Imbibing & Inspiring - Happy Friday!

I don't know about you but I am excited for the weekend.  Tonight I'm stuffing myself silly with some Mexican food and margaritas!  Let me just say that the abundance of outrageously good Mexican restaurants in Arizona really goes a long way toward making up for the ridiculous heat we suffer through to live here.  Seriously, 117 degrees today!  Just stupid-hot.  I had to borrow my boyfriend's UN-AIR CONDITIONED truck this morning to go pick up some furniture I bought yesterday (more on that goodness next week!) and I'm pretty sure I lost a good 7lbs of water weight in that hour-and-a-half.  Seven pounds of water weight that are now permanently residing in his bench seat.  Ew.

Aside from eating Mexican food, drinking margaritas and sweating my ass off, there is furniture to paint, vignettes to stage then photograph (for the new website, whee!) and somewhere in there is a good, long nap I hope.  

I've been working on this design board for a good week now and I think I'm finally really happy with it.  In real life I think I would make the chair more funky, maybe with some exposed wood.  The table lamp is mine, thank you ReStore.  I'm not sure where I got the sofa picture but the tufted back is fantastic and I love how the aqua fabric makes it feel so feminine.  This chesterfield sofa is typically done in leather, which is gorgeous but definitely masculine.  It's amazing how changing the fabric takes it in an entirely different direction. 

Expect to see more design boards in the coming weeks.  I'm working on finalizing the format for when I'm officially open for business and will be accepting orders - can't wait!  So thank you for indulging me as I work some things out.  Oh and I'd love to get your constructive feedback!

Something about this board and maybe the heat, is making me feel like today's cocktail should be tropical and blue.  Something pretty, pineappley and sweet seems appropriate.  Enjoying it poolside wouldn't be such a bad thing either.  Maybe with some palm trees, ukulele music and hula dancing?  I think today's drink has to be a  Blue Hawaiian.

 

Photo Credit

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Enjoy!

Friday Feature: Imbibing & Inspiring!

Maybe it's the royal wedding but today I am inspired by softness, romance and all things feminine.  How gorgeous was she in that dress?  So pretty but really sophisticated too.  How do you take lace and make it modern and age appropriate for a young woman who is not quite 30?  With a plunging (yet Westminster Abbey approved) neckline and modern silhouette.  Stunning.

  

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With an eye toward the girlie and feminine I give you this week's drink...."Pretty in Pink Grapefruit Margaritas"!  It's something I actually created myself today, which sounds really impressive until you realize it's basically a margarita with grapefruit juice. 

The recipe:

   2 shots Silver Tequila

   1 Tablespoon Agave Nectar (plus or minus to your taste)

   Juice of 1 Large Lime

   1/2 Cup Simply Grapefruit Juice

  

Add ingredient to shaker filled with ice, shake until very cold and pour into sugar-rimmed glass.  Garnish with fresh lime wedge.

This drink is so refreshing and not too sweet.  Perfect on a sunny Arizona day like today.  I think it would be fun to frou-frou it up by using pink sugar on the rim.

I caught an old episode of Sarah's House today and it was the one where she and Tommy designed a living room using pink. 

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What I love so much about this room is that is completely disproves any notion that pink cannot be sophisticated.  By using a softer shade of coral pink in small doses she brings pink out of "princess-ville" and the result is perfectly grown-up.  I absolutely love a blush pink with darker wood tones and shiny finishes.  That combination makes me very happy.  I'm now trying to figure out where I can inject a little pink in my house.  Laundry room?  Guest Bath?  That's an idea I'm going to let marinate a while.

So until I decide which room in my house is getting a shot of pink, here's a little inspiration:

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What do you think?  Can you see yourself ever adding pink to your home or is it still too girlie for you?

Have a happy weekend everyone!

Friday Feature: Imbibing & Inspiring

As promised, it's a tequila-free Friday at Sarah Elizabeth Design! (At least where this post is concerned)  I'm heading up to bum around the artsy town of Jerome tomorrow for a birthday trip with the boyfriend and I cannot wait to be somewhere that feels more like fall than Phoenix does right now.  92 degrees?  In November?  Seriously???

I don't know what I'm more excited about, touring the wineries and boutiques or finally having a reason to wear a scarf and hat. I hear it'll be a near frigid 67 degrees in Jerome tomorrow.  Brrrrr!

Image Credit

Friday Feature - Imbibing & Inspiring!

photo from reallynatural.com

Today’s cocktail is the margarita.  I know it’s a fairly common cocktail that most of us are pretty familiar with but the standard recipe (glow-in-the-dark margarita mix of questionable origins plus tequila and ice) is, in my book, long overdue for an update.

First off, throw away that bottle of mix you’ve had in the fridge since Cinco de Mayo and promise me you will never ever buy it again.  You will thank me later.  To make the most delicious and refreshing margaritas ever you only need these three ingredients:

Silver Tequila (1 ½ to 2 shots)

Juice of 1 ½ Limes

Agave Nectar to taste (about 2 TBL for me)

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add the ingredients and shake until well-chilled.  Pour into glass (rimmed with salt if you like) and top with a lime wedge.  How easy is that? 

Now - onto the pretty.   These rooms from Coastal Living all have a beachy feeling thanks to natural elements like driftwood tables, rustic wood accents and natural fiber rugs.  Minimal use of accessories and simple, clean-lined furniture keeps the look modern and comfortable.  The lesson here is you can never go wrong with crisp, white slipcovers and chunky, rustic pieces.



Modern lines with rustic touches and oh yeah, that VIEW combine for an elegant take on coastal style



Elegant sofa contrasted with driftwood cocktail table

Love the warmth the Saltillo tiles bring to this all-white room

Since this is a cleaner, simpler, more grownup margarita recipe I felt the margarita-inspired room board should reflect that.  So I went with a more modern and sophisticated aesthetic but kept some details that hearken back ever so slightly to the kitschy side of a margarita.  This recipe may be more grownup but it’s still tequila we’re talking about people!  So the room is modern, coastal, rustic - with a bit of fun thanks to a punch of turquoise.

I promise next week to change it up and feature a cocktail without lime juice.  Only after finishing this post did I realize I had done that to you two weeks in a row.  Argh.