Beach to Boudoir

I have felt a little lost with the look of my Blog for a while now,it has not represented what i have felt i am all about so i have changed the layout and softened the whole look....i still have my pink with my blog title and matching cursor stars and i can have my pictures nice and large which i like as i was spoiled by Steve with a Canon g12 for my birthday earlier in the year.

I am also now on Twitter,i think you can show a  day to day side there and interact more which i am looking forward to and you can join me by clicking on the Twitter logo on the left of my page....

When reading the words 'Shabbily By The Sea' most people would expect a coastal blog,thing is we still live inland and are not moving to our beach cottage until the Summer 2012 and this really frustrates me as i want to go now and blog about our life at the beach as well as the things i create,well in a few days we will be able to say we are moving to the coast THIS year! and then  my blog will be very much more coastal as that is where i am my happiest and feel myself.
We have lots of plans for a vegetable garden and an outdoor fireplace,this is after we have finished the beach cottage,it will be a kind of on going story of our dream home and the life we want to live.


I was talking to Steve last night about how i felt there are two sides to my blog,one side being the white,pale rose and beach cottage and the other the pink boudoir feathery side and how i thought they didn't mix as most coastal blogs are just coastal and themed and i have a love of pink and vintage.

It is easy as a blogger to find an area that is popular and run with it but i don't want to have a blog where i can only post a certain style or theme,you can soon trap yourself and i  want to be free to post what makes me happy or something i have created or a place we have visited....


one side of me will paint and distress a fireplace and dress it simple.......

and the other pink side will dress a Christmas tree in pink shabby roses.......

After talking to Steve for ages and explaining how i felt about my blog he said "well you are beach and boudoir and things in between" light bulb moment! i loved it Steve had brought my blog together for me and for the first time to me my blog made sense.........


I popped this vignette together so from left to right........

 

Shabbily By The Sea  can now be 'From Beach to Boudoir and everything in between'

Thank You Steve XxX


See you on Twitter?




The End XxX

Lace Baubles

The lovely Niki from Nostalgia At The Stone House had taken this picture below and posted it on her other blog Nostalgia At The Stone House-My Creations which is a beautiful archive of all her handmade creations.......i had seen these lace baubles and cooed over how beautiful they were to Steve telling him how i wished they were mine.......

When the postman handed me a box yesterday i was a little puzzled as i had not been expecting anything,well when i opened the box and looked under the tissue the beautiful lace baubles i had seen on Niki's blog were sat sparkling right before my very eyes,i actually cried because i was so touched and it really has made my Christmas special,thank you Niki so very much for such a lovely thought and gift that i will treasure always xxx

Inside was a postcard and the pretty picture was taken from Niki's Nostalgia Calenders and it stars on the month of October,we had chatted about the calender during our emails and we had both declared it was our favorite,so sweet of her to remember and to add to my already wonderful gift....i began finding a home for my lace baubles.....

It was hard to fit them on my Christmas tree as it was so full so i hung them from the chandelier and they looked lovely sparkling with my pale pink 1920's feather boa........

I have a tray of glasses waiting to be glamoured with glitter and greenery before our guests arrive Christmas Eve so i popped them in my pink wine glasses........

Squeezed them on my Christmas tree,how gorgeous do they look? they look so old and Victorian i am in love......

I thought they would look beautiful on an all white tree and then i remembered the faux German feather tree i had bought last year and searched high and low in the attic until i found it.......

Draped in lace with a feather top all soft in white how pretty  would this be in our bedroom.....

For Niki.....
Fair be your days that come and go,
I write these lines to let you know
That greetings fond and wishes true
Dear heart,all these i wish for you.

taken from a postcard of good cheer,1900.
 

Tonight i will dream of Christmas Eve and a White Christmas just like dreamers do....thanking Niki for making one of my wishes come true......

Sweet Dreams for me and sweet dreams for you too,
If my wish came true then i pray your wish will too.

The End XxX

Shabby Rose Christmas Tree

All covered in snow and pale pink roses our shabby rose Christmas tree.......

Real trees are so expensive this year so we decide on a  faux snow flocked tree,she will look so pretty next year at the beach cottage....

I used faux roses  and rose garlands i have from around the home and glass baubles,ribbons,crystals and lights from years gone by.......


