the morning. No matter what outfit you end up choosing, it's completely and utterly you. With that in mind, reflect on what graces your home. Do the walls and rooms truly reflect the ideas and moments that you cherish the most? Personally, the color blue has followed my family for decades. It's always let itself be prominent in the memories that I hold most dear. From my brother's desire to become a member of the Air Force, planes contrasting against the sky, to my daughter teaching our Portuguese waterdog not to be afraid of the waves that hit the shore line- blue has always been a part of the story.  And with my desire to continue that legacy, I place hints of the playful color in almost every room. It's become a permanent guest in my home.
So, we must return the basics, there we'll uncover what inspires and motivates. Don't complicate the idea by over thinking every little decision. Follow your instincts. It's time to frame that old photo of grandma, repaint the office, reupholster that family heirloom that's been sitting around, and emphasize those little family quirks that make a house a home. After all, we shouldn't feel like guests in our own home. We should always have the time to breathe, celebrate family, home and a new season.
                                                                                   .

Ralph Lauren blue and white bedroom: Hand painted river-rock, the perfect keepsake
Kick off your shoes it's comfortable not fussy.
beach life
The joy of family
Antibes Bed from Ralph Lauren
collecting color
Waterleaf Interiors
Maritime Blue: Scalamandre
Seaside entry, don't be afraid of a little sand on the floor

We always remember the simple things.