I loved the casual feel to her unique handmade designs as soon as I set eyes on them and so when she was kind enough to send me this bracelet, custom made for me here at the Beach Cottage all the way from the coast of California I couldn't get it on my wrist quick enough.
She's a girl after my own heart – she started her business by 'jumping in and having a go' errm just like I do all the time and she has a wonderful blog where you can read all about her…
I don't know about you but I love jeans and t-shirts and since we moved here to the sea wear them mostly every day of my life and Lisa's jewellery works beautifully with that look…inspired by 'nature – the sky, the sea, the green hills' her jewellery is just right for a laid-back look…
And how fantastic that she's offering Beach Cottage readers the chance to win $100 to spend on her site. Simply leave a comment on this post to enter…
Comments will be closed Friday 11th at midnight.
stop by tomorrow I've another Horror Reveal for you (and you thought the sitting roomwas bad )
pick me! pick me! It would be a great pick-me-up on an “I feel like a whale” pregnancy day. Not to that stage yet, but it’s coming – bleh!
I just found your blog yesterday and spent the ENTIRE day reading backwards through it. Awesome! I have 4 different vases with flowers in them right now, but after reading your blog, have the urge to go get a lot more!
I am so happy I have found your postings. I love the beautiful pictures and all the geat ideas for my own “house in a coastal town but not on the beach”! I love this stamped jewelry and would wear it proudly
Count me in! I love Lisa’s jewellery! If by some miracle win, I need the beach lifestyle as well to go with my new adornments. (I desperately want to live in Noosa). You are so lucky Sarah. Then I’ll work on a new body, tan and clothes. Not too much to ask me thinks.
Those pieces are gorgeous! Thank you for all of the wonderful posts you put on your blogs! I started following you and have stumbled upon so many other awesome bloggers from your lead! I’d love to win such an amazing piece of jewelry as some of the ones you posted pics of!
Lisa’s jewellry is unique and is something I would definitely wear. I don’t get along with fine necklaces. I’m better off with chunky, make a statement. Thanks for sharing some of her items.
i’m a jeans and t shirt girl too,in summer shorts and t shirt. so comfortable and easy.. suits our easy going australian lifestyle.
i love the simple style of lisa’s jewellery..i’ve been admiring stamped silver jewellery for a while now and would love to win!!
pick me, pick me, pick me, pick me!!!! I love her jewellery is beautiful!!! Oh please, please, please pick me!!! (is that enough grovelling or do I have to do more)!!!!
Oh I love it! Not only would I ware all that jewelery but I also work with teen girls mentoring them as the transition from high school to adult life. I know these girls would just love to be gifts with such perfect little trinkets like these that match their personalities so beautifully.
What beautiful jewellery. Thanks for the chancce to win $100 to spend in Lisa’s site. Just checked her site and blog – awesome. So count me in for your giveaway
Alison
Oh jewelry! Beautiful, casual, fantastic jewelry!! It is my newest love. I am excited about this giveaway for sure. Of course I cannot wait to see your next “horror” revealed.
G'day! I'm Sarah, I live in a tatty old cottage, near the sea in Australia with a battered old deck & a big old fig tree out the back...stripped wooden floors, old sash windows & a jumble of vintage furniture. [Read More …]
Beach Cottage ladies, we have some vintage linen and some wood/twig washed up on the beach today here in Beach Cottage Land….don’t say I don’t keep you entertained now will you . Come on in. So, yep I have posted about colanders on this blog, about things sourced from the side of the road, about [...]
G'day ladies, let's have a Too Easy Beach Cottage recipe yeah? The original place for Too Easy Recipes on the web ;-)
So, after my last salad went down a storm in my inbox, that's here if you missed it, I had to do this one seeing as I make it most weeks.
