Summer Style

It's been a very looong time since I've shown you any changes we've made to our house so I thought today I would show you the new chairs we just bought for the sitting area off of our kitchen.

Truth be told we haven't really made very many changes to the house lately because I've been so busy working and I haven't been concentrating on things like making the house look nice.  But last week my in-laws were coming to town and having company is always a good excuse to spruce up your house!  Because we had given our son and daughter the blue checked chair and wooden rocker that used to occupy this space it was time we found some new chairs.

I knew what I wanted, but I was having trouble finding just the right chairs to go in this spot.  It's located right off of the kitchen and to the left is where our office is located which is open to the whole room.

The door to the back yard really prevents you from putting anything in the middle of the room,  and I knew I didn't want a couch or loveseat because I wanted people to be able to take advantage of the water views, be able to chat with Mr. Tide and me while we are working, and be able to converse with someone while they are busy in the kitchen...so swivel chairs seemed like the perfect solution.

Have you ever looked for pretty swivel chairs?!  Let's just say that the majority of them have those gawd awful bases that you can see below the chairs and they aren't what I would call attractive.  After searching for awhile I settled on a look from Lee Industries who makes beautiful high quality furniture which is still made in the USA.

And after visiting one of my favorite local stores, Traditions of Loveville, which just happens to be a distributor for Lee Industries in my area, I hit pay dirt!   I'm not known for being a big "plan ahead" sort of person, so it was serendipitous that Traditions had not one but two swivel rockers and in colors that matched my color scheme and the vision I had in my head just a few days before my in-laws arrived...score!  One of them was even on sale, so I ended up getting a great deal on these two chairs...thanks Becky!

These babies are not only comfy but they are also slipcovered so you can slide those puppies off and throw them in the washing machine in case another set of pups, ie. Misty Belle and Mr. Quinn bring a bit of their muddy fun inside and onto the furniture.  And if I decide to change the look of the room at some point I can always pick out new slips with different fabrics or colorways.

You may have noticed  Miss Misty in one of the photos above, she is the perfect photographer's assistant...and what you can't see in any of the photos is that Mr. Quinn is right beside her.  I think Misty was a stylist in another life, she's always right there helping me set up the shot.  Quinn must have been a male model in his former life, as he is always ready for his best shot!

After my in-laws left last Sunday I decided to do a little rearranging and I finally brought in an old Coca Cola cooler I had found in the attic at the farm property we own.  I cleaned it up and brought it inside to sit underneath the sofa table made from an old shutter that I've had for years.  That whitish swath you see on the cooler is actually an old hunk of masking tape that I'm sure bore our family's name on it once upon a time.  Growing up crabbing, boating, camping and picnicking meant having your name slapped on everything so that you could claim your stake if something fell overboard or wandered away.  I thought about trying to remove it, but I think it just adds to the piece, so I decided to leave it on.


 

I also decided to take down the license plates and horse pull and put up one of my images which is printed on metal and has a high gloss finish.  The seagull picture, which I took awhile ago at the beach in Chincoteague, has been sitting in a box for over a year and I just didn't know where I wanted to hang it until now.

Throw in a few summertime accessories like these old croquet balls from a set my parent's once owned, a pair of binoculars to help you see the herons, osprey, and eagles outside, and a few books about the Chesapeake Bay area and you are all set!

So here is the room before, last December complete with a blurry Mr. Quinn, the kitchen table which is now in the dining room, the old furniture, and previous wall decor...

 BEFORE

And after...ready for some summer fun!

AFTER

Hmm, now what other rooms can I rearrange and buy new furniture for... ;-)

I hope everyone is staying cool and if you are getting too much rain, please send some our way, we've been hotter than the hinges and dry as a bone!

Rescue Me

The living room and dining room are coming together nicely, but I will wait to show them to you since they are close, but no cigar as the saying goes.

Not much has really changed in the living room, it really is the dining room that has undergone the most change, but there is still more to do.

I have this annoying habit of envisioning a room before it's actually completed sometimes.  It's not so much the exact details that I have in my head, but an overall feel for a room that I'm after.  And sometimes that can be a real pain in the you know what because that means that you will hunt and search and spend hours hoping from store to store or internet site to internet site looking for just the right piece.

I'm currently on the hunt for an unusual piece to go next to my new cabinet, and who knew it would be so hard to find an old blanket chest for my bedroom to store my bed linens when they are not in use?!  

Yesterday I visited a few local places looking for said storage item and although I did find a few steamer trunks and a really pretty vintage wicker chest, they just didn't meet with my vision...sigh.

