Southwest In My Soul

After living in the beautiful state of Arizona for two years, I developed a deep love for "Southwest"style. The rugged materials, layers of textiles and mounds of color were so much fun to pull together for clients. We did not in Arizona long enough for me to go all out and design a  hacienda for ourselves, (which is probably a good thing because I would probably have some totem pole sitting in our living room right now) but there are elements of southwest influence that will stay with me forever, here are a few of my faves.

Otomi patterns:

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Equestrian prints:

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Spanish Mirrors:

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Agate +  Southwest Abstract Landscape Paintings:

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Suzani's and Navajo Pillows:

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Ikat lamps and pillows:

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Turquoise Beads:

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And of course, the sunsets...and the margaritas and salsa...but definitely the sunsets!

Tucson Antiquing

Hi Friends! I have been doing a good bit of exploring here in good ole Tucson and I thought you might like to see some of this towns inventory!

 Hand carved King Solomon from a church in Mexico

Mid century art

I totally want these Tempe Retiree's Bingo Cards

Mid Century Bruno chairs

Then we visited what is now my new favorite place in town - The Lost Barrio. Honestly no one that I have talked to has even heard of it. Here's a little discription that I found online:

The "Lost Barrio" is located in Downtown Tucson but it's hard to find. This place doesn't show up on any map and most people don't even know it exists.

The Lost Barrio in Tucson is a tiny, almost hidden, shopping district of only about 3 blocks. There's a little bit of everything here, Old West Heritage items and furniture, Chinese antiques, Locally created Art and even some Art Deco stuff from Buenos Aries.

There's Antique Furniture from Mexico, South America, India and Burma and there's tons of Doors, yeah that's right, Doors! They have doors from everywhere, temple doors from Tibet, Barn Doors from South America and even Teak Doors from Africa"

Shop Entrances - Amazing tile work

Finally we found our way to Toolies Cafe in the lost barrio. It is out of this world...and they serve breakfast all day. Everything is all natural and they make their own homemade tortillas fresh daily...yumm they were delicious.



Fireworks and Lightning Storms

On the 4th the storms stopped long enough for us to have a great fireworks display...ouuu, ahhhh!

 Woohoo! Happy Independence Day!

I would also like to show you what happened over our house last night...not sure how smart it was to be out in it taking pictures...but I am thinking it was totally worth it! Thanks to my manz awesome skills, we were able to capture what was happening.

Can you believe this:

YOU MUST watch this VIDEO of the haboob in Phoenix. It looked like a scene from the Mummy Returns!

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day Brian and I took a short drive up to Mt. Lemon. Locals say that it is basically like taking a drive from Mexico to Canada in 45 minutes. You go from desert to evergreens in no time; it's so pretty!

Close to the top of Mt. Lemon there is this small little town called Summerhaven

...and in Summerhaven we found the Cookie Cabin!!!

 

 this is the only size cookie they sell...AWESOME!

After a long day of exploring we made our way down the mountain to Guadalajara Grill. This place is incredible, they have a person who comes to your table and makes your custom salsa with any of the fresh ingredients you want in it. You get to try it out and you tell them what you want to add or if it's just right...soooo good!

Dinner - Chimichanga Asada : 

We finish up the day with Percy taking us on a stroll through the neighborhood...right before all of the bats come out...AHH!