OK so we have a great ♥ Saturday Club this week…simple, easy, free but most of all 100% me-time…yep all for you…
♥ Saturday Club this week comes courtesy of the Beach Cottage Facebook Girls…I asked them what they they wanted to do with the time on ♥ Saturdays when they take a special bit of time for them.
Well it was interesting….& we have the next few weeks wrapped up, this one rocks.
So.
Ready?
Let’s Go.
Your Mission
Should You Choose To Accept it
Is this:
♥ ♥
You must take yourself
off to a quiet place
you can go
near
or
far
upon your
person
you must
have a
recording
device
of choice
be it
that beautiful notebook
you never use
the note section on your phone
a blackboard
perhaps
in a cafe
with your
ipad
now
sit down
add chocolate
and a
nice
beverage
and allow
yourself
to muse
you must
my friends
ponder on
your
Dream List
all those things
you’ve been thinking
about
for oh-too long
things you
dream about doing
before
you blink
and life
has passed you by
start jotting
and brood
for a while
quietly
and
most of all
never stop
dreaming
have fun
and yes I’d love it if you send me pics of your Dream Lists or tell me what you got up to (you can do that on the BC Facebook page or here in the comments )
have to say I haven’t done a Dream List for a while…getting ourselves a seachange to the Lucky Country was so on my list…but there’s room for a whole lot more
Yours in downtime…switch that go-fast pilot off and get rocking that Dream List and think of me, I’m taking of to a little secluded spot on a harbour beach with my new throw, a pillow, a picnic basket…and a flask….
p.s. next week on abeachcottage we have tradies in the house (thank you Lord) and the new deck starting, plus a recipe for my Dump & Go Butterfly cakes, tasted and eaten by Australian food icon Margaret Fulton and Suzanne Gibbs who I did a baking Masterclass with…yes I know you might think that is funny…but I worked it ….see you soon…
Yes loving that door – beautiful!
I will try and find a quiet moment to make my dream list in amongst the chaos of my 4 kiddo’s and one hubby
This is probably something I really need to do with the way I have been feeling lately and the stage I am at with no more babies (I think!) but what next?!!
Time to look forward and dream big I guess and try not to get all nostalgic and sentimental as my littlest two turn 5 and 3 in the next couple of weeks. (*big pang*)
Enjoy your time out with your picnic basket and throw. Sounds lovely!
Ps I would really love your advice on finding the perfect beachy colour for the outside of our house.
I am struggling with it and keep changing my mind!!
Hubby is keen on a blue and I was thinking a greyish light blue??? (needs to go with Colourbond Dune roof)
Do you know any I can look up?
Any colour ideas welcome, PLEASE?!!
Thanks Sarah, that would be much appreciated!
I am just getting totally confused atm.
Although found one blue that is a Porters paint called Elegance. Unsure if it will be too pale or not though.
A Dream List is something I can definitely do! I’m STILL recovering from surgery so have to stay home and mostly off my feet. It will be the perfect day to create a Dream List!
OH this challenge is right up my alley for this weekend! See tomorrow the last of the decking will be screwed in place and our new (to us) papasan chairs just received their cushions. As long as it isn’t too cold my plans are to decorate the deck making it ready for winter and then have a fire in the fire pit, curl up with a quilt in one of the newly cushioned chairs and enjoy the time outside before it turns miserable again.
I’m thinking I must need to put together a list like this. I just went to a woman’s conference tonight, and the speaker said this very thing. Then I come home and read it here on your page! Now, I just have to figure out what I might be dreaming about.
Enjoy your weekend dear lady!
Love the door. As well as the Dream List this week. It’s sorta funny as I grouped together pictures of some dreams or goals this week to remind myself of what I am after in life. I am mid age and in college and this was one of our lessons. Here’s a link picture of my goals and dreams.
I feel I should be saying Merry Christmas! I am an “East Coastal” kind of gal and we’re having a small blizzard. LOL
It was very easy for me to get out my little red journal and start adding to my dream list while counting the flakes!
Lots of chocolate and French Vanilla coffee were involved……even a few tiny marshmallows.
Because I am so behind in my Saturday Club missions, I am doing # 8 tomorrow……which is also another day of DREAMING!!
Whatever did I do before I stumbled across your blog Sarah?!?!?!?
Hope you have a great weekend.
PS: loved the doors!!
“Dream List” sounds so much more positive and feminine than “Bucket List,” doesn’t it? The latter always called to mind chores and dampness…leave it to Sarah to bring us back into the sweet light!
No sooner did I sit down at a cafe table and order coffee with my journal in tow…but I found this mission on my iphone! Perfect timing!
I got to wondering about what I’d really like to call into my life.
I’ve always liked to be out and about but the hubs really prefers quiet weekends at home, and with a baby sweetening and complicating our lives, I find the *family’s* need to slow down overshadowing my private need to see and do and visit and go.
So my little-dream list, which is really my two year plan that I try to update regularly, is this: finish phd, offer baby more of my focused attention when I’m with her, be kinder and more tender with my husband, nurture and deepen my friendships with other new mamas, make a quilt (I’m new to sewing), and fence the yard/start a veggie garden. It’s less seemingly ambitious and project oriented than my usual lists, but richer and deeper and slower. Just what this time of my life calls for, I guess.
