hello, friends! my spirits are so uplifted by a recent long stretch of heavy sunshine in my neck of the woods, and there is something about getting outside and letting the warmth hit my face, even in the middle of a crazy work day, that makes everything seem like it’ll be a-okay.

how would you spend a perfect day in your own town? sometimes I think I could write a million versions of that perfect day here. there is so much to see, soak in and enjoy, and at the same time I could easily wing it completely and know that in this town you are never too far away from natural and architectural beauty, delicious california cuisine, or a dang good cocktail. and whether you live here or visit, that’s pretty incredible.

here’s an itinerary I would dream up first…

confession: winter is not my jam. the early dark nights, the colder temps, the rain and gray skies… and the period after the holidays is the hardest time of all, when the holiday cheer has faded away and spring is quite literally still months away. so the importance of bringing light, literally and figuratively, into the home to help uplift us when the days are short is high on my mind.

what a week, friends. the storms in california have been unreal, santa barbara has been smack in the thick of it, and we are buckling down for another wave of torrential rain this weekend.

as a lifelong california resident, I can remark that there is a quiet but omnipresent fear one feels living in a place that in the wake of climate change becomes increasingly susceptible to natural disasters. this week brought torrential rain and flooding to our beloved town…

one week down in the new year, the moon is full, the waves are crashing, and life is feeling sweetly sublime at this moment in time.

here are my friday favorites for this first week of 2023…

“is your soul happy today?” I pause and ask myself that question a lot. some days I can unequivocally say heck yes. but others the truth is something along the lines of “well, yes, when I make time for….”

my gravitation toward minimalist spaces was born initially out of necessity. my last four homes have been 708, 935, 753 and 619 square feet, respectively. in spaces this small, every square foot had to be intentionally, meticulously planned. and the less whitespace there was in the home, the more the four walls of any room would close in on me, leaving me feeling disorganized at best and claustrophobic at worst.