Putting All My Eggs in One Basket

Today is another beautiful day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the waves are lapping the shoreline, so life is good indeed!

I've been so motivated by this early spring weather that I've started to pull out my spring decor, including a few Easter decorations.

I don't have many of these lovely alabaster eggs, but I treasure the ones I do have because they once belonged to my mother.  She had a much larger collection, but my sisters and I divvied them up when we cleaned out the house.


 

I should probably keep my eye out for some more, but for now I'm happy with the ones I got to bring home because of their sentimental value.  My mom always displayed these in her formal living room and I can remember picking them up when I was younger and thinking how heavy they were and how delicate they seemed all at the same time.

They seem happy in my little French wire egg basket.

The white one has always been a favorite of mine, it just seems so simple and elegant.

But my real favorite is this blue one, it just says springtime to me.  Every year when I bring these eggs out of hiding I am reminded of my mother and that spring cannot be far away.  But most years it's very chilly when I gently place them somewhere in my house, and spring seems like a distant possibility.  With temps soaring into the 70s today there is little doubt that spring has sprung...which makes me happy to put all of my eggs into one basket on this fine day!

And speaking of eggs, did you know that my friend Grace has a photo of her wonderful Ukrainian egg collection in the latest issue of Ladies Home Journal?!  Check it out here, and just know that I didn't do anything to help her, she just takes wonderful photos!  Way to go girl!

A Little Bit of Everything

Sometimes when I go to play with an image I have a clear cut vision of the end product.  I would say that about 90% of the time this is true and I can see the finished product before I even begin, but there is still that other 10% of the time when I just go in blind and hope for the best.

When I photographed some Ranunculus I picked up last weekend, I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go picture wise, but I did know that I wanted a soft aqua paired with the pale pink of the flowers.  Usually I like to keep things simple, but for whatever reason, tonight I threw in a little bit of everything, including using some script brushes I bought from FK Textures.  At first I wasn't sure I liked it, but after a bit I decided that sometimes throwing in everything but the kitchen sink makes for a more interesting image.

I've heard through the grapevine that people are stealing other people's images and claiming them as their own...such a shame.  So from now on I will be doing more elaborate watermarks and only posting very low res images.  It makes me sad to think that I have to do this, but with things like Pinterest it appears that those of us who make our living from creating artwork,  need to watch our backs and protect our images.  I have no problem with someone pinning something I post, in fact I love it, but only when they give full credit on mine or anyone else's work.  I try my best to do this on anything I pin as well, though I'm sure we all have a few images that we can't nail down the original photographer or artist, but I would never pretend they were my own work.

Well that's enough blathering for one evening, I hope you all have a very Happy Tuesday!

Shake it Up

Be yourself, decorate with the things you love, find the joy...shake it up and live a little!

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!

Queen of Cashmere

Oh how I wish this could be my title, but my cashmere attire and home accessories are woefully lacking in my house at the moment...but not for long I hope!  Thanks to fellow blogger, Let The Tide Pull Your Dreams Ashore, my cashmere dreams may be coming true very soon!

Pop over to her blog to see the beautiful cashmere pillow from Queen of Cashmere that she is giving away!

Isn't it stunning, and can't you just imagine how soft it must be?  It comes in lots of luscious colors and if you win, you'll even get to choose two of these wonderful colors for your very own personalized pillow!

Since my bedroom walls are already turquoise/aqua, I think I might have to pick White and Sea-Shore for my two colors, hmm or  maybe White and Golden Sun...oh this could be hard, they're all so pretty, but orange and turquoise are all the rage right now!  It's going to look so pretty between my two seashell shams, and I've been looking for just the right pillow to place in that spot!

Oh sorry, I was daydreaming a little...stop listening to me ramble and get on over to Let the Tide Pull Your Dreams Ashore so you can ponder which color would look best in your home!  Don't forget to check out her entire blog while you're there!