phone charging challenges be gone

Do you struggle with the mass of cords and chargers cluttering up your kitchen counter or a favorite desktop? Do the cries of, "where's the charger," ring throughout your home? It seems, we all universally grapple with the daily charging of the one to two devices per household family member. Over the years I have tried a number of solutions. Including, you guessed it, a Pottery Barn cell phone charging station.

Pottery Barn charging station (seriously?)

john lautner hiding in orange county on balboa island

We live within a 5 minute walk of Balboa Island, in Newport Beach. And for years, I have admired this magnificent modern home which sits on a prime west facing bayside location. I had often noticed, a little elderly lady sitting in the window in a wheel chair or watching TV. You could usually see her nurse nearby. For the past several years the home has sat vacant. I decided to investigate.

John Lautner's Rawlins House

purging pottery barn from a mid-century modern

This was the year I finally purged my house of Pottery Barn.  When we first acquired our mid-century modern some fifteen years ago, I was confused. I was confused about what the architectural style of the house. I tried to force fit the house into Frank Lloyd Wright craftsman bungalow (huh?). And I became very enamored with Pottery Barn and the seashore cottage style. It was all the rage in the early oughts. Here is an article about incredible Pottery Barn product placement in a 2000 episode of  Friends and how the plot line of the show was that Rachel was trying to hide a Pottery Barn purchase from Phoebe who hated mass produced items.

I acquired this beautiful John Suart armoire on eBay a few months back:

John Stuart Armoire

sedona's mid-century modern: chapel of the holy cross

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we drove a few hours south to Sedona, Arizona. I had heard great things about Sedona for years:

"Sedona is so beautiful."
"The shopping in Sedona is great."
"Sedona is one of my favorite places."

Stuff like that. Honestly, our first impressions can be summed up pretty quickly: Sedona in August is HOT. Turns out, August is Sedona's hottest month. We kind of figured our trek across the desert was a little mistimed, but we had gotten boxed in by the price of plane tickets and our own lack of planning so we had high hopes for the coolest August on record. No luck.

Albert and Alex hiking up to Bell Rock. 

mid-century modern at the grand canyon

After our trek to Las Vegas and appreciation of Vegas art, we headed over to the Grand Canyon. Honestly, it was stunning.

South Rim Grand Canyon

Pictures do not do it justice. But you try.

modern and ancient art in vegas

Art in Vegas? Most people think of Vegas of the land of the over done, over sexed, rhinestone studded spectacle. Kind of like the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony, including the super good looking athletes.

Closing ceremony from TVtoMe.com

But, if you look hard, Vegas has art, and is inspiring in its gigantic, over-done insane way. On our recent family trek across the desert, we stopped in Vegas, just to understand how 110 degree temperatures interfere with electronics, automobiles and human cognitive processes. I had a chance to snap these views from an iPhone 4S (iPhone pictures give any standard digital camera a run for its money).