Category: Our Home

  • Ultimate Beach Cottage – Our Laguna Home

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    jdemontravel
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    The idea of experiencing summer year round wasn’t allowed. When raised on the East Coast this is your summons, to follow the calendar year of seasonal appropriate sports and dressing in heavy catalogue sweaters half your town wore. After too many brutal winters where I found my DNA dangerously traipsing into a curmudgeon, I accepted…

  • Ultimate Guide to Leisure Activities

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    jdemontravel
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    Leisure activities are not just the sport of Victorian ladies who could paint tea cups while keeping their crepe dresses spotless. Leisure is a fancy word for unplugged. That novel concept of turning off your devices and returning to the activities that padded your childhood, a childhood you survived despite the inability to engage in…

  • Decorating with Flowers – Peonies

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    jdemontravel
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    I fall for limited editions. Perfume, ice cream flavors, printed socks–an exclusive holds cache. Peonies exude cache. Every year from late May to early June their tight fisted buds explode into feathery pink flowers that grip us with their scent and style. Part of the attraction is that as quickly as they enchant they then shrivel into the ground, like…

  • Ultimate Boy’s Birthday Party

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    jdemontravel
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    A styled celebration with games is not exclusive to brides-to-be or expecting moms who have to wear silly hats made from the gift wrapping. You can tastefully host a group of elementary schoolers without depending on a Xbox truck. Such was the agenda with my son’s seventh birthday. In fact, the main source of entertainment was chests of sporting goods dragged from the shed.…

  • Ultimate “Healthy” Ice Cream Social

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    jdemontravel
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    Ice cream. Forget yoga chants or preaching motivational snippets in the mirror, just say ice cream and you’re instantly grounded, squeezing back into your little kid self where life’s punches could be soothed from one lick of the frosty sweet pleasure. Eating ice cream has the ability to lighten a mood. Experiencing marital discord? Go out…

  • Easter Egg Decorating Basics

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    jdemontravel
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    Let nature take its course is the theme for holiday decorating in our home. There are no Dollar Store outings where we rip items from their cellophane prisons to add loud package flash that looks inspired from a children’s cereal box. Decorating Easter eggs also follows a simple approach. It comes down to a few basics: non-reactive bowls, hardboiled white eggs,…

  • Ultimate Easter Basket

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    jdemontravel
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    Forget the Easter basket spilling with flammable straw that takes months to clean up, create a display that looks so good you won’t want to eat the treats (but don’t do that). When browsing your holiday market aisle with an assault of colors so bright you need to wear sunglasses, the natural response is to stock up on…

  • Homemade Snow Cones

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    jdemontravel
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    When life gives you snow make snow cones. Such is the motto I practiced when you experience the arrival of crocuses one week and then faced with a record blizzard the following. With only so many sled runs and ice forts to create when school is cancelled, we used our snow for an alternative kind of treat. What you’ll need: Fresh snow Vitamin…

  • Ultimate Dog Gift Guide

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    jdemontravel
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    Our dog Ellie came into our lives after a $140 donation and pitch to Bideawee that we have a backyard. She is a mixed breed, but nothing trendy with a doodle or poo. Once her little paws click clacked into our home we have been forever smitten. Pets are not just novelties that add cuteness…

  • Ultimate Coastal Cottage Bedroom

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    jdemontravel
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    As design trends follow the spikes and lows of a real estate graph, one style that remains consistent is the coastal cottage. Putting together a space that stirs up seaside emotions restores, makes you want to say namaste, or lie face down with warm rocks on your back. The one room where tranquility is foremost…