There is a problem with this salad and kiddos though...it looks, well, it looks, kinda yucky...but once they try it, they'll ask if and when they are next having it....at least that's what happens in this ratty old cottage...but I must interject here that my kiddos are 'good eaters'? ...they didn't get a choice in that ;-)
Now, stop, don't start running and hitting that next on your blog reading list, pulses are your best friend in the Too Easy Dump & Go kitchen for the busy mum, or busy anyone for that matter...that reminds me I must blog the garlic canneloni Go To for when you forgot to do dinner, feel like a bath but have three ravenous young Beach Cottage Kiddos on your hands...another day.
I am almost embarrassed to tell you how easy this is, we have it so much that I always have a couple, make that six, cans of lentils around and a jar of goat's cheese in the fridge...the great thing about this is that it's all too easy to get ready in just a few minutes, but it looks, tastes and seems like you did oh so very much more than that.
You can obviously too change it up a bit depending on what you have to hand in your kitchen, and I must say that is how I settled on this version...because one day when I made it I didn't have enough Parsley in the garden and so I chucked in some basil too, and liked the Summer feel it added.
I think of this as being a rather posh salad, not sure why, because it couldn't really be further from the truth...the great thing is that it works so well for an average run of the mill day, (when I did this for this blog post, it was a hot Sydney Sunday and I did it just simply to go with Rosemary & Garlic stuffed pork, you can see that pork here),
...but just as easily it works on a regular old Wednesday night when you have lost all enthusiasm for rustling up yet another meal, or indeed on Saturday night, when your friends are on their way over for dinner and you my friend, are in your new vintage inspired clawfoot bathtub (that's me in a few weeks time, k?) without any clothes on, a tipple and no idea what to cook for dinner...
I have a complicated and ever-changing relationship with goat's cheese...it never fails me in its performance and it never fails to impress me (you can find out a bit more on what I like in food here if you like) and I kinda collect it...because it's very easy to collect and has a fairly long fridge-life, I love trying out different ones and there's not many things I love more than goat's cheese on sourdough...but I think the best thing about it is not thinking about it exclusively in the toast/salad department...I've stuffed it in chicken and all sorts of things as a last minute and it's been fab.
But let's get down to the nitty gritty of this super salad that makes you look like an angel who has been on her knees all day scrubbing the front step when really you are in the digital world and spent most of ...
G'day Beach Cottage ladies, howdy, howdy howdy today for a Beach Cottage Too Easy recipe.
If you like cake, cream, sugar and chocolate, make this.
This is, rather than a recipe, a putting it together...as you know I am no dessert maker, but, I do make quite a few sweet things, because, somehow I have ended up with kiddos, who in their roles as offspring, believe that part of the deal, is that not only do I feed them a home-cooked meal with a few homegrown ingredients in there, yes, they also believe that dessert and not the kind that comes out of a packet is included too in this All-Inclusive Deal they call Parenthood.
So, this, for sure, is no culinary masterpiece, but if you are looking for something that is so very easy, dump-able, uses everyday ingredients and at the same time makes you look like you spent hours pulling things together plus tastes good....well, then this is for you.
Best though, you don't make this for yourself, if you have spent the most part of your week sitting on your derriere reading blogs...this my friend ain't low in the calories department...if, however, you are treating yourself to a delight in a mason jar, this is so for you.
I first had a version of this when at dinner back in Old Blighty with a girl, I once, in another life, caught the train up from our village to London with...she was a funny thing really...I am not quite sure how we got on...she was kinda prissy and a bit bothered by too much...I would run to the train flustered, having got up late, and she would have a spreadsheet on the train times, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, a few years later when we both had bambinos, I bumped into her again and we met up for playdates and dinner sometimes....this particular night, after a lovely meal she served up little bowls of creamy, cakey fruity stuff topped off with chocolate flake...it was delicious!
She didn't serve hers in little jars like this, hers were in a champagne glass and not quite so layered as these ones, plus she used tinned fruit not fresh or frozen.
Years later when said offspring kept requesting dessert, one day I wangled together somehow these from what was around in the fridge and they've been with us ever since.
Most likely, if you ever come here for dinner, and shock horror, you dont' bring the dessert with you, this, if you are lucky, will be what you will get.
