Roses and Seashells

If you were ever to visit my home you would be sure to find two things...

Roses (when they are blooming)...and Seashells (all year long).

Some things just go together, don't you agree?! :)

Shells for Christmas

No words today...well these are words, but you know what I mean.  It's my birthday, I'm 29...again!!!...and my dear husband bought me a new toy to use on my camera, so I'm off to try it out!  I hope you enjoy these shots of my Hepplewhite chest all decked out for Christmas!

 

Oh, a few more words...thank you for all of your wonderful comments about my kitchen windowsill, and my other coastal themed decor from my last few posts!  Have a wonderful day!

A Coastal Cottage Christmas Sneak Peek

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments, not just on my last post, but on every post!  You are my inspiration!  When I visit your blogs, stop by your Pinterest sites, or get your emails I find myself striving to try new things, expand my horizons, and just be a better person...so thank you!

And speaking of getting emails, the email gremlins struck again this week.  I know I sound like I'm beating a dead horse, but it's gone from just being annoying to really affecting my work and lifestyle!  Apparently a friend sent us an email inviting us to a Christmas party this evening, and if they hadn't texted me last night asking if we would be coming, we would have missed it completely...ugh!  So dear email, you can mess with a lot of things but I'm putting you on notice that you better not mess with my social life by losing party invites!!!

So, on to a sneak peek of my kitchen Christmas decor.  Like I said, this year will be simple, and I've coined the term Coastal Cottage Christmas for the look.  Oh heck, I'm sure someone else coined that phrase, but I'm going with it.  Mr. Tide and I stopped by a friend's house last night, and as we chatted about how as you get older you sometimes lose your gumption to put stuff out, we all decided that less truly is more for us these days.  I noticed that she too had embraced a simpler style of decor and her house was warm, cozy and beautiful!

As you can tell by the photos of my kitchen windowsill, this year will be a little less dazzling, not like in years past, which you can see by clicking HERE and HERE.  Still, I'm loving the natural elements, the pops of turquoise, which will be a theme found throughout my holiday decor this year.  And I'm not completely done with the windowsill yet, I will be adding a few votives so that I have a bit of dancing light up there in the evenings, just not the twinkle of Christmas lights like in years past.


 

I also managed to get a few greens and two big beautiful wreaths from a local Mennonite family yesterday.  I love, love, love the smell of fresh greens and can't wait to incorporate even more around the house over the next few days.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing more pictures of my house during this year's holiday season, so stay tuned.

Looks like I'm on track, on budget, and still completely out of my mind...which is as it should be! ;-)

I hope you each have a wonderful week, and keep those inspirational posts coming!

Black and White

Remember as a child, everything seemed so cut and dry, black and white so to speak?  You knew the general rhythm of things, adults took care of the scary or difficult stuff so that all you had to do was play or maybe do a little homework and some chores.  For those of us with happy childhoods, that was how life went day to day.

Right now I have two friends, both of their names start with the letter "J," and for them life is not so black and white.  Life has become infinite shades of gray as both of them are fighting, and thankfully winning their war against cancer.  One is newly diagnosed, while the other friend has been undergoing treatment for quite some time now.

I hate cancer and all that it requires both mentally and physically!  Yet as the bystander, all I can do is let them know how much I care and to give them some support.  It's not much, and I wish there was more I could do, like wave a magic wand.  But some things just aren't that easy once you are all grown up.

Wishing you all a very calm weekend, and if you haven't told someone in your life how much you love them lately, please do...it will mean the world to both of you!

Plum Tired

I'm so glad my vintage camera post brought back fond memories for some of you.  Isn't it funny how you can see, smell, taste, or even feel something and those memories will come flooding back in an instant...the brain is miraculous that way!

And Kelly J, I've never noticed Loic's collection of vintage cameras at Cafe Des Artistes (which is a lovely little French restaurant located in Leonardtown), I will have to look for them next time I dine there!

I woke up at 4:45 AM this morning...don't ask me why...and I couldn't go back to sleep!  I hate it when that happens, sleep is my very good friend.   I need more than 4 hours and 45 minutes of shut eye...I didn't go to bed until the bewitching hour last night.

While I was playing around with actions and textures on these photos tonight, Mr. Tide tried to convince me that I had already posted them.  And I'm so tired that I actually thought he was right...but he was imagining things.  It's ok though, because he's ever so slowly cracking on the whole "no puppy" rule!

I had fun playing with different textures, but finally my eyes grew weary and I knew it was time to just call it a day!

I'm WAY far behind on my blog reading, house cleaning, laundry, but I will get caught up on all of that after I've had a little more shut eye tonight.  Right now I'm just plum tired and so I will bid you all adieu for the evening and wish you a happy Thursday, which is always a happy day because it means we are all that much closer to the weekend.   Bonne nuit a tous!