2010 September | Real Life Beach Decor, Coastal Living & Nautical Decorating Ideas

A Beach Cottages Makes Tags, plus String & Shells

6:14 pm Bysarah

Hellooo!

What’s cooking with you girls?

Well, I’ve been cooking these tags.

A while ago, I received a lovely present from my lovely friend lg, tied with a believe-it-or-not, lovely tag.

So recently having a gift to wrap myself I made some of these tags to tie around a parcel. But a couple were simply not enough and so I found myself with a few extras.

They are simply made of clay…just cut ‘em out with a cookie cutter, stab them with something to make a hole and wait for them to dry.

Tie them with some string for a bit of rustic pleasure and if you are so inclined stamp with any number of letters, numbers or indeed words that take your fancy.

Obviously I was feeling the pull of the French sea when I made these…not of course that I don’t love the Australian sea, it’s just that, as ever, in French, it all seems just a leetle more chic.

Making these tags was about a million and one times more fun than baking.

Email me if you want more info.

Be seeing ya

Sarah

Filed Underfamily room, flowers 31 Comments

A Beach Cottage goes to IKEA

1:01 pm Bysarah

G’day!

Yep I’m still here, locked in the IKEA catalogue. It’s quite nice here though, you don’t have to do any washing up, deal with dirty laundry or fulfill a role as taxi driver….you just simply fluff around from one room to the next, trying out sofas, sitting at dressed up tables and then just choose a bed to hop into at night and while you sleep fairy stylists come in and tidy it all up again ready for it all to start again the next day.

So this is from my recent (and first of many cos Mr BC is DIYing, hooorah) trips to IKEA and the things that I am big-time coveting.

I am trying to make better use of the breakfast room & thinking this might well hit the mark…

lusting over white shelving and green plates

wishing wishing I had as few things in my study as this one & kinda liking the fabric Iqkea designed especially in the BC colours

really wanting this, like really but no room left in the tiniest kitchen in the Southern Hemisphere

didn’t have room for this last time…

these are apparently still selling like hot cakes

for so long I’ve had these wires and children’s drawings sitting under the bed waiting

my plan for the study, looks something like this…without the black

need I say more….

and that’s it, and yep I bought meatballs, plus there were some $1 hot dogs and ice creams going on.

All was good, the IKEA Witch even stayed away at the checkouts, that was until I lost my car in the car-park trying to manoeuvre a dirty great trolley full of stuff and a melange of a car park design that was obviously put together by a man not used to women pushing huge trolleys and possessed by storage requirements…I will say no more.

Catch ya later

Sarah

Filed UnderUncategorized 40 Comments

A Beach Cottage Decorates Outside with a Head Full O’ Cheer

6:33 am Bysarah

Howdy BC’ers?

Like my table?

It’s not as if I were short of a tablescape or two. We all know of this sporting pleasure of mine and I have over time on this blog decorated tables with abundance.

But once Spring hit in Sydney, I had the urge to get outside.

I tablescape for creative outlet, but ultimately, through pure selfish pleasure.

And this one, whereupon I forced my husband to help me carry baskets to the park full of vintage bottles, old sheets and heaps of flowers…..

otherwise I’d leave him and go live in a unit by myself on the Central Coast….

well, this one pleases me very much.

I used my fallbacks on the picnic table at the park…an old vintage sheet (the poor man’s table dressing secret), a plethora of vintage bottles and vessels and a glut of Cheer.

The napkin rings from my shop if it ever opens.

The Cheer was on offer 3 bunches for 5 bucks though I’m told by a reliable source, a commenter on this here blog that this is because they smell like urine…try and ignore that while you lose yourself in sitting at this table with a glass of champers.

And so this is it, a bunch of bottles and flowers and an old sheet to win a BC gold in the sport of Table Dressing.

Alrighty luverlies, catch you soon.

It’s school hols here & I’m having fun in the sun Down Under.

Sarah

bottles : thrifted vintage napkin rings : BC Store sooner picnic basket : thrifted glasses : ikea & vinnies

jeans : Moto t-shirt : Country Road plates : ikea tablecloth : thrifted vintage sheet

TaggedAustralia, decorating ideas, table, table dressing, vintage, white Filed Underflowers, tablescapes, thrifted finds for the cottage 25 Comments

The Trouble with Australian birds & Going Home

9:38 am Bysarah

G’day, hoooooooray for Saturday.

I was recently talking to someone who had moved to the beaches about the same time as us.

They hadn’t settled that well.

One of the reasons they were going home was because of the way the Australian birds chirped.

Seriously.

Just after that I sat with my camera.

And thought about how I missed English birds.

But I think I might just settle for this.

Happy weekend kiddos.

Oh and if you’re surfing around on a Saturday…check out these places I’m loving this week in BC Land…the cafe blogged here, sigh, I think I know where this is, a long way from home.

The house here that is lovely and white but modern & bright…

and I’d never have thought I’d say this, but these right here are just the most coolest KNITTED lamp shades…& they’re white..

See you next time.

Love from the Lucky Country.

Filed UnderUncategorized 15 Comments

A Corner of my Tatty Old Beach Cottage Home

8:36 am Bysarah

G’day cherry pies!

How the devil are you?

I am sooo pleased it’s Friday…the sun is shining here, there’s a lovely big old blue Aussie sky & a walk on the beach is calling.

But I am knee deep in shelves and stuff still.

And seeing as this is the only corner of my home that does not either have a pile of storage solutions from IKEA in it, a treasure hunting find stashed in it or is in need of a good old fashioned Spring clean out, I thought I’d show you it.

Plus I thought you might appreciate the wisteria.

We have the most glorious wisteria at the end of our garden. The scent is flabbergasting.

I thought I’d bring some in, before all too quickly it’s all gone.

I love it’s drunken droopiness.

I wished I looked that good when I was drunk.

Or droopy.

But I don’t

And last night I was both…drunk and droopy.

And this morning I am droopier. With a few added saggy bits.

Which is why I am playing with flowers and trying to avoid doing any work in this old place.

And throwing bleach down the toilet when I hear Mr BC at the door, pretending I’ve spent the morning cleaning.

There’s something, though, about bringing flowers into the house from the yard…a kinda domestic decorating ritual far from the drudge of regular domestic ritual…the picking of the blooms from the tree, preferably while one is wearing white linen and wellies, trug over arm wink*, the plonking into a vascular vessel preferably white wink*, and the calming as the scent fills the air of a tatty old cottage, preferably clean and tidy wink*.

Sticking these in the corner remains the symbol of home…flowers in a jug means home to me.

Even droopy ones.

So that’s it from me, adios

Sarah

(p.s. I must just tell you I have just been talking to Mr BC about DIY & I somehow after our Breakfast tea persuaded him that in the next few weeks he’ll take some time off to re-decorate : the breakfast room, finish the bedroom, start the study, put the shelves up in the kitchen, the kids’ rooms and paint the deck…yep I have the IKEA book strapped to my posterior and yep that’s eight rooms and yep I’m a hard taskmaster and yep I’m good at favours )

oh and go look at the corner of this home…there’s clocks and ladders…yeah

if you want to know more about the Hungarian trunk & how I came upon it go here and when I’d given it some love here