Phare Bleu

08/08/2022

At my happy place, surrounded by plants.

08/08/2022

Out of all the places we have lived thus far, Connecticut is the one I miss the most. Trying to find pockets of Connecticut in Texas these days.

05/08/2022

Had the best time. Took the girls to the children’s museum and then ended the day with some ice cream. Met a mom at the museum who asked me “how do I do it all” I laughed because quite honestly I was in the same boat when our first born was a month or two old, driven by anxiety I would ride in the back seat with her to keep a close eye. If you are a new mom and watching someone few years ahead of you, let me tell you this, we once were you as well. It gets better and it gets easier. I remember I would watch mothers with more than one kid and would wonder how does she do it all as well. There will come a time when you will venture to places alone with your kids, things once you imagined were so difficult will become a second nature and you too will be able to do it all..whatever that “all” means.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend !

28/07/2022

We been on the move recently. Finally moved from CT and adjusted and settled (almost). I can’t wait to share the changes we are making to our current house. It’s takes a while to make a house a home and it takes even longer when you have very young kids.

01/07/2022

Wishing everyone a very happy forth of July long weekend!

11/06/2022

Catching up on posting. Spring is absolutely breathtaking in Connecticut. This was 3 weeks ago when tulips were in full bloom.

27/05/2022

I get so much inspiration from this City. I love this pale pink building with mauve trim in Brooklyn, NY.
📷 Ephemeral New York

24/05/2022

Your style should not be limited to what you wear, it should reflect in everything around you. The way you talk, sit, smell.. the colors throughout your house, your taste in music, the people you surround yourself with. Everything should effortlessly flow and look like it belongs together. With social media unfortunately people have lost their sense of self and have become mini copies of each other. It’s always refreshing to really sit back and curate your own sense of style..after all, we all have something unique in us that no one has. Also, paisley pattern is one of my favorite! It reminds me of my mom so much.

23/05/2022

08/05/2022

I love a lived in home, a home where not everything is monochromatic. I am over the extreme hues of everything blue and white. I am over the Anthropologie mirrors or Serna and Lilly Rattan chairs that have taken over the internet.

I love the usage of solid wood furniture, it grounds a room. I love unique art pieces hung on walls that are conversation starters. I love frames around the house with memories of ones past..I love when people play with colors and think outside the box.

If you want to curate your own unique style then I encourage you to look nowhere other than what you truly like not what the trends are telling you.

📷

06/05/2022

The Universe Owes You Nothing, So Stop Trusting It. I was not born with the privilege of someone holding my hand as a young adult and guiding me through life.

There is a tremendous value of paving your own path. The experience you gain with the mistakes you make along the way, there is no substitute for that.

For very early on, I realized that the universe does not owe me anything and that I must pursue what ever I want in life.

This quote resonate with me so much

“DON'T LET YOURSELF BELIEVE THAT ONE DAY THE UNIVERSE WILL MAKE UP FOR ALL THE TIMES IT BROKE YOU. NO MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH, THE RULE OF LIFE REMAINS THE SAME: PUT IN THE EFFORT, SEE A CHANGE”.

27/04/2022

My husband allergies tell me that Spring time is here!

20/04/2022

Flowers are in full bloom. Love to see all these pop of colors.

18/04/2022

Some of my favorite from this weekend. One thing that I truly love about NYC is how fearless the birds are here.. lol like really.. I am a human ..why are you trying to sit on my lap?
🍎

18/04/2022

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! So fun story.. I left our Easter baskets in Texas when we moved to CT and planned on keeping it simple this year (which is never heard of). The night before Easter I frantically decided to have baskets for girls and did a curb side pickup for target.. well..the next day when we were about to pick the baskets we realized target is closed for Easter 😅 Luckily our girls are too young to realize, they didn’t care one bit as long as they were having fun which made me realize that sometimes we out do ourselves to please our kids but all they ever want is love and our attention.

