Santa Monica Pretty House 1

My friend Gail started a remarkable blog documenting life in her small town of Westfield, New Jersey. She chronicles the happenings around town, the good places to eat and shares some great history that makes you want to pick up your life and make it your home too. One of my favorite aspects of her blog is every Friday she posts pictures of that week's pretty houses. The houses are stunning. I've provided a link for my favorite understated house so far- the first one. Green, of course.

I've been inspired by Gail's blog and living in Santa Monica (which is where Gail and her husband were living when I first met them) I'm surrounded by these unbelievable houses that I feel compelled to share with people. I walk along the palm-tree lined streets and drool at the houses dreaming that someone has to have a guest house they want me and my husband and our adorable dog to live in.

This idea to really capture some of these houses came to me on a walk Clancy and I went on this morning before starting work. A very good friend reminded me on Friday that I was trying to work normal hours and noticed that I'd started to get on at weird early hours and was stopping work well after a normal quitting time. It was a good reminder that when I find myself working long days, I just don't take care of myself the way I need to.

On Friday I shut my work computer off, removed access to work email from my iPhone and gave myself the weekend to try and just chill out. And while I was still a little on edge this morning, I vowed to make it a good day. I knew I would automatically feel better if only because of starting up a two-week mini round of the game.

By 830am, I had already gone for a walk/run with Clancy (exercise for the day- check), taken care of my bad habit (leaving my room sloppy and the bed unmade before starting my day) and good habit (writing at least one letter a day) and made a trip to the grocery store for game friendly food. I didn't get on my work computer until 9am and it felt great to just ease into the day and the work week.

While I was out on my walk, I decided a good way to motivate me to keep up with my exercise would be to start posting a picture of these houses in Santa Monica that catch my eye. I'll admit the idea didn't come to me until I was at the end, so while this isn't necessarily one of my favorite houses, it fulfilled the duty of capturing a pretty house on my walk.

So not only will I get to show off how pretty some of these houses are in Santa Monica, but my hope is that in the next two weeks, it'll help me get outside and walk around more and take better care of myself.

Here's the first house:


Alta
Favorite part: the red door!

PS- Thanks Gail for the inspiration!