WEARING: Magdalena Duma Dress, Ona Chan Dagger Cuff, Nike Free Sneakers, Thessalonike Prague, Venice and Madrid Stacked Rings, Lionette Avish Necklace via Alekka (also here) — **WEARING:** **Magdalena Duma Dress**, **Ona Chan Dagger Cuff**, **Nike Free Sneakers, Thessalonike** **Prague**, **Venice** **and** **Madrid** **Stacked Rings,** **Lionette Avish Necklace via Alekka** (**also here**)

Recenltly, it's started to feel funny to categorize a post in Joshua Tree as part of my Travel Diary, considering we now own a place in the area. It's started to feel so much like home, that I'm wondering what it's going to be like when we go back to San Francisco in a little bit.

These photos were shot during the last trip down before we closed on our place. I loved staying here because it gave us so many ideas as to what we could do with our own place. Cactus Cabin started pretty bare, so we have a lot of room to get creative - that's something that was really important to us from the get-go.

One of the things people often don't realize until they actually visit the Joshua Tree area, is that one of the most beautiful things about the place (aside from the plants and the mountains), is the contrast of the sun and sky. The colors are somehow both washed out and saturated at the same time. Almost like someone turned up the exposure on the whole place. Listening to that desert silence and taking in the colors of the sprawling landscape is one of my favorite things to do. So having a place (like this porch) to do that is a huge priority in our designs for Cactus Mountain. But I'll tell you more about our outdoor living room later... ;)

Switching gears - This summer, I've been wearing a ton of pink lately - always in a simple shape, and always with flats or sneakers. I love the mix of feminine and sporty casual. It's low maintenance, but definitely still a statement.

Pink bodycon dress and Nike Flyknit sneakers

Photos by Nikko DeTranquilli

TRAVEL DIARY: DESIGN STUDIES IN JOSHUA TREE