Nancy Meyers’s Home in Architectural Digest

Design lovers! We have been fed!

After years of swooning over her movie houses, like Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, and The Intern, I have always wondered what the inside of iconic filmmaker Nancy Meyers’s home actually looks like (we only get glimpses from her Instagram and an old feature in a magazine over a decade ago), Architectural Digest has just published a tour of her beautiful, casual L.A. home and it does not disappoint.

It’s giving It’s Complicated more than any of her other movies, and I love her use of white and various shades of beige and cream, which has become her signature style in so many of her films. Everything looks so put together, like it has a place and a purpose. It’s all so dreamy and is getting me excited for when Holiday House is finished. I want it to look and feel just like Nancy’s house.

Then again, don’t we all wish our home looked like one of Nancy’s? You can click here to tour her whole house and see the rest of the photos.

(All photos by Amy Neunsinger via Architectural Digest)

"Fatherhood is Love" An Interview with Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper

We recently spoke with The Sunday Paper, Maria Shriver’s feel-good online publication, about fatherhood and how we got here. I love that they shed a light on the need for foster care and shared the heartbreaking statistics (over 400,000 kids are currently in the foster care system in the U.S.) to hopefully inspire more people to consider becoming foster parents.

A huge thank you to Bentley Maddox who wrote the piece and who was so thoughtful with his words. You can click here to read the entire interview, if you want!

Back to Work and Back to Reality

It’s Tuesday morning but it feels more like a Monday.

We just got back from our longer-than-expected beach trip and I don’t know if it’s ever felt better to be home. Last week was spent in 90 degree weather working on the Beach Shack while the kids entertained themselves, and then there were sprinkles of beach time in between all of that.

To clarify, PJ did all the work and I just threw all the demo and debris into the dumpster he rented. He genuinely loves the demo work; the ripping down walls and tearing apart rooms and floors. Me, on the other hand, not so much. Still, I enjoy helping and working along side him when I can.

Now that we’re home, though, it’s back to work and back to reality. We woke up at 4am with our oldest complaining of a stomach ache. After a little investigating on our part, we determined he was just nervous to return to his summer camp school after missing all last week. We sent him off this morning with no issues, thankfully. And instead of going back to bed like we normally would, we turned the coffee pot on and we’ve been going ever since. It feels so good to get an early start on the day, doesn’t it? I’m not saying I could do a 4am wakeup call every morning, but when it happens, I always feel so good about how the day begins.

Speaking of today, it’s is one of those days where we both have a million things to do but all I really feel like doing is sitting on the couch and watching TV. But there are emails to catch up on and collaborations to shoot and clothes to fold and an extremely messy car to (finally) clean out. There are two things in my life that, when clean, the world feels just about perfect for a little while: our kitchen and our car. When those two things are dirty, however, the end of times might as well be near.

Right now I am one for two but by the end of the day, everything will be checked off my to-do list.

The Best Donuts in the World

After hearing they are the best donuts in the world from just about every local, we finally made a stop by Thomas’ Donut & Snack Shop and discovered the rumors were true: They’re absolutely divine. Even PJ thought so, and he isn’t a big fan of donuts, so that’s how you know they’re really the best.

Great name, but even better donuts. That should be their new slogan, no?

It Doesn’t Get Better Than This

When PJ said he wanted to buy a beach property, I was initially a little hesitant.

Do we need another project? Would it be too overwhelming to work on a house out of state? PJ has never taken on a house in an entirely different state before, so I didn’t know what this would all entail, and I couldn’t help but wonder if we would be getting in over our heads.

Now, though, we’re in the thick of renovating the beach shack (as we’re lovingly calling it) and, while it’s a lot, it’s coming right along.

It’s hotter than hell working on it during the middle of June, and I hate that I can’t be as much help to PJ as he needs (he’s a one man crew right now, while I watch the kids and assist with demo clean up), but he’s already made so much progress on it in the week that we’ve been here. This man is a machine!!!

The best part of renovating a house by the beach? We can just walk to the ocean and jump in when we need to cool off, which is exactly what we’ve been doing the last few days. We’ve realized our favorite time of day to be at the beach is in the evening just before the sun sets.

It’s absolutely mesmerizing.

I’m thinking it doesn’t get better than this.

The Sandals Everyone Keeps Asking About

For the past two years, as the weather starts getting hotter and the days start getting longer, we’ve busted out our easiest sandals for the humid Tennessee summers: the No Flop Flip sandals from Eddie Bauer.

Every time we post a photo with one of us wearing them, our DMs get flooded with people asking where they came from. I can see why: They’re different and fun looking, and especially PJ’s canyon clay red color. I have the same pair, but in a gray color called sprig.

Bonus: They’re on sale for half off right now!!!

Charcuterie Love

In an unofficial ruling by our family, it’s been decided (by me) that we could have some form of charcuterie for every meal. Every time I bust out the crackers and salami and cheese, everyone gathers around the island and it’s one of the only “meals” that everyone in the entire house agrees on.

Remember this video when we turned our island into a giant charcuterie board?