2008 November | Real Life Beach Decor, Coastal Living & Nautical Decorating Ideas

12:00 pm Byabeachcottage

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

I'm pretty much overwhelmed by all your poignant comments, I got over it quickly (well that's a relief I hear you sigh…) it's funny how other people who feel the same make you feel like, errrr, normal, isn't it? Even more funny is that as I blogsurf I see Thanksgiving here, there and everywhere ( a holiday as a Brit who is desperately trying to be an Australian I have little, actually no, concept of) and I think you know Thanksgiving in 2008, is possibly about people, like me who must just try to be thankful for the simplicity of just being, that sometimes it's just so hard to keep uppermost in the mind in the world we live in today.

We are off again for the weekend, two weekends away in a row, Australia's capital Canberra this time…so today I've been getting everything in order and packing again – this time in a very nice hotel where I'm looking forward to a spa bath that someone else gets to clean, fluffy white towels that someone else laundered and clean, crisp sheets on a bed someone else made…think of me.

Typepad ate my lovely photos with my post, so I'll be back next week with some Beach Cottage candy, at least i think it is…

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours…and next year this transplanted Brit will be having a thankful beach cottage celebration of her own…

Filed Underthrifted finds for the cottage 14 Comments

Just Where Do I Fit In?

1:13 pm Byabeachcottage

Have you ever been in one of those situations where just about everything about you doesn't feel right? That happened to me today. My Beach Cottage felt wrong, my thrifted furniture felt wrong, my shabby decor felt just oh so wrong. The fact that I was in my sweats and a hat to cover my in-need-of-colour hair was wrong, my bare of make-up face and my un-manicured nails.

Remember I told you how desperate the Cottage was in need of clean? Boy I wish I'd knuckled down and done it. It just all felt so W R O N G.

I got myself in a situation with someone where the other person was certainly not wrong…the hair is done, the make-up is done, the sweats most certainly are not done, the car, house and life are all just done to perfection, not a crumb or dust, flaw or blemish.

Now one of the reasons I love my cottage is the un-doneness of it all – I like to think I left all that horrid perfect stuff back in England. But a lot of time I have little choice but to move in a world of glorious doneness. And sometimes this bites me on the butt.

So what do you think I did as I reeled? No, I didn't hit the Thrift Circuit, I put on a Gilmore Girls dvd and I cleaned and cleaned the Family Rooom. And gave myself a good talking to telling myself all the wonderful things about my new life in my cottage by the sea and how oh-so-much worse off I could be. And felt 1 per cent better.

I sometimes ponder just where I fit in in life? You know??? I'm just wondering if anyone else gets these feelings? Or is it just me and my outta control emotions?

Filed Underjust a beach cottage life 39 Comments

And she finds a Cath Kidston Cushion for 3 bucks

5:07 pm Byabeachcottage

If you were the owner of the shabbiest beach cottage in Australia and said cottage was in dire need of a good thorough clean, a bathroom blitz, a kitchen zap and you had at the very least 10 loads of laundry cos you spent a long weekend camping on a beach and your ironing pile was getting pretty close to touching the ceiling and just about everywhere you look you need to tidy up, what would you do? Of course, if you were even a slightly authentic beach cottage owner you would head out for a morning of shabbying.

So that's what I did this morning. I really really should have come home and cleaned but I justified that I needed to walk. I was sorely disappointed overall, I did come across a few things, like one of those handmade granny square rugs, it was nice and I picked it up, but I put it back because I thought, you know what, I don't *really need it. But it woulda been nice.

Anyhooo today I found the Cath Kidston (she did this line for IKEA and according to Emma at Lavender House this Cath Kidston stuff is quite sought after)) cushion. Yeeessssss! I grabbed it and started frantcially looking for a matching one, I had to delve down into the cushion undergrowth. After a minute of trying to do it neatly I started flinging, kinda heatedly. This old guy who was right nearby and examining a something with a magnifying glass, tutted and moved along a bit. Like I'm worried.

Filed UnderUncategorized 28 Comments

A Vintage Pot Cupboard

4:35 pm Byabeachcottage

I came across this old lady last week (do you think I'm loopy getting all attached to these old pieces? I just find it so sad that one day they were used in someone's life and now they might well end in the crusher…) Anyway I love her, isn't she just gorgeous? Real old peeling paint, a lovely soft grey patina and sigh look at the deco bit on the front…and the door handle is to die for. When I saw her squeezed in next to a couple of modern, chocolate brown sofas I was like, oooh yeah, she looks tasty. I gave her a push and she wobbled a lot. Shame. But there was no way she wasn't coming home with me.

Filed UnderUncategorized 26 Comments

White Painted Dresser

8:44 pm Byabeachcottage

Hello all, I've been away from blogland for a few days, not that I was doing anything more interesting than spending a very long and busy weekend ferrying these Beach Cottage kiddos around to their various activities. I did manage to finish off this dresser that I've been sporadically working on over the last few weeks. Do I need to tell you how much I love how it turned out? I didn't think so…whaddya think, eh?

Oh and if you are wondering the old me is back, yeeeehaaaaw, I am feeling much better, even after my experience with that General Practicioner. I began to feel more like me again on Friday and took it easy. I am pleased to say now that I feel ok that it was not, as was mentioned to me by the lovely Mr Beach Cottage, my imagination or indeed the state of my mind that was making me lorrup around like a big old whale but rather, obviously, some lurgy virus that has now decided to leave. Thank heavens.