Day At The Beach

This is where I spent my work day.

Every year, 

on the third Monday of September, 

I attend a conference in Avila Beach at the San Luis Yacht Club.

The conference,

DAY AT THE BEACH,

is for Activity Directors from the central coast of California to network.

We meet at the yacht club, because we are able to use it free of charge and it is a halfway point for all of us.

In addition to all the great ideas I get for classroom lesson and school activities, I love my short getaway to Avila Beach.

I live at the beach.

But,  I do not live in a beach town.

Ventura is a beautiful town on the coast, but most people in Ventura do not live at the beach.

Avila Beach on the other hand is a charming little beach town.

It is just a two hour drive from Ventura.

We stayed last night at the Inn at Avila Beach and shared dinner on the deck with my colleagues.

Our view from the deck was the sparkling ocean sparsely occupied with mid-September tourists.

Actually, one of my colleagues corrected me and said that few tourists visit Avila Beach.

Pismo Beach is more of a tourist destination because the freeway runs along the ocean.

Avila Beach is off the beaten path and frequented by locals.

It was a beautiful day in Avila, a lovely drive through the golden hills of the central coast and now I am back at home relaxed and ready for another week of work.

Nothing To Do

I awoke this morning with the wonderful feeling that I had nothing to do.

That is not exactly correct.

I have lots to do.

I just don't have anything I have to do.

The third week of school has just ended,

I am settling into my routine,

and we have nothing on our agenda the entire weekend.

Our morning began with our usual walk on the beach.

After breakfast, I worked in the garden which has been feeling neglected since school and volleyball season began.

I knew I should weed and spruce up the garden, but it was a beautiful day so we grabbed the kayaks

and walked over to Little Beach for a paddle.

Back home, I still didn't feel like doing much so I sat on my bench and read.

I was beginning to feel a little lazy and guilty.

Steve was at the store buying the ingredients for his fabulous beef stroganoff and I was simply relaxing.

I decided that dinner in the garden was in order.

I found an old tablecloth and chose my favorite Sabre polka dot utensils.

I took an old watering can and filled it with flowers from the garden.

I have not written a blog post or even looked at my favorite blogs for almost two weeks.

With the table done, I decided to write a post and spend a little time getting inspiration from my favorite bloggers.

The best part - it is only Saturday and I still have nothing I have to do on Sunday.

I just might repeat my Saturday... walk on the beach...work in the garden...kayak...read.

That sounds pretty good!

Off The Shelf

In 2002, we began remodeling our little house.

Our contractor put in a window seat and added a shelf across the length of one wall in the dining room.

I put my collection of pitchers along the shelf.

It is now 2012, and I still have the same pitchers decorating the shelf.

I have added and removed pitchers, but I guess a decade is long enough for a display.

On Sunday, I removed every piece on display in the dining room.

My original plan was to put some of my wire baskets on the shelf after seeing a fun shelf in Romantic Prairie Style, but I decided to start with some plates.

I knew I wanted to keep the red, yellow and blue color scheme.

With the shelf much less crowded, I moved on to my metal rack.

I only had red and yellow on the rack and decided to move to red, yellow and blue to reflect the colors in the window seat cushion.

I brought in some of my collection of hands and moved some books from my green table.

I noticed that I am using a lot more white in my displays since I made white slipcovers for the sofa and chair in the living room.

After the rack was done, I moved on to the entry.

Now my pitchers are in view instead of up high.

 I painted the star pitcher just after we moved to the beach.

The blue spatterware pitchers are both antiques from my mother.

I still had all the different red and yellow dishes that had been on the metal rack to deal with.

I moved them into the kitchen where they will actually be put to use.

My work ended with placing a favorite pitcher on the dining room table.

When we travel, I like to buy something that will always remind me of the vacation.

I bought the pitcher several years ago in Taos when Steve was taking an art workshop.

I'm glad I moved it down off the shelf, because I rarely looked at it on the shelf.

The remainder of the day was spent cycling through the harbor and reading in the garden.

I finished my weekend relaxed and ready for work.

And, I have the entire week to get my plans together for a closet redo.

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I am linked up at

Make It Pretty Monday

Cozy Little House - Tweak It Tuesday

Sunny Simple Sunday

Footloose and Fancy Free

I love Saturday mornings.

Steve has a long standing tennis game every Saturday morning so after our beach walk, I am usually "footloose and fancy free".

