Errrm I heard some of you, who might be reading this blog are a lil’ on the chilly side? A couple of readers in the Northern Hemisphere have told me they are settling in at -5 in the daytime. Brrr, I sure don’t remember or want to remember just how cold that is…though I must say I miss those cold crisp mornings when you wake up to a fresh blanket of beautiful white stuff…not that often though
So, I thought perhaps you might wanna head down the beach with me?
Sound good?
So I am here blogging on a Sunday, which is extremely unusual for me and we are just back from 6 hours on the beach, the Beach Cottage Crew are chilling out and doing their study, the Beach Cottage teenager is still in the surf, it’s huge & brilliant today apparently…and I found myself here in the study with the fan going twenty to the dozen uploading my photos…I have had two Beach Cottage Photo Walks this weekend, and I tell you what the ocean was performing for me…once I get time to go through them I will be posting more of them, I love it when the ocean roars.
But anyway, I was hoping this last few weeks to push my Photo Taking a bit and wanted to bump myself well out of my ocean-taking comfort-zone and shoot some humans.
I am convinced that it is when taking photos is raw and new it is often when it’s at its best…you somehow see something you didn’t see before…and that is one of the reasons I love it…when those eyes open up to a new thing it’s amazing.
…like all of a sudden, body parts start to appear right in front of your very eyes
Trying to take a photo of something new, for me, is kinda an abomination of a big old learning curve, and a scrambling of learned skills..all going on in the split second of a shutter.
You won’t find me turning my nose up at any photography, though I have to say taking photos of small furry things, or large furry things, will probably never really float my little photographer boat, but I must say having humans in them adds a different dimension…where would I put the focus? oh darn they moved.. oh hello surfers walking past…
So yeah, that’s about it, human body parts & sunny hot beaches on a Sunday….the way I like it…
Oh and while I am here, the first Beach Cottage Club Newsletter went out yesterday, and I have had such* a positive reponse, thanks so much girls, yes I am hoping to add in there more unseen stuff and behind the scenes things, as fast as I can click my camera lol! To those of you have emailed me, I am getting back to you slowly, but I will get there….I didn’t expect that response
(p.s. we have had a strange summer in Sydney…I was trying to capture beach life and this odd weather in this shot…see the black low clouds on the water? nature rocks)
Sarah I am most impressed by what you are doing with this blog. I first started following you some time ago when it was all beach-cottage related. Don’t get me wrong, that was great too (I wasn’t following for nothing!) but I do really like how you have branched out and started including all matter of other stuff. BTW, I have tried a few of your recipes and must say the banana bread is heavenly and has become a bit of a staple in our household. My 15 month old daughter thinks it’s the ducks nuts. So keep up the great work, I enjoy also the fashion blogs, I can totally relate to your sense of casual style. Cheers from NZ.
the beach shots are nothing new, I have been doing those since the very early days of this blog…the recipes and fashion though are me following what interests me and I am enjoying it much more with a bit more scope to the blob… though I have to say there is a lot of cottage stuff coming up…I have quite a bit of news!
Sarah, that photo of the surfers diving into the wave…. Beautiful, I love the textured water… I am so nervous (still) of photographing strangers… Though I seem to over come the nerves when there is gorgeous scenery and people are just doing their thing in the photos… Much like the surfers walking on the beach….I am nusing a migrane at the moment so back to closing my eyes (in a minute more – must kill the boredom builiding in my brain)…
Thanks for sharing summer with us! The ocean is so amazing isn’t it. I miss that most of all since moving to Canada, we are near the ocean but there are no waves! I enjoyed your newsletter, and also wanted to tell you I made your forty garlic chicken and mentioned it on my blog with a link back to your post. Yum!!
Tracey
Totally agree nature rocks! Just been out on a bike ride (motor not push) through Numimbah Valley oohing and ahhing at all nature dishes up from the shape of the rocks, to the colours of the gum trees with their freshly debarked trunks, the colour of the clouds, the rooster in the roadside park – think he’s on to something and must pop over from a neighbouring property for some extra snacks on the weekend and of course my dose of cows – I just love them.
Thanks for a little Sunday blogging and your lovin the newsletter!!
How good was the weather today (and yesterday evening). just perfect. the beach looks great. We were harbourside for my mother in law’s 70th and just divine.