14/04/2022

I absolutely love this work by Greg Natale. The Gucci Heron wallpaper used in this dinning room adds such an elegant touch.
Photo by ; design by

13/04/2022

Never ask someone for advice if they haven’t already achieved what you aspire to achieve yourself. People give you advice based on their perspective and experiences. Be smart enough to ask for advice, but be wise enough to know who to seek it from.

One of my favorite stories is of a fox and a giraffe. The giraffe stood knee-deep inside a lake, when the fox, who was standing on land asked: “How deep is the lake?” The giraffe replied: “It’s not deep at all.” So the fox strolls in and instantly drowns. He yells: “You liar! You said it was not deep at all.” And the giraffe replies: “It isn’t! The water only reaches my knees.”

The giraffe never lied, it was just his perspective.

12/04/2022

No matter where we move, Texas will always hold a special place in my heart because that’s where I met you.

04/04/2022

Past couple of weeks have been hectic. We moved to CT and are now officially unpacked and settled in. Still adjusting to the weather here though, it’s finally starting to get warmer here and by that I mean mid 50s.

28/03/2022

Celebrating this sweet girl’s official 3rd birthday today. We celebrated her birthday earlier last month. I found a great local bakery here that we will be picking a slice from. She already had a birthday cake pop from Starbucks earlier 😅I might or might not regret the sugar rush before nap time.

28/03/2022

Absolutely freezing in Connecticut this morning. I will take this weather over Texas heat that’s about to start any day.

25/03/2022

“Your relationship with yourself is the foundation of every single relationship that you have. If you don’t love or respect yourself, how on earth you are going to do that for other people?” Mel Robins

I am very aware of the self talk I have with myself, especially now that we are raising daughters. My inner voice will become their reality one day so I am very cognizant of that. I am practicing saying 5 good things about me everyday (to myself mostly). It’s very easy to criticize ourselves but my goal is say 5 good things about myself when 1 negative thought comes to mind. “Am I enough” “ Am I raising them right” to “I am raising the kindest humans” “our daughters are so sweet to each other” “Wow, they are healthy. I am doing an amazing job”

Never underestimate the positive ripple effect of little affirmations to yourself.

21/03/2022

I love how extravagant Pont Alexandre III is. From art nouveau lamps to statues of winged horses. It’s one of my favorite arch bridges.

18/03/2022

The flooring, the arches, the lamps..Love everything about this.

14/03/2022

I still can’t believe I was able to finish this project with 2 very active toddlers in under 2 months. I definitely took my time with it. We are in an age of ‘on demand’, meaning we no longer want to wait for results…but not everything has to be instant. Some pieces that you see in my pantry took me some years to collect. Making a house a home is a process and I love being intentional and taking my time with it.

11/03/2022

We as a culture are obsessed with measuring performance at every age. It starts very young. Is my child sitting ,standing, walking, talking? So on and so forth and it follows us to our adult life.

I turn 40 this year and I will not be giving a tedtalk on how I am so comfortable in my skin now that I am older or how I know exactly what I want in this stage of life because I am 40. Truth be told, it’s an exaggeration.

We as humans are always navigating life and trying to figure things out as we go.

Yes, I have probably learnt more lessons and gained new insight as I have gotten older but to say that I have truly “arrived” now that I am a certain age is an exaggeration. I am still learning, I am still making mistakes, there are times that I still don’t know what I want or what I am doing and I still do question things as my surrounding, environment, relationships, politics, changes.

So, it’s fine..it’s fine if you are 40 and figuring life out. Getting older doesn’t mean getting perfect. You don’t need to measure your performance at every milestone. These digits that go up every year on your birthday shouldn’t define the growth. A mile stone is not the ultimate destination where we seize all growth and declare “I know who I am now”. I am still learning in my 40s and I will still be learning in 60s and so should you.

ctmomblogger

08/03/2022

Happy International Women’s Day!

Also, I have never come across a still life fig painting that I didn’t like. 🖼

02/03/2022

As humans we have the tendency of playing a victim in many areas of our lives - money, jobs, relationships, childhood you name it.

As I grow older, I understand the power of taking ownership of your life. One thing that has always helped me in having a positive outlook on life was, I never blamed anyone for my lack ofs. I never blamed anyone for what I didn’t have or couldn’t be and that has helped me tremendously in life because I own that power.

