So this is one of the finds I recently came across while treasure hunting.
A find that I just couldn't leave alone and one I don't really need…but I mean how could I leave her? This, unfortunately, is, an Occupational Hazard in this game (and you can find other things I just *had to bring home, a roadside shabby old stool here and a wonderful one here!).
Does she not have Beach Cottage already written just about all over…??
I actually love the way the little drawer sits up above the legs with just enough room underneath for a nice rustic basket filled with rugs and blankets…she's in desperate need of some love..a lick of fresh beachy white paint…a good old clean…
edited to add: I don't think I made this clear: this is the before, found it like this in white, but pics make it look better than it is, it's quite dirty and paintwork is patchy..so it will get the BC Treatment!
Someone cut her open at some point, she's sporting quite a few knocks and bumps…showing age and wear, she is topped with a sweet-as little latch..and she wobbles just enough…
She speaks to me. In Vintage Speak. You speak Vintage too. Right?
{ And talking about Vintage Speak, my daughter had a to do one of those, Hello My Name is things the other day, and she asked me what I would say… they then had to sit with a partner, find things out about each other and then give a quick intro on the other person…you know those scenarios, right?
Can I just say, I find something extremely cringe-worthy about these ice-breaker exercises…and if I ever find myself in one of those situations…which, I'll have you know, I spend a lot of my life scheming to avoid, my heart sinks to my boots…}
So I thought we might have ourselves a little Beach Cottage Hello My Name is session
…'cos I could just about stomach it with you..
Hello, my name is Sarah. I speak fluent Vintage.
Vintage Beach. With a French Accent.
And my poor partner would elaborate like this…
Sarah likes to Treasure Hunt, twenty-four seven.
She is constantly on the lookout for vintage things.
She loves old battered beauties, marked with love and time.
The tattier the better.
She has a strange need to bring unloved furniture into her cottage.
You may find her, at any given time, doing the Vintage Treasure Hunting Dance.
Her cottage is old, unfinished, tatty, on the wrong side of town, but the right side of the world.
She's loves the pureness & simplicity of white.
If you are not simple enough or pure enough & stand still she may paint you white.
Her Beach Tribe, know and feed her love. Though they roll their eyes a lot.
They bring her Vintage Finds to avoid the Beach Cottage Witch
She loves the Beach vibe…but only mixed with a Vintage Hue.
She makes friends with furniture and nurses it back to life.
So c'mon Beach Chicks, how about you? Do you speak Vintage too?
See you all another time…and yep I'm taking those coffee comments on board
you'll find me Down Under, wearing a Witch's Hat, painting things white and possibly doing a raindance…
p.s …don't forget the Giveaway (*comments from today will be thrown in the hat)
Hi Sarah – I am a native Vintage speaker too and love your new cupboard, what a find!! You always inspire me to head off to my local thrift stores, so I have made it a Friday tradition Enjoy your beautiful cupboard!! Have a lovely Friday – Tina x
You found some pressed tin furniture (or is this the one you already had when we were speaking about it?) Anyway I knew you would be a convert, its gorgeous!
Alicia http://www.time-worn-style.com
Do I ever know your language! I CANNOT drive by a thrift store without stopping JUST IN CASE there is something in there I might miss!! Good grief it’s crazy!! Love your latest find! It is sooo awesome & sooooooo you!! You are so fun ~ thanks for all your fun posts!
I have a piece like this minus the cute legs in my barn waiting for some TLC-ultimate destination the master bath for some needed storage. I love the tin panels-can’t wait to see the end result-need some inspiration! BTW, my husband speak vintage>antique>fixer upper (its finding the time to get all of that fixer uppering completed!)
Oh Sarah what a fabulous find.
Okay my name is Alison and I am GREEN with ENVY – you did find such a gorgeous piece that we would all love to have!!LOL
Alison
Love it my friend!! How I wish I could find a shoppe like the ones you go to!! I absolutely adore vintage items and am always keeping an eye out for them. Not with too much success, but one day my little ship will come in and I will find a to die for piece!! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful find. I love your blog so much!!!
What an incredible find! She was just waiting and dreaming that she could one day move to Sarah’s Beach Cottage! I definitely speak vintage – I speak baskets/and roses/beaches and sunlight – but for too long I have whispered – Now I am talking out loud!! lol
Hello, I’m Kate. Fluent in vintage and a mad collector of anything between Edwardian to 40′s. Also like to collect Childrens’ books, especially 1930′s school stories and yes I do read them. I suppose my style is Enid Blyton meets Miss Marple by the sea with a bit of funky thrown in. When I get anything ‘new’ I always say that we’ve had it forever, or that it belonged to my Auntie Elsie. I once wrote a list of all of the things that I collected and was horrified at how long it was. Can’t do minimal but don’t like clutter. Oh, and I love anything green.