Christmas Rose this Christmas Morn
Methinks i hear thee softly say
"In Bethlehem a Child was born
Who bled to take my thorn away!"
Hence musing thus through Earthly bowers
Oh,let us look from them to those
Where shines the King~the flower of flowers~
The great~the one true CHRISTMAS ROSE!

~From a Christmas postcard 1884~

Christmas Heart

Winter skies and Christmas Eve is upon us.......' A Merry Christmas to one and all!'

Oh please snow for Christmas

Snowy branches with velvet and gold

Remember Squinting your eyes as a child?

A Christmas Cottage

A Faux Christmas tree makes it a little more friendly for a certain someone's little paws.......

A pair of glass swans with feather headdresses sit at the top for a touch of glamour......

Is it time for Christmas?.........i think so.........

A sweet poem for you my dear readers..........

Good night,dear little dreamers,
May visions fair and bright 
Of Santa Claus and Christmas
Bring joy to you this night;
May angels guard your slumbers
Till the dawn of light.

Charles L.Hutchins,1916



The End XxX

I am joining White Wednesday At Faded Charm

Shabbily A Place In Time

Pom Pom and i would love to welcome you to our new old home 'Shabbily'.....

You can visit any time you wish by clicking on the picture of us on the right in the sidebar and follow our journey as we renovate and furnish our home which we simply call 'Shabbily' our very own place in time....

The End XxX

Beach Cottage Update

Update of the beach cottage after some requests in comments and email....

We are doing all the work ourselves on weekends and we are happy with how it is taking shape although we still have a lot of work to do.

There was a brown wood fence around the garden when we first arrived and i quickly painted it white and then we added the rose arch this Summer and i cleared the garden and trimmed the hedges....

Steve made a gate and hand cut all the palins to transform it into a picket fence,it stops our little dogs getting out and makes the house look a little prettier until we have the outside shingled and new windows,as you can see we don't have one window that matches at the moment.....

The hallway was  disgusting and covered in nicotine....it looked like this......

Everything was torn out and it now looks like this......

We are going to be fitting new floor boards on top of the old ones and painting the floors throughout white once we have finished and then we will fit the skirting boards too......below the old door covered in nicotine........

They have been dipped and stripped and are now hung and primed white,so much better,they are not perfect but i like the knocked corners and bumps here and there...we are having clear glass cut for them as the old glass was patterned,i dream of hanging lace up at each one.....

Looking into the old white room with it's walls now painted in Eau de ciel...the Sunroom beyond is the next room to be tackled and insulated,it's south facing and happily lives up to it's name.....

A little porch at one end of the hallway was removed....

To reveal this space,it must have been built for warmth as the house has no central heating....well my love is a Gas engineer so all that will change soon......you can see the space we gained at the side of the door on the left of the picture it makes the doorway look more central and not squashed into the corner.....

We are not keeping this front doorway and decided to block it up as we have two front doors......

A pretty little cast iron fireplace was given to us and after we scraped all the old paint off and repainted it white we built a false wall and cut a hole for the fireplace,it is just stood until the floors are fitted.....so much nicer than that old door way i think,the bedroom door on the left will be our bathroom and the shower room door on the right will become our washroom......

We were amazed how much detail there was hiding underneath the thick layers of paint,i am going to fill the grate with conch shells......

The fireplace as it was originally.........

After we knocked everything down,it was so satisfying!

Last weekend as it is now with its paneled wall and exposed brick wall and timber ceiling......

I painted the Mantel and paneling over and over until i was happy with how it looked and then sanded and  chipped it all over...the rest of the room is full of tools and has our airbed in the middle but i didn't want to scare you with reality so we will just look at the candles and say ahhhhhh ;).......

I love candle light it makes white walls look like it has just snowed........

I found this Arthur Wood flower bowl in a local charity shop for £3.00 and it's huge, i can't wait to fill it with flowers from my cottage garden.......

I really like the fire when all the ash is piled underneath like an old Victorian period drama but Steve always cleans it up :)  after working all day it had piled nicely as we just walk in and out throwing logs on to keep us warm and i quickly snapped this picture......

I can't believe i am showing you this but welcome to my Boudoir or bedroom as some people call them ;) every room we have done so far has looked like this at first so i am not fazed but oh dear its not pretty is it?.........you can see the scaffolding outside the window......

So there we have the Beach Cottage so far......


I will be back with pretty pictures of our Christmas tree and my sewing room....



The End XxX