Reading that, now I feel like I need to spend some time thinking about the big, long term dreams, too. Next time!
Thanks, Sarah. I missed the missions and I’m glad they’re back!
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
)
That door is beautiful!!
Have a great weekend Sarah!! Sounds fun!!
Hi Sarah,
I love the mission for this week – Dreaming.
I certainly have a few dreams and I do want those to transition over to a reality.
Then I have another dream list that may just be that forever a dream list – but we all have to dream of something don’t we.
I can’t wait to see a photo of your dream list too.
have a wonderful weekend (that picnic rug and thermos sounds like a great idea
loulou, from hereiamloulou blog
x
My dream list would definitely comprise of petty things but why not.
I want to sing like steven tyler. for one. Oh oh..the song: Dream On!!
Yes loving that door – beautiful!
I will try and find a quiet moment to make my dream list in amongst the chaos of my 4 kiddo’s and one hubby
This is probably something I really need to do with the way I have been feeling lately and the stage I am at with no more babies (I think!) but what next?!!
Time to look forward and dream big I guess and try not to get all nostalgic and sentimental as my littlest two turn 5 and 3 in the next couple of weeks. (*big pang*)
Enjoy your time out with your picnic basket and throw. Sounds lovely!
Ps I would really love your advice on finding the perfect beachy colour for the outside of our house.
I am struggling with it and keep changing my mind!!
Hubby is keen on a blue and I was thinking a greyish light blue??? (needs to go with Colourbond Dune roof)
Do you know any I can look up?
Any colour ideas welcome, PLEASE?!!
hmm, I love blue personally…actually I am wanting to paint mine too, so will be looking the same as you…will let you know x
Thanks Sarah, that would be much appreciated!
I am just getting totally confused atm.
Although found one blue that is a Porters paint called Elegance. Unsure if it will be too pale or not though.
it looks really lovely!:)
A Dream List is something I can definitely do! I’m STILL recovering from surgery so have to stay home and mostly off my feet. It will be the perfect day to create a Dream List!
enjoy Liz, I hope the recovery goes well x
Oh! I’m so sending this to my husband. I mean it’s a requirement, right? Right? I wouldn’t want to get kicked out of the club :0)
of course! x
Thank you for such a beatiful challenge. It is much needed.
OH this challenge is right up my alley for this weekend! See tomorrow the last of the decking will be screwed in place and our new (to us) papasan chairs just received their cushions. As long as it isn’t too cold my plans are to decorate the deck making it ready for winter and then have a fire in the fire pit, curl up with a quilt in one of the newly cushioned chairs and enjoy the time outside before it turns miserable again.
sounds delightful Peggy x
I’m thinking I must need to put together a list like this. I just went to a woman’s conference tonight, and the speaker said this very thing. Then I come home and read it here on your page! Now, I just have to figure out what I might be dreaming about.
Enjoy your weekend dear lady!
someone is telling you something!
x
Love the door. As well as the Dream List this week. It’s sorta funny as I grouped together pictures of some dreams or goals this week to remind myself of what I am after in life. I am mid age and in college and this was one of our lessons. Here’s a link picture of my goals and dreams.
http://pinterest.com/treasia/goals/
I feel I should be saying Merry Christmas! I am an “East Coastal” kind of gal and we’re having a small blizzard. LOL
It was very easy for me to get out my little red journal and start adding to my dream list while counting the flakes!
Lots of chocolate and French Vanilla coffee were involved……even a few tiny marshmallows.
Because I am so behind in my Saturday Club missions, I am doing # 8 tomorrow……which is also another day of DREAMING!!
Whatever did I do before I stumbled across your blog Sarah?!?!?!?
Hope you have a great weekend.
PS: loved the doors!!
happy days Melody
I like the sound of French Vanilla Coffee…hmm I am gonna have to try…x
“Dream List” sounds so much more positive and feminine than “Bucket List,” doesn’t it? The latter always called to mind chores and dampness…leave it to Sarah to bring us back into the sweet light!
No sooner did I sit down at a cafe table and order coffee with my journal in tow…but I found this mission on my iphone! Perfect timing!
I got to wondering about what I’d really like to call into my life.
I’ve always liked to be out and about but the hubs really prefers quiet weekends at home, and with a baby sweetening and complicating our lives, I find the *family’s* need to slow down overshadowing my private need to see and do and visit and go.
So my little-dream list, which is really my two year plan that I try to update regularly, is this: finish phd, offer baby more of my focused attention when I’m with her, be kinder and more tender with my husband, nurture and deepen my friendships with other new mamas, make a quilt (I’m new to sewing), and fence the yard/start a veggie garden. It’s less seemingly ambitious and project oriented than my usual lists, but richer and deeper and slower. Just what this time of my life calls for, I guess.
Reading that, now I feel like I need to spend some time thinking about the big, long term dreams, too. Next time!
Thanks, Sarah. I missed the missions and I’m glad they’re back!