Hi Sarah,
Yep, she’s a beauty! And you’ll only improve her.
I think one of the reasons I love vintage is because I never had any relatives or ancestors to share wonderful old hand-me-downs. No Family treasures,(all destroyed in WWll) and so I find them out there in the world and bring them home with me! I create my own story about them and make them into my family’s treasures to be passed on someday. At least, that’s how I think of them. I love to imagine their stories, to get a sense of their history.
It’s a lot more interesting to live this way, I think!
XO
Heidi – Heart and Home
I too speak vintage…with some french…looovvve all ur finds. i tend to have withdrawal symptoms if i dont go hunting …op shops start only a 100 meters from my daughters school, a very handy cure fot this sick disease. am loving ur new find, looks awesome
The pie safe is such a aged beauty . I wish I just had more time to treasure hunt. Speaking vintage would be right up my alley but my family already think I’m a recycling nut.
That is beautiful, I love it. I love the pressed metal panels in the door. They make it so unique.
I haven’t seen one with those doors before. Lucky you, what a find!!
For a long time I spoke Tuscan…warm earthy tones. Rhen with what started with a flood/leak..my floors turned in black slate, my walls a soft soft warm gray and my cupboards white. The accent colour is red .. a deep rich bold red. I am always looking for chippy old accents. My last trip to Ireland we went to the local auction (YOU Ms Batty would love it!!!!!). The last time hubby and I carried two LARGE white rusty CAST IRON roosters home to Canada.
You can see a post about them here… http://stampingandscrappin.typepad.com/photoaday_2009/2009/11/11-november-2009-what-we-brought-home-from-ireland.html
Yeah..I speak Vintage. Now I just have to do the living room…trying to convince the hubby to paint the red brick around the fireplace LOL..yes..WHITE
Hahahahha I just pictured some of us going on job interviews and saying our second language was “vintage” . To funny! Love your newest friend, sh’e very sweet! Where o where will she live?
Wow, just love that cabinet.I adore pressed metal painted white and had hoped one day to have a kitchen with pressed metal.In our last house we had wallpaper that gave a similar effect. So where will this treasure live?
Hi, can you tell me what the colour combination is for your paint? I too have been paionting everything in my house but feeling everything is too white. What is the beach white colour you speak of so I can tell my paint man at bunnings? Thanks. Your house is devine, I can’t stop looking at photos!
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 …]
Well G’day Beach Cottage ladies. Of course some of you guessed correctly, no flies on Beach Cottage gals are there? A Summer House window dressing, beach vintage style. One that I got very wrong. I’ll keep this short and sweet The vintage crochet patchwork curtain? Love. Pure love. But, put it this [...]
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
I like ‘she makes friends with furniture and nurses it back to life’. Of course you had to adopt this piece. It’s lovely. xx
Hi Sarah – I am a native Vintage speaker too and love your new cupboard, what a find!! You always inspire me to head off to my local thrift stores, so I have made it a Friday tradition
Enjoy your beautiful cupboard!! Have a lovely Friday – Tina x
WOW! Great find!
I am new to the vintage talk. With a lot of practice, I hope to be as fluent as you!
cheers
http://www.vintagefokus.blogspot.com
You found some pressed tin furniture (or is this the one you already had when we were speaking about it?) Anyway I knew you would be a convert, its gorgeous!
Alicia
http://www.time-worn-style.com
Do I ever know your language! I CANNOT drive by a thrift store without stopping JUST IN CASE there is something in there I might miss!! Good grief it’s crazy!! Love your latest find! It is sooo awesome & sooooooo you!! You are so fun ~ thanks for all your fun posts!
I have a piece like this minus the cute legs in my barn waiting for some TLC-ultimate destination the master bath for some needed storage. I love the tin panels-can’t wait to see the end result-need some inspiration! BTW, my husband speak vintage>antique>fixer upper (its finding the time to get all of that fixer uppering completed!)
I would have brought that home in a second! Great find!!
I most DEFINITELY speak vintage, and we share that French accent, and our love for all things beachy!
Oh Sarah what a fabulous find.
