Carmel, CA Recap + Flower Farm Stand Fun

Well, I'm back in Michigan! If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that our dog got sick in the early morning of the day I got back, so I spent the morning cleaning up all his messes ;) He's feeling better now, thankfully!

Last week when I was in California, my parents and I took our family dog, Hope, to Carmel. We found this new place called Earthbound Farms in Carmel Valley and it was so beautiful and fun, I had to show you some pictures!

They have a flower stand right outside which was so cute!

  Earthbound grows their own lavender, so they had lavender in abundance! They even make their own lavender syrup to add to your drink of choice, if you want. My mom got a lavender latte and loved it.

My adorable mom + Hope!

We sat outside and had coffee and pastries, then saw they had cornhole, so played a round of that before taking a look at the gardens.

My dad thought this was hilarious ;)

The pet garden is a little gated area for your dog to play!

They have many flowers on the property, so I wandered around and found these cafe au lait dahlias-- my favorite! They were huge!

Lots of lavender! I caught a butterfly on it :) This little area was cute for kids to run around. They had a cool teepee set up that a couple kids were playing in.

They even had an herb garden where you can cut your own herbs to take home for free!

Hope loved the pet garden. Everything in there was safe and edible for dogs!

As we were leaving, they were putting out more flowers at the flower stand. I wanted to get a bunch, but we'd just arrived and I knew they would die in the car :(

How gorgeous are these?! LOVE!

I didn't take out my nice camera the rest of the day, but did take some iPhone snaps. We headed to Carmel Valley Lodge for lunch (highly recommend: dog friendly, amazing views, beautiful pool, yummy food). This is where we stayed the night before my wedding (and by "we" I mean my parents and I). Then we got ready here with all my girls the day of the wedding. It always brings back such amazing memories.  This is the inside of the restaurant. There's a patio as well, which overlooks the pool.

This is the view from the hot tub:

All of Carmel is just covered in beautiful flowers!

Carmel by the Sea has tons of quaint details-- one of my favorites are the gorgeous tiled stairs. Hope modeled for me :)

Hope's favorite thing to do in life is run on the beach, so we took her to the ocean before we left (which made for a wet ride home, but she loved it!) My dad threw her the ball again and again. It was so fun to watch her get it and then run into the ocean to dip her feet in with every throw!

We had a great time! You can find more about our trips to Carmel and my recommendations in these posts. Happy Tuesday!
xoxo interior design website / services / portfolio

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Feminine Summer Outfits + Statement Earrings

Summer fashion is my absolute favorite-- I love dresses and rompers and flowy numbers more than anything! I'd rather be hot than cold any day, too ;) I picked up some adorable finds the other week so wanted to show you my favorites!

First up was this adorable jumpsuit. It's so simple and sweet. Unfortunately it's sold out in most sizes, but I also found some more jumpsuits that are similar!

 Neutral Jumpsuit / Earrings

More Jumpsuits:

One of my blogging bff's, Hannah Matthew Designs, who I've known since the beginning of blogging just started creating these beautiful statement earrings. She has so many different designs! I loved this rattan pair she sent me so much, I had to show you. I have to be honest I'm not one to change my earrings often, but after this statement earring trend, I'm on board and trying to change them to enhance my outfits. It sounds funny, I know, but I think it's such a fun way to dress things up. Hannah's earrings are just so darn cute, I want every pair ;)

Keep scrolling to get a discount code below!

I'd seen this dress online a lot so was really happy to get to try it on! I think I needed to size down one, but they didn't have my size so I grabbed this one to try. It's so flowy and cute! I could see it being perfect for a vacation (Greece comes to mind!) or for church or get togethers.

 Dress / Sandals- highly suggest the patent leather as they can be worn in rain and be okay!

This outfit is such a fun and sassy one, in my opinion. As you know I've mentioned I don't love shorts. I'd wear a dress any day over shorts. But I think my dislike for them comes from my fear of them being too short or tight. The paper bag short style is one I can get behind because they're on the longer side without looking weird, have a cute feminine bow, and aren't too tight. I tucked in this sweet white blouse with some textured details and a flowy sleeve.

