Lilly Pulitzer Lillyanne Eyelet Midi Dress on Phoenix lifestyle blogger Diana Elizabeth Steffen in big oversized hat in the garden, garden and lifestyle blog

It’s Getting Hot in Here

Temps are heating up in Phoenix and so it’s time to prepare! Chatting about that, and other projects I have around here like (more) wallpaper and a new couch slipcover.

Lilly Pulitzer Lillyanne Eyelet Midi Dress on Phoenix lifestyle blogger Diana Elizabeth Steffen in big oversized hat in the garden, garden and lifestyle blogDress: Lilly Pulitzer c/o wearing size 2, could size down / Shoes: Zara / Gloves: Tuesday Morning / Earrings: Lisi Lerch / Hat: Ále By Alessandra (old)

W
ho else liked Nelly? He was my favorite rapper along with 50 Cent, their songs bring me back to my good old golden college days! Oh the good days, no social media and not a care in the world. If only I knew to use the WordPress platform because I had a blog, I only had made my own website with HTML and updated it with no archives. I had this domain in college, did you know that? Then I lost it, and someone else bought it (who was not named Diana Elizabeth was actually Diane Elizabeth) and when I was ready to take it back for my photography business, it was available again! Thank you Lord! You can always tell when a photographer was one from the Jasmine Star days because we all copied and used our first and middle names. Anyway, enough of the reminiscing.

It’s getting super crazy hot this week in Phoenix – t’s going to be 111 to 117 this week. ALREADY! It’s not even July yet! But, it will go back down the week after but listen, it’s not like a normal summer here and I get that and I’m also accepting of it. After all these years I’ve almost been living in Phoenix equal amount of time as I have in Northern California, wow time flies.

If you live in Phoenix and you haven’t already increased your drip, please do so and also check on your plants at the end of the day and maybe give them a real good watering when you can go out around 7:30 pm, or really really early in the morning. Don’t forget your hat! Try to avoid getting water droplets on plant leaves as it might magnify them and burn them. Honestly though, let us pray. Dear God it’s going to feel like fiery hell here, please prevent our gardens and beloved plans from dying, amen!

Lilly Pulitzer Lillyanne Eyelet Midi Dress on Phoenix lifestyle blogger Diana Elizabeth Steffen in big oversized hat in the garden, garden and lifestyle blog
Lilly Pulitzer Lillyanne Eyelet Midi Dress on Phoenix lifestyle blogger Diana Elizabeth Steffen in big oversized hat in the garden, garden and lifestyle blog

I took these with a tripod as I’ve been doing this lately. It takes a bit longer and I feel like I’m about to die when it’s so hot out but then I realize how it helps with my creativity if I am doing it solo. I appreciate and need Benjamin’s help, and other photographers tremendously but at the moment when I am in the mood to shoot, I just do it myself even if it seems a bit difficult.

Just when I posted I was feeling free and great, I posted a campaign last week and IG decided not to show it to anyone. I was really upset and disheartened so I vented to two of my close girlfriends Brandy and Kate, and they encouraged me. They understand the woes of being an influencer as much as I love it, but the woe is really the platforms I have to use. I don’t mind if a personal post doesn’t circulate, but when it’s paid that’s when it gets penalized! I feel so much guilt and it’s not in my control. I have to remember that I can only do my best and it’s out of my hands. Also, if you aren’t on the platform much it doesn’t reward you, and I just don’t want to exchange time for it so I’m in a tough spot.  So Brandy encouraged me to ask my following on stories to help boost it by interacting with it. I did the ask, picked up Cheesecake Factory for dinner that night with friends we were hosting, and then I never picked up my phone again until morning.

I remember talking to my friend on the couch and just thinking how happy I was being in the moment, present and being with friends. Unplugged, like old times, probably like normal people. Now, I love sharing when I do on social and I don’t feel obligated to share, but as an overachiever first born Type A person when I can’t control something, I can be super hard on myself even if it’s not my fault. But this feeling isn’t ongoing and it’s not enough to quit and I still have my blog, and you are here reading and I am so thankful!

I’m still pick out wallpaper or trying to find the right one and Benjamin does not want me to wallpaper the dining room. I want to wallpaper the dining room, powder bath and my bathroom. Yep, I am THAT woman and am working on becoming that little old lady with the wallpaper, yessssss.

I am also going to finally pick out my fabric for the couch slipcover. I want to go with a light blue and dark blue piping with pleats on the bottom. I haven’t showed my living room because it’s still undergoing an update, but I’ll show you some iPhone pics now and yes that’s FedEx delivering me some nice shoes! This is the room guests walk into from the front door.

The way it has looked over the past 10 years has changed a little lot but not. Same PB couch though, console, mango wood cabinet, and those estate sale prints I love so much, and the same rug. I have changed the curtains thank goodness and swapped lamps and changed the coffee table and side chairs. This is beginning to sound like an entirely different post so I’ll wait to share that transformation in a few months as the slipcover will take time to be made and arrive. :)

I hope it’s cooler wherever you are! We need to plan some trips to get out of here!


Diana Elizabeth would like to go to estate sales but right now it’s just getting too hot – or maybe this is the time to go??

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Diana Elizabeth Steffen setting the table for her annual garden party

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Diana Elizabeth is an author, photographer, and obsessive thrift shopper. You can typically find her in the garden wrist deep in dirt, at a local estate sale or planning her next creative themed party. She continues to blog weekly.

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