Okay my name is Alison and I am GREEN with ENVY – you did find such a gorgeous piece that we would all love to have!!LOL
Alison
Love it my friend!! How I wish I could find a shoppe like the ones you go to!! I absolutely adore vintage items and am always keeping an eye out for them. Not with too much success, but one day my little ship will come in and I will find a to die for piece!! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful find. I love your blog so much!!!
What an incredible find! She was just waiting and dreaming that she could one day move to Sarah’s Beach Cottage! I definitely speak vintage – I speak baskets/and roses/beaches and sunlight – but for too long I have whispered – Now I am talking out loud!! lol
Hello, I’m Kate. Fluent in vintage and a mad collector of anything between Edwardian to 40′s. Also like to collect Childrens’ books, especially 1930′s school stories and yes I do read them. I suppose my style is Enid Blyton meets Miss Marple by the sea with a bit of funky thrown in. When I get anything ‘new’ I always say that we’ve had it forever, or that it belonged to my Auntie Elsie. I once wrote a list of all of the things that I collected and was horrified at how long it was. Can’t do minimal but don’t like clutter. Oh, and I love anything green.
Fluently! Good to know that I am now bilingual!! I love meeting others who know the language!
That cabinet is definitely a keeper!! The legs, the hardware, the crown molding, and the patina are fabulous!!
Hi Sarah,
Yep, she’s a beauty! And you’ll only improve her.
I think one of the reasons I love vintage is because I never had any relatives or ancestors to share wonderful old hand-me-downs. No Family treasures,(all destroyed in WWll) and so I find them out there in the world and bring them home with me! I create my own story about them and make them into my family’s treasures to be passed on someday. At least, that’s how I think of them. I love to imagine their stories, to get a sense of their history.
It’s a lot more interesting to live this way, I think!
XO
Heidi – Heart and Home
love the new piece! and yes i speak vintage!
but i truly love how you express that in all your posts!
you accomplish so much! makes me feel lazy!
question- will you paint the interior???
Love the detail on the doors!
What a lovely find Sarah. I think shes a keeper. You find and revamp the BEST items ever. Mel xxx
I too speak vintage…with some french…looovvve all ur finds. i tend to have withdrawal symptoms if i dont go hunting …op shops start only a 100 meters from my daughters school, a very handy cure fot this sick disease. am loving ur new find, looks awesome
OH…I LOVE her! What a beauty she is! Can’t wait see her when you’re done with her.
I, too, speak vintage. There just something about a vintage piece. Vintage pieces have so much character….everyone of them has a story to tell.
Smiles,
Rachel
The pie safe is such a aged beauty . I wish I just had more time to treasure hunt. Speaking vintage would be right up my alley but my family already think I’m a recycling nut.
Yep, fluent in Vintage speak, I hear ya!
As if you could leave that find behind, that would be criminal!
That is beautiful, I love it. I love the pressed metal panels in the door. They make it so unique.
I haven’t seen one with those doors before. Lucky you, what a find!!
For a long time I spoke Tuscan…warm earthy tones. Rhen with what started with a flood/leak..my floors turned in black slate, my walls a soft soft warm gray and my cupboards white. The accent colour is red .. a deep rich bold red. I am always looking for chippy old accents. My last trip to Ireland we went to the local auction (YOU Ms Batty would love it!!!!!). The last time hubby and I carried two LARGE white rusty CAST IRON roosters home to Canada.
You can see a post about them here…
http://stampingandscrappin.typepad.com/photoaday_2009/2009/11/11-november-2009-what-we-brought-home-from-ireland.html
Yeah..I speak Vintage. Now I just have to do the living room…trying to convince the hubby to paint the red brick around the fireplace LOL..yes..WHITE
I’d luv to see your dance too he he he
LOVE your new finds
And i so agree with Jessica’s letter….i often think..mmm…what would Sarah say about this one he he he
Hahahahha I just pictured some of us going on job interviews and saying our second language was “vintage” . To funny! Love your newest friend, sh’e very sweet! Where o where will she live?
Oh, now this is quite a pretty find. I can just see it with the doors open and some pretty china in there. Sigh…
*sigh*
Aaahhhh… you’re speaking my language girlfriend!!
We are a strange lot – but very happy.
Hugs ~ Kerryanne
Wow, just love that cabinet.I adore pressed metal painted white and had hoped one day to have a kitchen with pressed metal.In our last house we had wallpaper that gave a similar effect. So where will this treasure live?
This piece is so great! I love it!
Hi, can you tell me what the colour combination is for your paint? I too have been paionting everything in my house but feeling everything is too white. What is the beach white colour you speak of so I can tell my paint man at bunnings? Thanks. Your house is devine, I can’t stop looking at photos!