coastal — pleasure in simple things

Tag: coastal

‘beeing’ creative with clam shells

April

I have a love/hate relationship with bees. I am a gardener, so I love bees from a nature perspective. And, honey happens to be my sweetener of choice. But for all the good bees may do, some of them are extremely annoying! I have a major issue with carpenter bees at my house – they drive me crazy this time of year! And, a bee almost killed my favorite little puppy when he got stung in the throat by one! So, there is that!

Putting all the bad feelings aside, I know many people who keep bees and, who doesn’t love a good bee motif?

After I created some of the double clam shell decoupaged pieces from the last post, I started playing around with some of the single ones and created a set of shells as a gift for a bee lover.

I made a couple shells with bee designs and created a hanging shell as well to create a nice trio of ‘bee’ shells! (FYI: clam shells are much tougher to drill through than oyster shells! I forgot just how tough!)

I am happy with how these clam shells turned out and I am looking forward to creating some cute packaging for the set!

I think I may continue with my shell creations for a time – especially now that beach walks are more frequent with the milder weather!

Thanks for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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no labor day 2019

September

How was your holiday weekend? I did work some of the weekend. Here in Connecticut we had a pretty good weather weekend. Yesterday was a bit of a crazy weather day, but I guess that was because of all the stormy weather approaching.

I went down to the water in the afternoon to see if Dorian had impacted anything here. The rain kept coming and going, but the water wasn’t rough.

The beaches were pretty empty because of the weather – even though they were open for the holiday weekend.

I included a few photos as a tribute to summer of 2019!

I hope you had a great weekend! Enjoy the (summer!) week ahead.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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creations in the sand

August

I love checking out sandcastle contests at this time of year! One of the great things about living on the coast in Connecticut is that it is easy to find one!

Today for Friday field trip, I am sharing a few of my favorite sand creations from a recent contest. It was not easy to edit my photos to post just a few sand sculptures, but it was easy to pick my favorite!

There were plenty of wonderful creations, but the couch design was my personal fave! Isn’t it great?

The best part of this Christmas in July themed creation was probably the music! The creators played the Hawaiian Christmas Song (Mele Kulilkimaka) during the judging! I had the Christmas classic by Bing Crosby stuck in my head for at least a week after the contest!

Namaste!

Some of the animals looked really great…

And, insects as well!

Maybe I have inspired you to play in the sand a little bit this weekend? I hope so! Have a great one!

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on creations in the sand | field trips, sand & sea

sea glass spray paint

June

We have all made sea glass looking jars from glue, water, and some food coloring – haven’t we? If you haven’t, please don’t even try it! There is a new sea glass spray paint that makes this process so much quicker and so much less of a mess! The effect is created, literally, in seconds -and dries almost as fast. It is possible to transform your entire recycling bin of bottles in mere minutes!

I actually had an empty recycling bin when I decided to demonstrate this new Krylon spray paint, so I made a quick trip to the dollar store. I found some great looking bottles for this exercise and sprayed some to use as table numbers – a fun way to dress up party tables! After spraying, I just added numbers.Of course, there are tons of ways to use the bottles once they are painted! Like…making labels to add to a bottle – easy to do with a home computer!

Because I ended up buying bottles from the dollar store, they are all the same size and shape, but the beauty of using this paint is that you can create a cohesive grouping of bottles by simply painting a variety of shapes and sizes all in the same color.

This Krylon sea glass paint is available in more colors than you probably have sea glass! They include lemon, aqua, ice, cornflower, rose, sea foam, ruby, and amber. Of course, though I didn’t use it for this exercise, ice is probably my favorite! Yes, white is my favorite color in sea glass!

Here is an example of the amber color paint. I used it on a clear glass candlestick. When I put some of my brown sea glass next to the painted candlestick, look how similar they appear!

I hope I have inspired you to create something fun of your own in your favorite sea glass color using Krylon spray paint!

P.S. For an evening party, battery operated lights in bottles are a nice addition. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on sea glass spray paint | diy, inspiration, sand & sea

visiting dana point

June

This week, on Friday field trip, I am sharing some of my gorgeous hotel views from my short stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point while on the West Coast! I was so very lucky to have the opportunity to stay at this awesome hotel for a work assignment.

Named after ‘east coaster’ Richard Henry Dana, Jr., author of the book Two Years before the Mast, Dana Point was the spot used by film producer Bruce Brown for the 1966 surfing documentary Endless Summer. (Music buffs may recognize the title as the same as the film’s theme song by The Sandals.)

I was up at 5:00 am for workouts during my stay at the Ritz, and local surfers were already dotting the shoreline and providing some great entertainment for those of us interested in being spectators while enjoying an amazing ocean view!

The views also made for wonderful al fresco dining!