At least one thing has worked out nicely and that is my pretty new life ring that now hangs on the wall near my slipcovered chair in the living room.  I have been searching for a vintage life preserver ring for over a year now, but I could never find one that was the size and color I was after.  Then, a few months ago I saw that Caroline of Ekster had some.  I didn't get one when she first had them for sale, but when I ordered my cabinet I asked if she still had some and she sent a few down for me to look at when her husband Jon-Paul delivered our cabinet.  Voila, it was the perfect color, aged beautifully and big enough to fill the space where I wanted to hang it...everything I had imagined it would be...in my vision of course!

Sometimes I think I need more than a vintage life ring to rescue me from my design visions.  Some days I would love to be vision free and just go pick something up that would make do instead of spending hours hunting for just the right piece.  But then again what would I do with all of that free time I would suddenly have?!

And to the people who were totally freaked out by the rat photo in my last post, I apologize.  I know that we each have things that kind of make us feel whirly inside, even if those things can seem cute to the rest of the world.  For me that thing would be bats.  Even if there was someone out there who had trained a bat to hold a cute teddy bear and then managed to snap a photo of it, well it still wouldn't be cute to me...so I get it.  Note to self, no rat, snake, spider, bat, or other photos on the blog...well unless they are exceedingly cute, because cuteness knows no bounds! ;-)

Shells for Christmas

No words today...well these are words, but you know what I mean.  It's my birthday, I'm 29...again!!!...and my dear husband bought me a new toy to use on my camera, so I'm off to try it out!  I hope you enjoy these shots of my Hepplewhite chest all decked out for Christmas!

 

Oh, a few more words...thank you for all of your wonderful comments about my kitchen windowsill, and my other coastal themed decor from my last few posts!  Have a wonderful day!

Coastal Christmas in the Kitchen

First of all, I want to take a moment to remember those who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on this day 70 years ago.  May we hold them in our hearts forever. 

I finally have something I can share for a few link parties, which I haven't done in a REALLY long time. 

I gave you a sneak peek of my kitchen windowsill a few days ago, but I finally finished it up by adding some greens and a few other things here and there, so I thought I would share the whole thing with you today.  I know it's not the 9th yet, but I'm not good at being patient, so here goes!

Plus, I still have a few more things to put out in here, so I will share more once I have the whole room finished, but I didn't want to miss out on the party.  I love a good party after all, and I've loved seeing the wonderful  posts others have shared over the past few weeks.  There is so much talent in blogland, it boggles my mind sometimes!

Ok, enough chit chat, on to the decorating!  The inspiration for this year's windowsill was mother nature, burlap, and turquoise/aqua.

I started with my blue ball jars, knowing that I wanted them to be a focal point and provide some color.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to put lights in them like I had done in years past, but finally settled on a more simple approach and added little baby cedar trees to them instead.

I lived with those on the windowsill for a few days before deciding which direction to head in.  Then I remembered that I had some burlap ribbon, so I strung that all along the windowsill which gave it some nice texture.

I tend to let my decorating evolve over time, but I usually have some sort of vision of how I want it to end up, or at least which elements I want to use.  I loved the blue of the mason jars, but I felt like something was missing until it dawned on me that I could use my turquoise/aqua insulators as votive holders.  They add just the sparkle I was looking for, and they look so pretty when I light the little tea lights each evening.   And I also love that they are chipped, don't all match, and are well worn, all part of the rustic charm I was hoping to achieve this Christmas.

As I wandered around my house gathering things to add, my collection of seashells seemed like a logical choice to incorporate into my coastal themed vision.  I have all sorts of shells, so I just grabbed a few and spaced them out over the sill.

I debated on putting 3 blue ball jars, one in front of each window, but I felt like it needed a little height in the center, so I grabbed these wooden shore birds which normally sit on top of the TV armoire in the living room during the warmer months.  And I fashioned a wreath out of cypress to hang on the biggest birdie.

Just below the windowsill, next to the sink, I added some vintage ornaments that had belonged to my parents and grandparents and a few other ornaments I have collected over the years.  I purchased the peppermints on copper wire a few years ago, and since I didn't have anything yummy to fill my candy jar with, they did the trick!  A pretty white Cyclamen I picked up the other day when I bought my wreaths is nestled into a big red bowl.  I love to have flowers around all throughout the year, but especially when everything outside is on its way out.

Santa seems to be eyeing something to his right...not sure what, let's hope he's not trying to make a break for it!

And because it's Christmastime, it never hurts to remind ourselves to believe, in whatever makes your heart sing.

Candy canes fill a pudding basin and get weighed in along with some fresh greens on top of my vintage scale.  My little sea urchin votive holder adds a little more sparkle to the kitchen.

So there it is, my coastal cottage inspired Christmas kitchen.  I think baking will be a lot more fun in here this year!  I can't wait to see what the rest of you did in your kitchens!

Click HERE to see more Christmas in the Kitchen inspiration!  And to visit some of the other Christmas link parties you can check out the list below.

 AND

Click HERE to visit the Christmas Home Tours at The Inspired Room!