Love your photos.
cheers Fiona
To make you feel even better: it has snowed overnight here in Kent and is very chilly and grey!! It has warmed me up just looking at those lovely sunny pics – wonderful!
Great shots Sarah. I have just subscribed to the newsletter. The link and setup was so easy. Thanks and well done. Now, hope the newsletters as good Just kidding
we had a nippers carnival early this morning and due to the humidity we had four small boys flake badly at around 11am…… so much of the afternoon was lolling about watching dvd’s and quiet swims in the pool. A late afternoon walk for driftwood {my husband makes the driftwood crosses you might have seen around and about}…… then a lovely bbq to end a long hot day.
the heat is sapping energy left, right & centre here. It’s the time of year where we all live a slower life……
the surf here was gooooooood today. Quite the lineup at first point!!
Hi Sarah, I’m just looking for the post you did a couple of days ago … Blogging tips. I can”t seem to find it and I haven’t read it yet! I know it was a long one because you issued a ramble alert at the beginning .. Ha! Please tell me where it is .. I need all the tips I can get! Jules x
“I love it when the ocean roars.” That is my feeling, also! Since I live in landlocked Missouri, I enjoy hearing and seeing the roar through you and your camera until I can get my next trip to a beach. (Which is Zihuatanejo, Mexico, in two weeks!) Thanks!
I started following your blog when it was all about your cottage and painting everything white. I immediately identified with that, since I also love white. I have enjoyed your blog expanding into all things in your life. Thanks, again!
Thank you for letting me live vicariously through you !My dailey dose of sunshine and blue sky. While the temps aren’t bad her in the midwest , it is still gloomy gray skies and brown ground. How I am longing for green grass and sunshine. The garden catalogs are pouring in and making me long for spring even more.
My little bit of sunshine – the lemon peels soaking up the vodka on my kitchen cupboard ! One week from today , I will be enjoying a lovely glass of Beach Cottage Lemoncello !
Thanks Sarah !
Thanks Sarah for a little bit of sunshine! It has been rainy here for the last two days, so your blog today has been a welcome change. I enjoyed your newsletter yesterday and look forward to all things Beach Cottage! Oh no snow yet in these neck of the woods! I am so…looking forward to Spring and especially Summer. (beach time for me!)
Well, I know you found the body parts in the wave the interesting bit of that first photo. But, my goodness! That WAVE is spectacular – you captured it’s color and shape so well – I can feel the water and myself moving in it.
The second picture with the bodies showing through the waves, is the MOST spectucular blue – so stunning! I loved it Sarah! I think you take beautiful pictures.
: )
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
Sarah I am most impressed by what you are doing with this blog. I first started following you some time ago when it was all beach-cottage related. Don’t get me wrong, that was great too (I wasn’t following for nothing!) but I do really like how you have branched out and started including all matter of other stuff. BTW, I have tried a few of your recipes and must say the banana bread is heavenly and has become a bit of a staple in our household. My 15 month old daughter thinks it’s the ducks nuts. So keep up the great work, I enjoy also the fashion blogs, I can totally relate to your sense of casual style. Cheers from NZ.
thanks so much Anonymous!
the beach shots are nothing new, I have been doing those since the very early days of this blog…the recipes and fashion though are me following what interests me and I am enjoying it much more with a bit more scope to the blob… though I have to say there is a lot of cottage stuff coming up…I have quite a bit of news!
cheers to NZ xoxox
Sarah, that photo of the surfers diving into the wave…. Beautiful, I love the textured water… I am so nervous (still) of photographing strangers… Though I seem to over come the nerves when there is gorgeous scenery and people are just doing their thing in the photos… Much like the surfers walking on the beach….I am nusing a migrane at the moment so back to closing my eyes (in a minute more – must kill the boredom builiding in my brain)…
oh dear I hope your head gets better Alice!
I know what you mean about human photography xx
Thanks for sharing summer with us! The ocean is so amazing isn’t it. I miss that most of all since moving to Canada, we are near the ocean but there are no waves! I enjoyed your newsletter, and also wanted to tell you I made your forty garlic chicken and mentioned it on my blog with a link back to your post. Yum!!