Top / Paper Bag Shorts- in steel grey heather / Wedges (under $50) / Earrings

The back has a cute tie detail and I paired it with the statement earrings again to show you another way to style it. I think a high ponytail with the earrings is a great look, so the earrings really show!

I paired this look with my favorite wedges from last year (on sale now under $50 in many colors) to give it some height and dress it up a little. It'd look equally as cute with sandals or even sneakers, like converse.

Okay, friends! Here's the fun part. My friend Hannah is giving my readers 20% off with code MND20 on ANY of her earrings! You can take a look at her adorable shop here. Here is just a sampling!

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Our Bathroom: How to Frame Your Large Mirror

As you might remember, we had been renovating our bathroom in our new house for the last couple months. Check out my inspiration for the room here. I love making an inspiration board for the rooms I design so we have a bit of a design direction, but I also give myself some creative freedom to stray a bit from the original design.

 For example, I originally thought I'd do two mirrors to replace the one tall skinny (floor!) mirror the previous owner used as the bathroom mirror, but when it came down to it, it was more cost effective and would open up the room more if we did one sheet mirror, then figured out a frame for it. I would have just bought a mirror with a frame, but couldn't find any under $500 that was appropriate for the size space we had.

One of my sweet readers suggested checking out Mirror Mate to get the mirror framed and I'm so thankful for the suggestion! They are so awesome. Instead of buying trim from a store and making one ourselves, you can actually choose from tons of mirror styles, colors and options at Mirror Mate and get it custom made to fit your mirror. I ordered 3 samples and then chose my favorite frame from there to order. I was so excited that Mirror Mate wanted to partner with me to bring this post to my readers. I have already recommended and used this product for my interior design clients and I can't wait to continue. It's such an awesome solution to dressing up a standard / builder grade mirror.

THE BEFORE:

The original vanity was sitting on the floor (no toe-kick) so it was really low to the ground and that just wasn't ideal for my 6'3" husband ;) I found a very affordable vanity at a local discount store and picked out a quartz countertop that's white with some gray veining to replace it. It's simple and clean.

We also took out a huge bulkhead that was above the bathroom vanity, making the space feel so small and crowded. We have no idea why it was there, as it wasn't covering anything important, so I'm thrilled it's gone!!

Once we got the dry wall repaired, we placed the vanity and then hung the large mirror. Then we measured the mirror and ordered the frame we wanted from Mirror Mate. We ended up going with the Cherokee Montauk Sand. I thought it would bring some warmth to the room and would tie in with the baskets I'm eventually going to get to fill the built ins on the right side of the vanity.

The mirror frame comes in 4 pieces for you to easily put together yourself. We did it in just a couple minutes! You just use the provided glue and then hammer in these little pieces to keep the angles together.

Next we peeled off the paper on the adhesive so we could get the frame stuck on our mirror.

  

My husband had the genius idea to set our level on the inside of the frame so that when we were holding the frame up about to press it to the mirror, we could tell for sure if it was straight or not. We got it on the first try, thankfully ;) The adhesive sticks right to your mirror, so you don't need any other tools for the project!

THE AFTER WITH OUR NEW MIRROR FRAME:

Mirror frame / faucets & towel bars / shower curtain- sold out, but this is similar / sconces

I love how it turned out! I think if we'd done white it'd have been a little to white in the room. This offers a bit of warmth and I think once we get the baskets in the builtins, it'll bring it all together! I'm thinking these baskets for the shelves. 

Projects left in the bathroom: - Art for above the towel bar (this butterfly one is just a placeholder!) - Floor rug that spans both sinks - Baskets for builtins - Pulls for the drawers 

It feels so good to have the bathroom mostly done!! It's a far cry from what it used to be.
xoxo

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* Mirror Mate sent us the frame for our bathroom. I'm happily sharing my honest opinion with you, as we genuinely loved our experience and the final product. Thank you for supporting companies that keep MND door's open!

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