Cruising Balboa for Inspiratin part2- succulents

As you know, succulents are everywhere right now!  Mom and I checked out the famed Flora Grubb Garden while in SF recently. The wall peice that was featured in Sunset Mag left us seeking inspiration to make our own little fresh wall hanging.

I also took in the sites while on our Balboa stroll...check out these displays.

Love the colors!

My parents started working on a little project- While dad built a box, mom started lots of little sucs and carefully planted them amongst chicken wire and soil within the box. Its adorable! Now the hard part is keeping it looking good and alive!

I'm misting it every few days hoping that they will start rooting. We shall see!

What do you think? Are succulents a trend right now or is this a contemporary twist on a classic?

Cruising Balboa for Inspiration part 1

While visiting Ari in southern California, we took a walk on Balboa Island, armed with camera and latte. Who knew the inspiration I'd find on our morning cruise...I'll go ahead and let these photos speak for themselves...

Love the soft palletes, subtle design, whispy plantings, inviting porches and front doors, creative use of stone. Yes, I'd go back.

Inner entry revealed

The photo wall is now complete- I think the goal was acheived! I wanted to lighten up the space and simplify the collage of items. I've incorporated handmade pieces with special photos. As you'll recall, the before:

To start the improvement process, I went through all of my frames to see which I wanted to keep, which photos were most important to keep up and picked up a number of Ikea white frames that would ideally help to lighten up the space.

Pulled out the old Christmas wrapping paper to cut out prototypes of each frame so that I could lay them all out to see how they would all fit together.

Once I figured out that this would work, I started pounding the nails into the wall and hanging the frames up.

And.....the final product-

I think its a nice balance of light and dark. There are some great photos as well as some artwork that I made. Check out this easy little silouhette that I made of our dog-

What do you think?