AND

I am also linking up to the 24 Days of Coastal Christmas at Sally Lee by the Sea!  Click HERE to see more Coastal Christmas decorating ideas!

Simply Put

In keeping with my Coastal Cottage Christmas theme, I decided to decorate my living room sparingly and mostly with natural elements.  On top of the TV armoire, I added numbered mixing bowls (which were a birthday gift from my daughter last year), and filled them with fresh cedar.  Starfish resting between each bowl adds a touch of beachy'ness and conveys the coastal feel that I wanted to have all throughout the house this year.  The two musical Santas on the far left are from the 1960s and bring back memories of my childhood as my mom put them out every year.   I also love that their bright red outfits add a pop of Christmas color to the room.

I filled my glass wall vase with sprigs of cypress and tucked a single white poinsettia blossom in it to continue the green and white theme.  The white chenille throw belonged to my grandmother, and most likely dates from the 50s.  The nautical themed pillow was a steal that I got from Williams-Sonoma Home last year, I think I paid $19 for it and it included the down insert and free shipping...woohoo!


 

Simply put, I didn't spend a dime on this decor, and you have to love that this time of year when spending can get out of hand.  

I hope you are all off to a great week, and that you've found your groove this holiday season!

A Coastal Cottage Christmas Sneak Peek

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments, not just on my last post, but on every post!  You are my inspiration!  When I visit your blogs, stop by your Pinterest sites, or get your emails I find myself striving to try new things, expand my horizons, and just be a better person...so thank you!

And speaking of getting emails, the email gremlins struck again this week.  I know I sound like I'm beating a dead horse, but it's gone from just being annoying to really affecting my work and lifestyle!  Apparently a friend sent us an email inviting us to a Christmas party this evening, and if they hadn't texted me last night asking if we would be coming, we would have missed it completely...ugh!  So dear email, you can mess with a lot of things but I'm putting you on notice that you better not mess with my social life by losing party invites!!!

So, on to a sneak peek of my kitchen Christmas decor.  Like I said, this year will be simple, and I've coined the term Coastal Cottage Christmas for the look.  Oh heck, I'm sure someone else coined that phrase, but I'm going with it.  Mr. Tide and I stopped by a friend's house last night, and as we chatted about how as you get older you sometimes lose your gumption to put stuff out, we all decided that less truly is more for us these days.  I noticed that she too had embraced a simpler style of decor and her house was warm, cozy and beautiful!

As you can tell by the photos of my kitchen windowsill, this year will be a little less dazzling, not like in years past, which you can see by clicking HERE and HERE.  Still, I'm loving the natural elements, the pops of turquoise, which will be a theme found throughout my holiday decor this year.  And I'm not completely done with the windowsill yet, I will be adding a few votives so that I have a bit of dancing light up there in the evenings, just not the twinkle of Christmas lights like in years past.


 

I also managed to get a few greens and two big beautiful wreaths from a local Mennonite family yesterday.  I love, love, love the smell of fresh greens and can't wait to incorporate even more around the house over the next few days.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing more pictures of my house during this year's holiday season, so stay tuned.

Looks like I'm on track, on budget, and still completely out of my mind...which is as it should be! ;-)

I hope you each have a wonderful week, and keep those inspirational posts coming!

In Shreds

I'm making progress on my Christmas decorating for this year.  As you may remember, I was torn between using all of my traditional decor, or going with a more simplistic and natural approach.  I finally decided to go with a more restrained look this year, and I'm embracing a coastal cottage look that I'm liking a lot.  I've also decided that I will try and only use what I have on hand or what I can find in nature.  My goal is to spend little or no money aside from buying some fresh greens that I can't find on my own.

There are still many more things to do...weird since simple should mean I'm done already right?!  What I have found is that simple isn't always easy.  I find it takes a lot more thought to use less and edit out the unnecessary yet still have it convey a festive look.  And I've always thought that I was a less is more sort of person, turns out I'm a more is more kind of person, but I'm liking moving over to the "light" side!

As much as I'm loving my pared down look for the holidays, I'm not loving some other things going on around here these days!  Like my email which is still giving me fits!  The fact that our son's tire blew out while he was driving home...thankfully he was fine!  The money I set aside to finish our backsplash is now going to 4 shiny new tires, which aren't cheap.  I dearly want my backsplash done, but I want our son to be safe WAY more!

And speaking of shredding, Misty Belle, yes that cute little pup, who is over a year old now, has taken to chewing on things!  The other evening while watching Glee in our living room I caught her nibbling on the skirt of the couch.  What the heck?!  She has never done that before! 

I guess sometimes, even when you are finding your groove in one part of your life, another part can be completely in shreds.  Let's hope she gets through this wacky phase quickly.  I know I've said I want a new sofa for my living room, but she didn't have to take it so literally, unless of course she has a puppy bank account with a furniture fund in it that I'm unaware of!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!