So if you’re still blaming your parents for how you turned out, blaming your boss for lack of growth, or you’re blaming your staff for why your business isn’t as successful as you want it to be, just remember this, 100% of success is always within our control. Take ownership of it.

23/02/2022

Willem Kalf - Still Life with a Chinese bowl, a Nautilus Cup and Fruit.
1662 at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

11/02/2022

My forever Valentine !

A while back I asked a couple who were married 18 years that what was their secret? And the woman looked and me and said..”be okay with the change. We are not the same people we were when we married and I have to be okay with that”.

It stayed with me over all these years and got me thinking that how often we dismiss our partner because “they are not the person we married, they have changed” etc etc

My husband and I are not the same people we married, we have learnt, grown and evolved and that should be celebrated! We will not be the same people 5 years from now as well..

So the secret to a good marriage is..accept that your relationship will constantly change as you navigate life and be okay with the change and still love the person you said your vows to. Your love always remains the same it just evolves.

07/02/2022

New Orleans and it’s old world charm has my heart. I absolutely love the historical buildings and unique architectural styles. Most of the historic buildings were designed in the Greek Revival and Victorian styles.

📷Kate Mayer

03/02/2022

It sometimes feels like I am wearing a million hats. This past week I have been given more tasks to at my current job which I LOVE! I thought it wasn’t enough so took on more personal projects that I will be sharing on my blog in upcoming weeks.

The thing is sometimes, you just have to roll up your sleeves and do the work.

With 2 kids under 3, my time is so valuable and so is my time management. I always do the dreaded tasks first thing in the morning and keep the rest of the day allocated to our children.

Also, time management all boils down to priority.

Figuring out what tasks are really priorities and what will just have to wait until you have more time. This was huge for me! I sat down one night and wrote 3 main questions to ask myself before putting anything on hold.

⚓️What projects will have negative consequences if we put them off?

⚓️What projects will give us the biggest return if we tackle them now?

⚓️What are the long-term projects that can be done slowly over time and what are the short-term projects that require immediate attention?

And honestly, this is it. Just these 3 questions keep me focused and organized when it comes to my goals.

31/01/2022

People always say you have changed as if it’s a bad thing..and my answer always is..I sure hope that I have ! I am not even the same person I was 4 months ago let alone 10 years ago. If you are not evolving as a person you aren’t really growing. So the next time someone says “you have changed” just say, thank you, that’s what I am going for.

Growth is painful, change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying stuck at somewhere because it is safe and familiar. Keeping changing and evolving for the better version of yourself.

26/01/2022

I am obsessed with still life oil paintings and particularly still life paintings of figs and clementines. Came across this piece of still life with fig and tenmoku bottle by Abbey Ryan and it stopped me in my tracks. Unfortunately it’s sold out so I am getting one commissioned soon. What’s your favorite art piece?

21/01/2022

Took a trip to the country to unwind this past week. Absolutely loved the slow pace. Did a lot of antique shopping which I shared in my reel last week.

Outfit:
Jacket
Dress
Boots

18/01/2022

It’s hard to believe that we are already half way done with January. Covid obviously robbed a week but I am so ready to get back into tackling some big projects this year. I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, I have a running list of things I want to work on through out the year (which has no set end date). I have been meaning on working on our backyard ever since we moved from CT early November so this weekend hopefully I get to tackle that and share someone of my thought process with you all !

14/01/2022

The best piece of life advice I ever got was, “Whatever you do, give it 100%”
I know what it feels like to be in a job you don’t enjoy, trust me, I have been there. But what I’ve found is that you don’t get to do what you love until you act as though you love what you do! If you ‘give it your all’ – someone will notice.

You see, to do something in a mediocre negatively impacts our credibility. So no matter what you do, do it with excellence !

12/01/2022

Becoming a mother made me love mine even more.

I understand the depths of my mother’s love for me. I understand the restless nights worrying about them, making sure the world is a safe place, the sacrifices, the selflessness, and the sheer and mad love for our kids. I get it now mom, I get it!