The sprawling footprint of the hotel optimizes its expansive ocean views. Believe me, my photos do not do the view justice, but I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel – Southern Orange County at its finest!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a wonderful weekend and remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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coastal in newport, ri

May

Earlier this week, I shared some of the wedding details from the Newport, RI wedding I recently attended. Today, for Friday field trip, I am sharing some of the coastal décor details from my stay at the Newport Marriott.

The photos above and below are details from the bed headboard.

The painting hanging on the bathroom wall created the feeling of a porthole.

The restaurant booths:

The nautical themed art work was not limited to the bathrooms – there were plenty of pieces throughout the hotel.

This light fixture was created from a collection of bottles.

Loved the numbers on the back of the balcony chairs!

The use of ropes was a constant throughout. Here are a couple additional examples:

Maybe you have been inspired to create a couple of your own coastal touches? Maybe from rope?

Thanks for stopping by! Have a really marvelous holiday weekend and remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on coastal in newport, ri | inspiration, sand & sea, style

coastal party favors

May

Friends, you know how much I embrace a good theme – particularly a coastal one! SO, you can really appreciate today’s post!

I was recently challenged to create Mother’s Day favors for a party celebrating a group of moms on the California coast. Exciting! This is the type of project I love! I am super excited to show you the results of this project!

First, I got a Connecticut artisan to create my vision of a coastal themed, zippered, canvas bag. I wanted to have a really great bag and find something related to my theme to tuck inside to make it extra special.

I had imagined a metallic anchor on the front of the bags, and I got just that! How perfect are these?! And, the anchor printed lining couldn’t be any cuter!

What did I choose to tuck inside these custom creations? I first decided on some candy beach stones and packaged them in round glass-topped tins.

Next, I added an anchor shaped bookmark – a great item to have for beach reads!

As a way to utilize the new bookmarks, large baskets of gently used paperbacks in various notable titles were part of the party décor for moms to grab on their way to the beach. Fun!

I hope I have inspired you to create some themed favors of your own for your next celebration.

If you have a vision for your own design and want to contact the artisan I used, check out Ralph & Martha on Facebook!

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on coastal party favors | gift ideas, inspiration, sand & sea, style

valentine mini fish shortbreads

January

If you follow me on social media, you know my mini fish cookie cutter got a workout during the holidays! From using it to make the mini rosemary shortbreads that I make each Christmas to creating a baked brie pastry garnish, the poor little thing put in overtime!

Now that the holidays are over, the sweet little cookie cutter is still helping out – it gave me my first Valentine’s Day inspiration for 2016! Why not make some of the mini shortbreads for Valentine’s Day? A cute fish pun would be perfect to use in the packaging and the cookies can be made ahead since they store so well in the freezer!

So, for today’s Friday field trip, I am sharing my first Valentine’s Day gift idea. Rosemary shortbreads are super easy to create – just add fresh rosemary to shortbread cookies. Voila! A sophisticated little cookie!

If you need a shortbread recipe, I included one here, but your favorite one would work just as well.

For the Valentine’s message, I just created a quick and easy label using my home printer and a corny pun. Cute, right?

I hope I have inspired you to create some fun Valentine’s Day treats! I have more Valentine treat packaging ideas to come and I will be sharing some printables in a future post for those of you that might not like creating your own labels.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on valentine mini fish shortbreads | diy, food & festivities, gift ideas, sand & sea

seas & greetings

December

Merry Christmas dear friends!

My wish for you is to be surrounded by those you love. The very best of the season to you!

And, remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie xo

2 comments » | holiday, inspiration, sand & sea

putting it all together

December

I have started to wrap gifts and I am having some real fun – using beach totes, wicker baskets, and wooden trays to package and display gifts for my sea glass themed holiday! I thought I would take a few quick minutes to show you how I am incorporating the things I have been making and sharing with you.

Remember the crab on the gift tag from this post? He is looking good with my sea glass colored dotted wrapping paper. :) And, the feather I made in this post is looking great with it as well!

The bottle labels I shared in this post are exactly what I needed to make the wine bottles for my table – as well as the ones I am giving as gifts – look right on theme!

You can see that the sea glass tags I shared in this post look great as well!

That is how I used some of my creations! I so do love a good theme – and, it is so fun when everything starts coming together! I have plenty more to do as I continue with my wrapping! I will try and share more photos to Instagram and Facebook as I continue. How are you doing with your wrapping?

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on putting it all together | diy, holiday, inspiration

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Tag: coastal

‘beeing’ creative with clam shells

no labor day 2019

creations in the sand

sea glass spray paint

visiting dana point

coastal in newport, ri

coastal party favors

valentine mini fish shortbreads

seas & greetings

putting it all together