Throw it all together, sprinkle a lil bit of chocolate on the top and the blog reading past-time you so rudely left in order to make this, is my friend, your oyster.
Beach Cottage Too Easy Layered Raspberry, Cream & Sponge Dessert
1 small maderia or butter cake or a pack of cupcakes (or of course make your own)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
8 tbsp fruit
1 x chocolate Flake or chocolate bar for grating
1. beat the cream cheese until it is soft
2. whip the cream until soft peaks form
3. combine & add the sugar through
4. cut your cake into portions
& layer into the bottom of your jar
5. add a tablespoon of fruit
6. layer on top the cream combo
7. repeat
8. grate chocolate or Flake on top
*Beach Cottage Recipe Notes : this is just a guide really, you can use any cream that you have on hand...I have made this with clotted cream (don't even go there unless you want to seriously get these babies on your thighs), with double cream and I have even, in desperate times squirted in that, ...
G'day Beach Cottage ladies, well I thought it was time for some blogging tips here today, alongside a few nice flowers and shells ;-)
I was recently part of a blogger discussion group over at Kidspot and a couple of hours later had a few questions from girls who couldn't make it to the live chat, one was on my Facebook page and one via email, the Facebook one I will deal with in another Real Girl Blogging Tips post...the email one asked me what essentials do I think every blog needs?
Well I have been around here for a while now doing the blogging thing, so I should know this, yeah and I mused this on my walk by the sea this morning I thought well what do you only need?
...I think it is really very easy when blogging, whether or not you are blogging up there in the lofty heights of the Super Bloggers or you are just dipping your toe in the water, to get side-tracked by 101 million different things that are 'essential' to your blog and if you are someone like me who actually gets a thrill from reading blogging tips then you are in an even worse place because you will find yourself literally buzzing with these essential things to add/do/implement on your blog.
However, walking along, gulping down that brisk sea air today (no sunshine & clouds) I thought you actually don't need any of that professional blogging stuff to be successful...but there are a few things that are pretty much crucial ...and once I started to think about it I got it down to about 5 - these are the only things that you need to concentrate on...once you have read through take a look at some of the big girl's blogs...you'll see that actually they don't have bundles of stuff on their blogs...but they do have all of these...
So here are my top things that your blog must have
1. About Page
There are all sorts of About Pages out there, and if you search on it there are many different tips and ideas for what to have on yours
Whatever blogging platform you use, adding an About Me Page is easy, quick and simple and will do everything to grow your blog.
I like a long-ish About Page, I am inherently nosy and I like to know a bit more about the person but at the least you should have on it your name and where you are located. I also think a photo is good too...over the last year or so I think this has become more important in blogging - if you are hesitant about that as I was, you can try using sunglasses or a behind shot until you get comfortable.
There is nothing worse than stumbling upon a new blog and going to find out more to only be faced with a piddly little one liner About Me Page...well there is something worse, not having one at all!
2. Contact Page
The chances are someone, somewhere will want to contact you and you will be surprised what lands in your inbox once you put yourself out there on the world wide web with a blog.
Many bloggers also use this page to include details for PR's/brands that may want to contact them and some bloggers put their stats on there too.
A short, to the point and simple Contact Page works really well...whenever I have wanted to contact another blogger I am often very busy and have limited time so I don't want to hang around sifting through information looking for an email address, so concise and clear ...
G'day lovely Beach Cottage lovelies.
So, yeah, so on a roll people, so on a roll.
I feel kinda home accessory wired right now.
I am always telling people, if anyone ever listens, that blogging is all about passion, not that sort of passion, but about passion that makes one tick.
Things like this make me tick tick boom.
I love finding things that suit my budget and let me treat my home but look amazing too.
So without further adieu I introduce you, ladies of the beach, to the blue vintage glasses that I have been stroking for about a week or two now...
These glasses are from a little boutique I sometimes happen upon, this boutique sells also pet accessories, carpet cleaner, bras and compost...it's quite unique though.
