Sharing this morning with you some shots from down my way…this is what I lurve about living here
and I ♥♥♥ it when the sparkles come out to play …Mr BC & I sat here with a coffee before he went to work, it was breathtaking…I thought you landlocked gals, who I always get messages from when I post ocean pics might like to see these ones…
So this is my Good Life Wednesday, now let’s have a look and see what you’ve got going on shall we?
If you are new to Good Life Weds, here’s a little bit of background to why I started it…
Beach Cottage Good Life Weds was started because I was looking around for inspiration for myself for blog parties and couldn’t find anywhere that was simple, not too rigidly themed or restrictive and was just about sharing the good things in life…whether it be a piece of furniture found on the side of the road, a fabulously easy recipe, a great piece of photography, a beautiful flower, the kidlets roaming around outside and inspirational makeover or a corner of your home that makes you happy.
I wanted the motivation to snap away at the little things in my life that I am grateful for…the things that I see now because of this blog…the stop and smell the roses things…the everyday grateful things…and I couldn’t find a linky party that was all about just that…an anything and everything place full of inspiration…to just spend an hour with a coffee clicking around at links..
So Beach Cottage Good Life Wednesday is a blog linky party that encourages us to share the good things in life..the everyday things, the stop and smell the roses things along with amazing things but mostly it’s just about sharing life…
Each Wednesday a new linky will be here so that you can link up to your fave blog post of the week and what you’re up to be it something small, something you’ve created, something you love or somewhere you’ve been…and anyone can take part…you don’t have to link up to a certain theme or have a certain type of blog, that’s the whole point! (you can find more BC Good Life Wednesday info here)
And here’s the button…(if you are not sure how to do this, see that text there in that little scrolly box? well you need to click on that html code there under the button and then copy it…then you need to find the ‘html’ section on your blog post – either in the post body or in the sidebar – there’s usually a tab that says ‘html’…then simply paste the code there and as if my magic the Beach Cottage button will appear!)
Please remember to link back to abeachcottage.com if you are adding your link & go visit a few other gals who are taking part….
oh & I have a new Facebook Fan Page & I’d lurve it if you’d hop on over and hit like!
Hi Sarah, I love the Australian Sea sparkling like diamonds. Thank you always for such wonderful photos of a place I may never get to visit, however still get to see through your eyes.
I enjoy your party very much for the reasons you mentioned, mostly that of it being not too ridged. I am not one for too many rules. After all we do spend our days in our secular job following them to the T.
Thank you for being a gracious hostess, hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday, xxx tami
I love sparklies !!!! Ours come out to play so early Im never there for them lol You must be REALLY close to go before work or get up at the crack of dawn !
I love those sunshine sparkles on the water. I live in the Pacific Northwest of Washington state, and it normally takes a little longer for our water to really *sparkle* like this. It’s still pretty gray and rainy here, but we’re getting small bits of sun here and there. Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful sparkles Sarah….and yes I would be one of those landlocked girls. Where we are living in England (north Bucks) we are about as far from the ocean as you can get! But that’s o.k. for now…I’ll make do with beautiful fields that are starting to bloom with yellow rapeseed…lambs, daffs and red tulips! Robx
Hi Sarah,
You have probably heard this a million times, but THANK YOU for having such a fun
and inspirational blog! Always a pleasure to come here, and I linked up today,
love the simplicity of this link party.
Oh, and I am landlocked since living here (switzerland) so again thanks for the sea view!
Maureen x
I’m landlocked (…..but we do have a lake in the centre of our town. Maybe I should observe it more closely? Does that mean I am not really landlocked ?)! Anyhow, the sea sparkles are so pretty. I always love to see them. Thanks Sarah : )
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
…Mr BC & I sat here with a coffee before he went to work, it was breathtaking…I thought you landlocked gals, who I always get messages from when I post ocean pics might like to see these ones…
Hi Sarah, I love the Australian Sea sparkling like diamonds. Thank you always for such wonderful photos of a place I may never get to visit, however still get to see through your eyes.
I enjoy your party very much for the reasons you mentioned, mostly that of it being not too ridged. I am not one for too many rules. After all we do spend our days in our secular job following them to the T.
Thank you for being a gracious hostess, hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday, xxx tami
I love sparklies !!!! Ours come out to play so early Im never there for them lol You must be REALLY close to go before work or get up at the crack of dawn !
Such beautiful photos! We live near the ocean, too. Thanks for hosting this blog party.
bwaaaaa…I live on the plains of West Texas and not a drop of water anywhere. These shots are magnificent.
I love your sparkles too!
Thanks for hosting today.
x Marnie
These photos are gorgeous Sarah! You’ve captured the sparkles in the water beautifully!
Everytime I see your beach photos I ask my husband if we can move to Austraila.
Beautiful!
Sigh. I practically grew up on the beach. And I haven’t seen “my” beach since 2004! Thanks for the pictures for us “landlocked” gals.
My first time joining the party, thanks for hosting it! Take care, Laura
new follower! Great blog! Thanks for hosting! I’m adding you to my linky list!
Lovely shots Sarah. I joined in today with some beachy shots too. Thanks for hosting.
*sigh* that’s where i want to be right now enjoying the ocean breeze and sun! Jealous much!
I love those sunshine sparkles on the water. I live in the Pacific Northwest of Washington state, and it normally takes a little longer for our water to really *sparkle* like this. It’s still pretty gray and rainy here, but we’re getting small bits of sun here and there. Thanks for sharing!
The sea look so serene and it seem like its filled with diamonds. Great photos here.
your pics are just beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lovely post!
take care,
Rosa
Beautiful sparkles Sarah….and yes I would be one of those landlocked girls. Where we are living in England (north Bucks) we are about as far from the ocean as you can get! But that’s o.k. for now…I’ll make do with beautiful fields that are starting to bloom with yellow rapeseed…lambs, daffs and red tulips! Robx
Hi Sarah,
You have probably heard this a million times, but THANK YOU for having such a fun
and inspirational blog! Always a pleasure to come here, and I linked up today,
love the simplicity of this link party.
Oh, and I am landlocked since living here (switzerland) so again thanks for the sea view!
Maureen x
These are such beautiful pictures of the sea. They give a beach feel straight away – sand, surf and sun!! And all before breakfast – lovely.
Hi Sarah, lovely sea pics. Thanks for hosting the linky party again, they are great fun to visit and see what everyone is up to. Deb
All I can say is….I need a holiday and this looks perfect!
Keren
xx
I’m landlocked (…..but we do have a lake in the centre of our town. Maybe I should observe it more closely? Does that mean I am not really landlocked ?)! Anyhow, the sea sparkles are so pretty. I always love to see them. Thanks Sarah : )
beautiful post yet again, wish i lived near the beach, it looks like it was a lovely day
This looks sublime…lovely images
I just discovered your beautiful blog. I love your pictures! I am linking up today for the first time to your party.
Loving that water! Dreaming of diving in and swimming for hours:) Happy Wednesday!