Thanks for the comments and the blog love, you girls are just too much
Righto so now I’m back I thought I’d show you how when you don’t have a blog to sit and waste time at and how when you cannot stand to be in the vicinity of a computer screen just in case you get pangs of longing for your sad new best friend who rolled up and sat in the corner in a crumpled mess, you get mucho done in your old cottage.
This family area my friends was a bombsite on Monday morning and if you Facebook with me you’ll know I was a woman with a serious mission to get things done …I kick myself for not taking a photo of it as it was when I tackled it, just for all of you who think I wander ’round in this White Palace of Beachy Vintage perfection…..the BC kiddos had left their breakfast remnants all over this table…including squashed up Weetabix in the grooves of the table…(ok I will admit there was about 2 wks worth of mouldy squashed bits in there)….yes they are meant to clean them up before we leave for school and oh yes, funnily enough, they also have on the fastidiously worked out BC Chore List unload dishwasher…and no unless the BC Witch flies around on her broomstick every morning, this rarely gets done…
Their pj’s on the floor, dressing gowns draped on the sofa, lego covered every part of the rug, both kiddos laptops were squeezed in there somewhere, plugged in and not doing much good for the environment. Some bunting I am slowly working on was half-finished in there somewhere too..and sports gear, stinky and yucky from the weekend was sitting in the corner emitting a rather strange smell and looking pretty grotty too.
Not less than a half hour later, all was cleaned, the floor was hoovered, the choc marks wiped off the sofa, the floor Dettoled to within an inch of it’s life and I’d spritzed lavender room spray, concocted by moi, to banish stinky boys’ sports kit smells.
Big sigh. Take it all in and photograph because in oh about 2 hours the whole cycle will start again.
But hey, this for now is nice lunch time…spend a few minutes to set a pretty table time…time out to kick back in calm and celebrate the everyday.
Happy smell the snowdrops days.
Let me know what you think of my housekeeping skills…and more this arvo set yourself a nice little table…you’re worth it
OK I gotta split, I am going for a walk by the sea & breakfast with lg…
Catch you Beach Cottage Chicks layta
Cushions by TriciaRose at Rough Linen (they are to die for…tell her I sent you )
Oh this post still has me giggling….home sweet home and the never ending task of being a mom….and on most days we wouldn’t have it any other way. Those napkins are really great looking…love the point counterpoint of the texture and the smoothness of the white dishes against the weathered table…Great table! Thank you for sharing a slice of your life. Cherry Kay
Great job! and in record time…just lovely…and I can smell that lavender spray now…mmmmm!
I remember those days of cleaning up after children in a seemingly endless cycle…take heart…it does come to an end!
Have a beautiful day~
;-D Kathleen
I’m starting to get the idea that the homes I’ve idolized for being so spotless, (especially with children), are
more like mine than I realized, thank God!!! After having four extra people in our home all weekend, I can
truly appreciate everything you said about your home before you turned into a cleaning machine! It looks
fabulous as ever, thanks for the sharing the visual of how it looked before! Debbie @ Cottage Hann~Me~Downs
I am slowing going all white in my home. I was hesitant, but your blog has been an inspiration. I have 4 grandsons ages 10 months to 8 years and thought this is not going to work because they are here a lot. Well it is amazing, they seem to be a lot more careful and appreciative of my home than ever before. And the little mess they do make I gladly fix when they leave. Enjoy your home so much. ~~Sherry~~
You can get a lot more done in an hour than I!( LOL) You living room looks amazing! I love the vignette on your coffee table, and that lovely vintage suitcase resting below it… gorgeous!
Thanks for sharing with us!
Have a wonderful weekend,
~ Jo
Just love these pics!
Do you have any amazing ideas for a large square shaped table? my table is very rustic style, wooden on top with off white French painted legs and chair legs and backs. Has flea marketish beachy potential but the immense middle of it overwhelms me! Help!
Do you think you would ever put out a book? I would buy it! It would sit with pride next to my Rachel Ashwell one.
yours in beachyness,
Bel
As usual I love all of your white since I am a light bright and white girl too!! For the poster above I have a similar table that is square and eight chairs fit around it perfectly but we can serve 12 too, it is wood on top but the rest and the chairs are white but more cottagey and less French. Right now for fall I have just tossed a light throw in the middle and added a stand up bunch of twigs and three large ceramic gourds I got at Home Goods, that fills the big middle space nicely, it can close to be a smaller rectangle but I like it big since it is different! Enjoy!
Hi,I m in LOVE with your lovely coffee table!!!I know you found it on The street but would you have any idea where to find something similar? please help me I leave in the North shore as well just don’t know where to go.Btw amazing website,LOVE your ideas
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
Beautiful! Happy to have found you today at Susan’s BNOTP!
Your coffee table is exactly what I am looking for in a dining table – love the look and the texture!
You are an amazing photographer. Each and every picture made me want to invite myself over for a cup of tea!
It’s so beautiful this decor! I love the pillows, rug, sofa….. everything!! Again, I love your blog, love to see the images.
lovely. serene. just awaiting the next onslaught!
Oh this post still has me giggling….home sweet home and the never ending task of being a mom….and on most days we wouldn’t have it any other way. Those napkins are really great looking…love the point counterpoint of the texture and the smoothness of the white dishes against the weathered table…Great table! Thank you for sharing a slice of your life. Cherry Kay
Great job! and in record time…just lovely…and I can smell that lavender spray now…mmmmm!
I remember those days of cleaning up after children in a seemingly endless cycle…take heart…it does come to an end!
Have a beautiful day~
;-D Kathleen
I’m starting to get the idea that the homes I’ve idolized for being so spotless, (especially with children), are
more like mine than I realized, thank God!!! After having four extra people in our home all weekend, I can
truly appreciate everything you said about your home before you turned into a cleaning machine! It looks
fabulous as ever, thanks for the sharing the visual of how it looked before! Debbie @ Cottage Hann~Me~Downs
I am slowing going all white in my home. I was hesitant, but your blog has been an inspiration. I have 4 grandsons ages 10 months to 8 years and thought this is not going to work because they are here a lot. Well it is amazing, they seem to be a lot more careful and appreciative of my home than ever before. And the little mess they do make I gladly fix when they leave. Enjoy your home so much. ~~Sherry~~
Beautiful…love the flowers.
Your photos are magazine-errific. Stunning!
You can get a lot more done in an hour than I!( LOL) You living room looks amazing! I love the vignette on your coffee table, and that lovely vintage suitcase resting below it… gorgeous!
Thanks for sharing with us!
Have a wonderful weekend,
~ Jo
HI!
Just love these pics!
Do you have any amazing ideas for a large square shaped table? my table is very rustic style, wooden on top with off white French painted legs and chair legs and backs. Has flea marketish beachy potential but the immense middle of it overwhelms me! Help!
Do you think you would ever put out a book? I would buy it! It would sit with pride next to my Rachel Ashwell one.
yours in beachyness,
Bel
As usual I love all of your white since I am a light bright and white girl too!! For the poster above I have a similar table that is square and eight chairs fit around it perfectly but we can serve 12 too, it is wood on top but the rest and the chairs are white but more cottagey and less French. Right now for fall I have just tossed a light throw in the middle and added a stand up bunch of twigs and three large ceramic gourds I got at Home Goods, that fills the big middle space nicely, it can close to be a smaller rectangle but I like it big since it is different! Enjoy!
Donna
Hi,I m in LOVE with your lovely coffee table!!!I know you found it on The street but would you have any idea where to find something similar? please help me I leave in the North shore as well just don’t know where to go.Btw amazing website,LOVE your ideas