2008 December | Real Life Beach Decor, Coastal Living & Nautical Decorating Ideas - A Beach Cottage

Festive Tuesday Tablescape

5:56 pm Byabeachcottage

I haven't done a tablescape in ages (go to Susan's Between Naps on the Porch for some more fantabulous tables in full festive glory) and this one I did at a hundred miles an hour, I literally threw it together I was in that much of a rush. I did though have time to think about it beforehand, in fact a day hanging around waiting for Miss Beach Cottage meant I had the table mentally planned out.

If you are over lookin at my white tables you might be thinking here she goes again but this plain canvas is still working well for me in terms of ease, budget and skill. And what's that saying? Don't fix what ain't broke…

This was really very easy and all the Beach Cottage trademarks (haha like I've got trademarks) – white, sparkles, more white, heaps of candles and tealights, a few white flowers and because I'm feeling decidedly jolly, a splash of red…I love how it turned out…would ya like to come over for some Christmas Pudding?

If you've popped by the Beach Cottage from one of the Christmas parties going on in blogland, welcome and here are a few other Beach Cottage festive decs…

Baubles in the Hall

Filed UnderUncategorized 51 Comments

Wrapping, Cleaning, Wrapping, Cleaning

7:48 pm Byabeachcottage

G'day ladies and good wishes for the Christmas season. It's positively buzzing here at the Beach Cottage, with our holiday vacation approaching rapidly, house guests when we get back and obviously Christmas itself I have found myself with much to do. There has been much frenzied wrapping and cleaning and last week I attended a Christmas BBQ just about every day…

Christmas is a funny old thing really, isn't it, meaning so many things to so many people and often brimming with expectation and anticipation…do you feel it?…Every year about October I have all these oh-so-wonderful, oh-so-awfully-unrealistic plans for my Christmas, my Christmas decorating and of course for the Christmas meal…all the run-up-to-Christmas entertaining I will do and the home-baked gifts I will arrive at suitably Christmassy events with.

No-one else knows of this lavish idealistic scheming. I certainly have consciously avoided all over-the-top Christmas expectancy for the Beach Cottage kiddos but secretly underneath it all I still hanker after that tree with the perfectly placed baubles, just the right little dress for the day and a house full of guests and me the hostess wafting round in a cloud of Chanel…

It hasn't happened this year, like it never does, but for for sure when we hit the Whitsundays this weekend I will be resting on a sun lounger, cocktail in hand, thinking of my Christmas plans and chucking them swiftly out the window.

So, here anyway is the wrapping part of my cleaning and wrapping extravaganza. In the past I have been very traditional in my Christmas decor, never really swaying much from sparkly gold. Since being in Australia it just feels different and I've moved to a more, I dunno, 'light' feel.

Being on a serious budget this year, and not wanting raised eyebrows from Mr Beach Cottage on my design-turnaround, I used only what I had and added two packs of red, oh-so-Scandinavian decs from, yep you guessed it IKEA, some very reasonable gift wrap and accessories and heaps of ribbon and bows from my second to Vinnes favourite shop, the dollar store.

Filed Underjust a beach cottage life 15 Comments

Vintage Decs for the Cottage

4:56 pm Byabeachcottage

Ever since I have been collecting old stuff I've been after some vintage Christmas decs. Vintage Holiday ornaments are most definitely up there on the Beach Cottage Most Wanted List, very near the top.

Perhaps I never find them because they are just the kind of thing that nearly everyone keeps although I *know that I can get all manner of them on Ebay, just type in Shiny Brite and you will be dazzled by a coupla thousand auctions of those beautiful glistening old beauties. I particularly love the ones with indents, the frosted ones and the ones with stenciled scenes. I have vague recollections of my Nana having those indented ones in bright pinks and blues… Every year I tell myself that after Christmas when the rush is over and I can happily sit and peruse Ebay for anything I like, I will treat myself to a whole big bang stash of them. And then twelve months go past and here I am again, vintage-decoration-less.

Not that it matters too much this year as we'll be away for Christmas but it woulda been nice if my tree was bejeweled with nostalgia…

So I was more than happy to find this box the other week, to just find them made me do the little Beach Cottage dance. I love them so much in their box that when the Beach Cottage kiddos decorated the tree (oh my yep I do let them take charge *wink, very ummm, haphazard) I decided that I'd rather keep them in the box. And stroke them.

Filed UnderUncategorized 16 Comments

The Granny Blanket & The Too High Picture

6:07 pm Byabeachcottage

I found the granny blanket treasure hunting the other day. It was folded up all neatly and sort of hiding in the corner. I often pick these up and quickly put them back again, normally they are a bit grotty and some putrid colours. This one was neither, in fact by the condition of it I reckon it was made by someone and then stashed in a blanket box or linen cupboard.

I've admired these handmade blankets on the Superblogs, in the Kidston brochure and in magazines and I wanted one for a bit of English-style nostalgia in my white Beach Cottage… There's no way I have time to learn to stitch one and no way I would be paying dear old Cath Kidston prices for one. This way is much better. Someone else puts in the love and I save it from landfill. What a great deal, eh?

p.s. I had a message bemoaning my interior design skills, or lack thereof, in particular the picture being too high above the sofa and other various flaws in my artistry, hahaha…I had to laugh, for one I obviously do not profess to be, in any remote way, qualified in interior design and if the person had picked up an iota of my take on life they probably woulda realised that my retort would be that I don't really give a ****…it's funny isn't it, I would never have the time or, ya know, be bothered enough to do stuff like that…but if we were all the same life would be boring, right?

Filed Underthrifted finds for the cottage 33 Comments

A Pot Cupboard

2:11 pm Byabeachcottage

G'day girlies, hope you all had a good weekend. I did, busy and very hot, but considering it's this time of year not too headless-chickeny.

I thought I'd show you one of the things I found last week & got for a very good price.

I am not sure what I'm going to do with it, obviously this is the before shot, it surely needs some lurve. I think I may well just give it a really good clean up and add a new handle to the drawer and put it in the breakfast room in place of the current IKEA unit that holds the breakfast dishes. It's is very open and I've never really liked that much and has never really worked. I've lost quite a few of my vintage dishes with this IKEA unit – when the Beach Cottage kiddos unload the dishwasher, shove the clean stuff on the open shelving and something else falls off the back. Not the sort of scenario you want to be dealing with in the morning…this cupboard would alleviate that problem..