"a little summer"

I am madly working in the garden 

getting it ready for a Summer Cottage Garden Party.

But, I took some time out this past weekend to "summer-ize" the house.

With sun, sea and sand pillows, ocean art and surfboards, 

one might wonder how I could add any more "summer".

I tucked some wooden buoys into a wire basket

and dug a favorite enamel mug out of the cupboard - I love the colors and the beach scene on the mug.

Shells and a new message were added to our vintage typewriter.

 The living room got a huge dose of seaside decor -

shells from our travels and walks along the beach fill my vintage shopping basket,

buckets and buoys,

weights and starfish decorate the mantel,

and a container of sea glass (gathered over the 17 years since we moved to our beach cottage) are all on display.

The anchor pillow sits on the sofa year round, 

but somehow it looks more summery when paired with patriotic pillows.

Steve likes the display of shells on the cedar chest

because each shell, piece of coral and even the sand, is from a surf trip he took to the Maldives in 2001.

I have seen lots of rooms with whales so I placed my whale bookends on top of some "beachy" books instead of holding the books up.

There's "a little summer" everywhere at our house

and with JP's wedding just 5 weeks away

I don't imagine there will be many changes for quite awhile.

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Join me at

My Salvaged Treasures for the Vintage Inspiration Party

Disguising the UGLY!

Do you have a spot at your house that you dislike, but there isn't much you can do about it?

For me, the spot is BUB -  the Big Ugly Box - between our house and our garage.

In the 60s, the city closed off all the sidewalks leading to the beach;  alleys became the streets and back doors became the entrance to the house - I wrote about the changes in our house here.

Steve and I weren't thrilled with this as the entrance into our house and wanted to create a real entry way, but the city and Coastal Commission would not allow us to put the water heater and washer/dryer in the garage.

 BUB was the solution and you can see the difference in our entry way without appliances.

The other day, I decided to embrace BUB and "dress up" the area.

In a cropped photo of the garage, BUB doesn't look so bad decorated with my new "keep it simple" sign.

In this photo, BUB looks like it is part of the garage.

I have a narrow space to create a front yard out of a back yard.

A little banner I found at Target spices up the side fence and sand dollars from our beach walks found a new home.

An old baker's rack helps to hide some piping along the house.

The baker's rack placed between the windows of my creative space holds favorite beach buckets and more sand dollars.

I would love to have a basket of flowers hanging from this beach cruiser someone left in our driveway,

but the basket of flowers sits by the door because

Steve would not be happy if he had to remove a basket of flowers every time he headed out on his cruiser to the grocery store or to check the surf.

I kept it simple, BUB doesn't look quite so ugly and I have a front yard I actually like.

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I am joining these fun parties

Southern Savvy Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Ivy and Elephants - What's It Wednesday

Lavender Garden Cottage - Cottage Style Party

Green Willow Pond - What We Accomplished Wednesday

Glitter Glue & Paint - Project Pin It

It Feels Like Summer

As we walked along the beach this morning we passed two teenage boys discussing the weather.

One boy said it felt like summer and the second boy said that it was literally about as far from summer as you can get.

The second boy is correct that we are at the seasonal opposite of summer, but it does feel like summer.

Thinking about "summer like" weather and reading my new decorating books made me realize what was wrong with my post Christmas mantel.

 After Christmas, I left the existing painting on the mantel and used a New Year's theme, but it just didn't feel right.

The change to a beach theme might not be right in other parts of the country, but it fits on our little part of the coast.

The painting is of the side of City Hall looking down to the sea on a mild January day.

Shells, found in abundance in our house, fill metal baskets.

Candlesticks I received for Christmas add height to the shell displays.

The walls shine bright yellow enhanced by the sun and an abalone shells holds a mere pittance of the wealth of sand dollars Steve finds on the beach each day.

There is a method to my madness in decorating with "summer" items - perhaps it will encourage winter to laugh at me bringing rain and snow so that we can get in a little skiing.

This mantel fits our little beach cottage and lifestyle and it reflects who we are- no matter the season.

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Join me at

A Stroll Thru Life - Inspire Me Tuesday

Cedar Hill Ranch - The Scoop

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Tuesday's Treasures

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Kathe With an E - You're Gonna Love It

Cozy Little House - Tweak It Tuesday

Life Before Pinterest

The room...

The inspiration?

Lately I have been visiting Pinterest and thinking about my inspiration pre- Pinterest.

I have always been a "tearer".

As I looked through my favorite magazines, I would tear out pages of things I loved, decorating ideas, recipes (for Steve to try), places we should visit, quotes...

You name it, I tore it out and had files of tear outs.

About 20 years ago, I began putting all the torn pages into books I spiral bound.

I created 39 books before I found Pinterest.

a few of the books on a shelf in the attic

I know the exact number for two reasons.  

I recently moved them to the attic and it was a pain to carry them up our pull-down attic stairs.

And, I numbered them to help a little for organization -it only helped a little.

I should have created a different book for each different interest  - like Pinterest boards.

Since I have been using Pinterest and reading magazines on my iPad, I rarely buy magazines anymore.

And with fewer magazines, I don't tear pages out.

So, no more books.

All 39 books take up a lot of space and I debated tossing the books.

Something told me to just keep them in the attic for now.

I am glad I did because yesterday I remembered an article I had torn out titled "What Makes It Cottage?"

When I got home from work, I pulled down the stairs and went in search of the article.

I remembered that it was before we moved to our present home so it would have to be in one of the lower numbers.

#7 to be exact.

they had to have titles

I used craft scissors so I didn't have to make straight lines

It was fun to flip through the books although I didn't make it through all 39 books.

What I noticed was:

my style has changed from book #1 to present day 

and 

I actually followed through and copied looks I liked.

I bought or made things, decorated rooms and  visited places I pasted into the books.

For instance,

I found this photo of a sofa I liked 

and, until last summer, this was my sofa.

 I obviously was thinking about white slipcovers

long before I decided to make new slipcovers last summer.

I pasted these beach buckets into book #7

and here are two of my favorite pails. 

I wonder if this picture was torn out before or after we moved to the beach

because it seems that I got my inspiration from the picture above.

This picture must have sparked my interest in benches

because this is my coffee table bench today.

Who knew that when I tore this picture out

that I would one day have a dining room with mullioned windows.

Metal baskets filled with books?

Oh, yes.

Vintage linens?

Definitely.

And, these were just things I noticed in book #7.

What amazed me most was that I don't recall looking at the books before I bought things or decorated.

The images must have been burned into my brain.

How many ideas from the other 38 books made it into the house?

In 10 years, if I look back at Pinterest I hope I have copied a lot of my pins because I have a lot of great ideas there.

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I am linked up at

No Minimalist Here - Open House Party

Common Ground - Be Inspired

Homespun Happenings - Rustic Restorations Weekend

It's A Hodgepodge Life - Hodgepodge Friday

My Romantic Home - Show and Tell Friday