I’m going to be honest here. Before moving to Santa Barbara six years ago, I had never hiked a day in my life. Oh, I had taken long walks in my neighborhood or along the beach, but never an actual HIKE. In my mind, hiking was something healthy, young, outdoorsy people did… the kind of people who like to go camping or backpacking. It was not for a 40-something year old whose idea of camping requires a bed and a bathroom…and…
It’s rare enough to find a shop where you fall in love with just about everything in it, but it’s icing on the cake when the owners turn out to be just as fun and wonderful as the space they have created. One of those shops, which has added immeasurably to our Santa Barbara home, is Mate Gallery. The mates are Ron Brand and Matt Albiani, who bring a nostalgic East Coast vibe to their West Coast store. Being from New…
One of the pleasures of living in Santa Barbara is being able to take an outdoor shower all year round. When we were in the design phase of our backyard landscaping project, my husband’s priority was a hot tub. We both agreed we wanted a fire pit, but what I wanted most was an outdoor shower. I fondly remember my first outdoor shower at the Jersey Shore when I was just a kid. There was something so invigorating after a long sandy day…
No, I don’t mean ME! Our house had a role on a television show! It was for a Canadian series called Real Houses of…. on the W Network. The premise is each week viewers get to see inside real homes across different areas of the United States and Canada. Ours was Real Houses Of Santa Barbara, which of course makes sense. By “real”, they mean no cookie cutter houses. It also meant that they don’t do any staging, hair, or makeup….you’re on your…
I love art. I love the thrill of finding a piece that speaks to you and I love the soul that it brings to a home. I was an art major in college and I’m now a sometimes-watercolorist. I left most of my paintings at our home on the East Coast. I have a copious amount of paintings that couldn’t possibly all fit in The Little Glass House. One of the qualities I love most about our home in California is the abundance…
I spent all but the last few years of my life living on the East Coast. My last home that I shared with my husband and daughter was a traditional cottage that looked like it had been plucked straight from the English country side. It was stone and stucco with a cedar roof, complete with ivy strewn walls. In fact, we named it “Ivy Cottage”. I had always been drawn to older homes with charm and character. Of course, older homes come…
I grew up in a family of six. We took yearly vacations from our home in New Jersey, usually to Florida. We always drove and would often leave in the middle of the night and drive straight through. I still remember the excitement of laying out our new vacation outfits and waiting to be woken up to start our adventure. We would pile into the station wagon and sleep for the first part of the trip. Then there would be short…