Tracey
oh so glad you liked BC Forty Garlic Chicken! woohoo!
yes I love the ocean! x
Sounds like our Sundays might have been very similarly spent on the beach!
I really like taking photots with humans in the shot so my new challenge is to bring some life to the landscape/nature shot.
Happy Sunday – do you think a well earned tipple is in order around 5pm?
ps have somehow not got the BC Newsletter so will go check it out now – just what I feel like!!!
Totally agree nature rocks! Just been out on a bike ride (motor not push) through Numimbah Valley oohing and ahhing at all nature dishes up from the shape of the rocks, to the colours of the gum trees with their freshly debarked trunks, the colour of the clouds, the rooster in the roadside park – think he’s on to something and must pop over from a neighbouring property for some extra snacks on the weekend
and of course my dose of cows – I just love them.
Thanks for a little Sunday blogging and your lovin the newsletter!!
oh I would have loved to have joined you on that Caz xx
Thank you very much for warming me up this morning, even if it is just visually! The snow has arrived here now, and I know where I’d rather be!
my pleasure Carin, errrm I think I’d rather be here today….we are winding down now with rosemary & garlic pork and my lentil salad yay
How good was the weather today (and yesterday evening). just perfect. the beach looks great. We were harbourside for my mother in law’s 70th and just divine.
Love your photos.
cheers Fiona
thanks Fiona, yep the weather has been divine the last couple days…xxxx
To make you feel even better: it has snowed overnight here in Kent and is very chilly and grey!! It has warmed me up just looking at those lovely sunny pics – wonderful!
Pomona x
Great shots Sarah. I have just subscribed to the newsletter. The link and setup was so easy. Thanks and well done. Now, hope the newsletters as good
Just kidding
we had a nippers carnival early this morning and due to the humidity we had four small boys flake badly at around 11am…… so much of the afternoon was lolling about watching dvd’s and quiet swims in the pool. A late afternoon walk for driftwood {my husband makes the driftwood crosses you might have seen around and about}…… then a lovely bbq to end a long hot day.
the heat is sapping energy left, right & centre here. It’s the time of year where we all live a slower life……
the surf here was gooooooood today. Quite the lineup at first point!!
yours in beach life
Hi Sarah, I’m just looking for the post you did a couple of days ago … Blogging tips. I can”t seem to find it and I haven’t read it yet! I know it was a long one because you issued a ramble alert at the beginning .. Ha! Please tell me where it is .. I need all the tips I can get! Jules x
I am in awe of that swimmer in the wave shot!
“I love it when the ocean roars.” That is my feeling, also! Since I live in landlocked Missouri, I enjoy hearing and seeing the roar through you and your camera until I can get my next trip to a beach. (Which is Zihuatanejo, Mexico, in two weeks!) Thanks!
I started following your blog when it was all about your cottage and painting everything white. I immediately identified with that, since I also love white. I have enjoyed your blog expanding into all things in your life. Thanks, again!
Thank you for letting me live vicariously through you !My dailey dose of sunshine and blue sky. While the temps aren’t bad her in the midwest , it is still gloomy gray skies and brown ground. How I am longing for green grass and sunshine. The garden catalogs are pouring in and making me long for spring even more.
My little bit of sunshine – the lemon peels soaking up the vodka on my kitchen cupboard ! One week from today , I will be enjoying a lovely glass of Beach Cottage Lemoncello !
Thanks Sarah !
Yay! Sun and body parts not covered in wool. Just what I needed.
Thanks Sarah for a little bit of sunshine! It has been rainy here for the last two days, so your blog today has been a welcome change. I enjoyed your newsletter yesterday and look forward to all things Beach Cottage! Oh no snow yet in these neck of the woods! I am so…looking forward to Spring and especially Summer. (beach time for me!)
yeah aren’t Aussie beach summers the best!!! and not too crowded or anything.. have a great time!
Well, I know you found the body parts in the wave the interesting bit of that first photo. But, my goodness! That WAVE is spectacular – you captured it’s color and shape so well – I can feel the water and myself moving in it.
Thank you for your wonderful blog!
Mary in MN
The second picture with the bodies showing through the waves, is the MOST spectucular blue – so stunning! I loved it Sarah! I think you take beautiful pictures.
: )