And, thanks to my friend Marnie (she blogs over here, go take a look at her praying position, interesting), who just so happens to be one day having me over for a lil' Greek dinner, has let me in on the fact that we call Kmart....The KMart...with an accent ....as in 'I love The KMart'...just like her MIL does. Oh yeah. Love that.
So I have had my eye on reproduction vintage glass blue wine glasses and being trying to find real true vintage blue glasses for like ever.
Oh yes I have spied them in Frenchy boutiques, I have lusted after them in stores that I shouldn't even enter and I have put them back pretty quickly in those shops with the hand-written price tags. C'mon, you know the ones.
And, though all of the above have tempted me, muchly, really, even with my wardrobe stashing skills I just thought that, actually, I'd rather be saving that casherooni for our next trip overseas..
Hello The KMart.
Tick Tick Boom
Vintage style blue wine glasses.
Do not come to my old place and think you might pick up one of these and smile with pleasure at their handblown quality, their weight, and be secretly jealous that my wine glasses cost more than your car...friend, that would not happen...these do not feel like that...indeed these in a funny way reminded me of my baby girl, she was a tiny little thing, with stick legs, the tinsssssssiest ankles and wrists you ever did see, she slept sideways in her cot wedged in between rolled up blankets and would only settle attached to Mr Beach Cottage or I or a (dirty) pj top of mine scrunched up under her nose...the first few times I picked her up to cuddle, being used to Honeymoon Baby who weighed in at 9lbs at birth and has never really stopped growing, I nearly threw her little bird-cum-rat down covered body over my shoulder.
These glasses are like that...be careful or you might lose your wine down the front of your shirt.
But oh baby, we are not talking picking up here, we are not talking quality, we are not talking house accessory snobbery.
Beach Cottage ladies, we are talking aesthetics.
And this is what I need in my cottage.
Blue vintage style glass, paired with coastal / nautical / beach stuff on my deck.
It's The KMart.
Tune in tomorrow, tomorrow, I have more budget foofing for your home, or maybe it will be the dress that wraps me up in supermarket-chic and makes me feel like me again.
Good Day to you my friends, wanna come hang out on my deck, talk house accessories, The KMart and drink some wine from blue glasses?
Sarah
and she has a wonderful blog where you can read all about her…
What a great giveaway!
XOXO
I find the Beach Cottage very inspirational…and I love Lisa Leonard jewelry…what a combo.
Thanks!
Love the jewelry, that is a great give away!!!!
Lovely!
These are so beautiful. And I am so happy to have stumbled upon your site!
I love her jewelry!! Thanks for the giveaway!
Awsome giveaway would loe to win one of those necklaces. They are soooo pretty! Good luck to everyone!
Hello…My daughter is looking for something for her boyfriend and this looks perfect!!!
pick me! pick me! It would be a great pick-me-up on an “I feel like a whale” pregnancy day. Not to that stage yet, but it’s coming – bleh!
I just found your blog yesterday and spent the ENTIRE day reading backwards through it. Awesome! I have 4 different vases with flowers in them right now, but after reading your blog, have the urge to go get a lot more!
Hi Sarah, what a fun give-a-way.
I’m not big on jewelry but like others before me have said, “this I would wear”
Have a happy day.
Vicki
I am so happy I have found your postings. I love the beautiful pictures and all the geat ideas for my own “house in a coastal town but not on the beach”! I love this stamped jewelry and would wear it proudly
Hi there,
I love her stuff too.Her jewelry is so simple and beautiful.Would just LOVE to win.
I have loved her jewelry for a long time and would be so happy to be able to own a couple of pieces! Thank you so much for this opportunity!
Great giveaway, her pieces are FAB! I hope I win:)
Oh !! What gorgeous pieces. Can’t wait to see the next horror reveal. hee hee
\Come for a visit and see both new parties for the week.