I began my morning by meeting up with KC in Montecito.

She is in Santa Barbara for a Bachelorette Party and we met up at a charming outdoor cafe for breakfast.

I was back at home by 9:30 with a full day ahead.

Ideas have been floating around my head all week for a weekend project.

I decided to do something with this old bench.

Steve surprised me one day last year by splurging on this bench.

He paid $1 at a neighbor's yard sale.

It isn't is the best of shape, but I love it.  

It has been in the front yard next to the door. 

But, I decided to move it to the garden so I can sit on it when the sun is too much for me.

I dug the white pillows out of a cupboard.

I originally made them for the fire pit bench, but when we added on, the fire pit was too close to the house and we never use it anymore.

The pillows are made from  a set of chenille bedspreads I had in my childhood bedroom.

There is still a lot of chenille in an attic cupboard and I often use it for the back of pillows.

The old watering can is something Steve found in my parents' garage 35 years ago.

 I debate painting it and letting it chip and fade to a lovely patina, but I have yet to touch it.

As soon as I was done gardening, I plopped myself on the bench and thumbed through Romantic Prairie Style.

It was a lovely summer afternoon to be relaxing outdoors.

And, I got a great idea for my Sunday afternoon project.

It was a Saturday well spent!

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I am linked up at

2805 Potpourri Friday

Twigg Studios Sunday Show Off Linky Party

Accentuate The Positive

The past week was difficult for me.

I am back at school and have had little time for me, my house or my garden.

I was wallowing in self pity, when I recalled the words to the old Johnny Mercer tune

Accentuate The Positive

You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

And latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum

Bring gloom down to the minimum

Have faith or pandemonium's

Liable to walk upon the scene.

A little switch from the negative to the positive made a huge difference in my attitude.

I was focusing on all of the projects I didn't complete.

But, when I started looking at what I did complete, I felt pretty good.

Yesterday, I had the time to paint my wooden cabinet

with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint - Old White.

Steve says he likes how it lightens up the room.

It isn't quite finished.

I have to wax it, but I wanted the house in order because we have friends from Arizona visiting today.

I love how the  'word' knobs look on the white.

I had the same knobs when it was just dark wood, but I always felt the white knobs looked funny against the wood.

I also added a yellow stripe down the center of my red bench.

Just a little yellow stripe really peps up the bench.

I really hoped to do some rearranging in the back yard

to move this bench from the front yard.

I want to make a bench cushion for the bench and create a look like this bench I saw at American Home & Garden.

But, I ran out of time.

I can complain that I don't have time

OR

I can "Accentuate the Positive' and tell myself it will be a fun project for the quarter break in October.

With a positive attitude, we are off to dinner at a seaside restaurant with old friends who are visiting.

It doesn't get much better than this!

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I am linked up at
Lavender Garden Cottage - Cottage Style Linky Party

My 1929 Charmer  Sunday's Best

Sunny Simple Sunday

Life in an Art Gallery

My house is ALWAYS neat.

It is not always clean.

We do our best, but a dog ( who believes the house is hers and we are her guests) and sand make it hard to maintain.

Steve's studio is in our home and that means a patron might drop in at any time.

Potential customers and limited space in our cottage require us to maintain order.

Last week 20 women from a Los Angeles art group dropped by with just a day's notice.

Today Steve had visitors stopping in to select 15 paintings for an art show at an investment bank.

I was at school getting my classroom ready while Steve was home prepping the studio and bringing out art that was tucked away in the attic and garage.

I came home to the table set with gifts.

Steve set out wine with his artwork for his visitors along with 

canvas bags from the Ventura Visitor's Center sporting one of his paintings.

He placed paintings on easels in the garden

and moved paintings around in the house.

The mantel had a painting of the beach when I left this morning

and now it has a painting of the mission.

A painting of the garden was over my chair

and now Father Serra presides.

In two weeks, it will all change again when 15 paintings leave the house and Steve changes the look in every room to fill in vacated spaces.

The cows in the dining room were just selected by one of the LA visitors so that wall will be changing soon.

Living in an art gallery is an adventure.

And, that is a good thing.

Because the house is always 'picked up', cleaning is quick and I have time for projects.

The wood cabinet next to the chair is tomorrow's project.

Next time you see the cabinet, it will be white.

And, most likely a different painting will hang over the chair.