Cheri
Its So Very Cheri
Oh how much fun is that??? YES, please, I would like to be picked!! Hope this isn’t like dodge ball when I never got picked!!!hugs…Susan
Count me in! I love Lisa’s jewellery! If by some miracle win, I need the beach lifestyle as well to go with my new adornments. (I desperately want to live in Noosa). You are so lucky Sarah. Then I’ll work on a new body, tan and clothes. Not too much to ask me thinks.
Those pieces are gorgeous! Thank you for all of the wonderful posts you put on your blogs! I started following you and have stumbled upon so many other awesome bloggers from your lead! I’d love to win such an amazing piece of jewelry as some of the ones you posted pics of!
Lisa’s jewellry is unique and is something I would definitely wear. I don’t get along with fine necklaces. I’m better off with chunky, make a statement. Thanks for sharing some of her items.
WOWZA, those are SO frickin’ KEWL!!!!
Luck isn’t usually on my side for these things, I’ve never won. But there’s a first time for everything right?! LOL!
i’m a jeans and t shirt girl too,in summer shorts and t shirt. so comfortable and easy.. suits our easy going australian lifestyle.
i love the simple style of lisa’s jewellery..i’ve been admiring stamped silver jewellery for a while now and would love to win!!
The jewlery is BEAUTIFUL and your blog is super fab! I admire both…
I love her stuff and love to support her as she is in the town right next door. Please enter me!!1
pick me, pick me, pick me, pick me!!!! I love her jewellery is beautiful!!! Oh please, please, please pick me!!! (is that enough grovelling or do I have to do more)!!!!
I absolutely adore that bracelet!!!! What wonderful jewelry-simple yet classy. Love it!
absolutely lovely jewellery – not my usual type but still lush! thanks for the giveaway!
Oh I love it! Not only would I ware all that jewelery but I also work with teen girls mentoring them as the transition from high school to adult life. I know these girls would just love to be gifts with such perfect little trinkets like these that match their personalities so beautifully.
How simple, yet lovely!
I’ve just discovered your gorgeous blog, beautiful! Lisa’s jewelry is stunning, I am in love! Susannah
Beautiful and casual. Love it.
I love her jewelry and follow both of your blogs! Thanks for the fun giveaway chance!
WOW, what a great giveaway! I would be like a kid in a candy store with $100 to spend in Lisa’s shop!
Hi Sarah,
I love her designs! I think I like the bracelet she sent you the best. I hope I win! Thanks for the chance…
Nancy
nancywiebel.blogspot.com
I love the bracelet, please put me in the give-away. cannot wait to see the “new” room!
I’d love to win! Her jewelry is great!
mj.coward[at]gmail.com
What beautiful jewellery. Thanks for the chancce to win $100 to spend in Lisa’s site. Just checked her site and blog – awesome. So count me in for your giveaway
Alison
Noooo….pick me pick me pick meeeeeee! I “need” more jewelry.
Love your site
Alyssa
lifeoflyssie.com
I would love to enter – thanks!
I love your style and look forward to seeing your latest finds from vinnies. I also like the jewelry.
So beautiful! Would really love to display Lisa’s work
Thanks for the opportunity! You’re blog is so full of ideas!
I love this jewelry and would love to win! Thanks for the giveaway! ~Aimee
Oh jewelry! Beautiful, casual, fantastic jewelry!! It is my newest love. I am excited about this giveaway for sure. Of course I cannot wait to see your next “horror” revealed.
IT’s gorgeous. Love it.
Oh it’s lovely, just like your blog. (It’s always like a little vacation.) The jewelry would be such a welcome addition to my sad little jewelry box.
I too totally love this design of her jewelry. I’m a stay-at-home mom and it just has a real-life polished look about it. Makes me happy
Thanks!
thats adorable stuff ,please enter me…
It is so beautiful I hope I win!
Thank you for your daily entertainment and eye candy! Love your blog and love this giveaway.
Beautiful jewellery! Hope I win
oh this jewelry is just gorgeous! and thanks for your lovely blog too… perfect pick me up in my day!