Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

You bring the Seafood...

....and I'll bring the rest.  Cause restins about all I can dooo....on my stay vay-cay-shuuunnnn!


Sounds like the beginning of sad ole country song doesn't it?  Haha, I thought so too.  No worries, dreamer friends, this post and the beautiful summer tablescape I have set to join some of my friends over at Tablescape Thursday promises to be anything but sad.


  True to my pen name, I am dreaming, dreaming, dreaming of the beach though.  This is the first year we have not booked a vacation in I don't know how long!  We decided not to make any plans because we've got one son doing an out of state internship for the summer (in very pricey downtown Atlanta) and another who has made a very hard earned recent job change.  This summers scenario made for a very difficult family vacation plan to come together.  Additionally, with me not working and being at home again it seemed like a good year to cut out that one big expense.  You see we are beach people, those local SC people who as close as we are, still have to go to the beach prime season despite that it's the hottest, busiest and most expensive time of the year.  But not this year, and while I am missing those beautiful waves it's actually also feeling like a bit of relief.   So don't be sad for me because I do have a beautiful boat on the lake just a stones throw away, a pool in my backyard, and time at home to enjoy it this year. Who knows maybe we will catch a weekend down there at some point.  Life is still pretty darn good here you know, in fact it's really pretty awesome! I am so thankful!


   I have been enjoying my beachy decorations quite a bit more this year since I've been missing the ocean.   It's so fun to have a beachy attitude.    I also really enjoyed putting together this beachy tablescape in "The Mermaid Lounge", and I hope you'll enjoy it too.  So enough of the chit chatting and woes me, let's get beachin gals!



Welcome to Mermaid Lounge!  It's ever evolving and has just received a few more shifts of furniture this week.  The table got moved over to make room for the bakers rack which meant the chandy had to move too.  It's always in progress out here!



There was one single element on this table that inspired the setting.  I will get back to that in a bit if you don't figure it out first but I'll give you a hint.  It has a lot to do with the location.  Heehe!



One of my most favorite things about tablescaping is when you start off with a bit of inspiration that just leads from one element to the next.  That's how this one came together for me.  It was so exciting to have everything I needed right in my cabinets to pull it all together.



I knew right away somehow I was going to use my iridescent oyster plates.  I just had no idea it was all going to pull together so well until it was all done.



I started off with two layers of placemats to add a bit more texture and color.  I then added the white shell embossed dinner plates bought from a thrift store a few years back.



Then I decided to add my blue and green swirl melamine luncheon plates.  I can't recall right off the bat where I purchased these but will add it later if I remember.



Finally, it was time to top it off with the beautiful iridescent oyster plates purchased several years ago from either TJ Maxx or Marshalls.  They were sold as a set of four.  I have seen these in many different colors over the years but still love the clear ones I got because it reminds me so much of shells and beach glass.



I started thinking the plate looked like it need a little something and since I had no seafood, I then remembered I have these beautiful silver pickling forks maybe?  IDK!  Anyway, I thought they would be so cute as an oyster fork.  They have our initial on the back because they are part of many pieces of silver from both sides of our family that were engraved and handed down to us.  It's a southern thing, yes, and it's true, I did come into monogramming very naturally.





For my flatware, I knew my bubbly looking, hammered stainless was going to perfect.



I am especially thrilled to finally be able to pull out these glasses I've had for years.  The bubble glass tea with multi colors on the bottom came from Stein Mart.  Kinda looks like a coral reef doesn't it?  Well, maybe if your a dreamer like me you'll see it.  Haha!



My stems are also blown glass with embossed shells in a teal blue.  So refreshing!



The little vintage mermaid fits in perfectly don't you think?  I love her sweet little self  with her adorable little headband.  I thought the rope styled napkin ring pulled it all together even more for me, don't you?  Yes, you think so too, don't you?




  And because you all are so smart I bet you already guessed that this adorable little Mermaid was my inspiration.  I know you did!  If you follow either of my FB pages or my Instagram page you already knew because I shared this adorable set of napkins with everyone as soon as I made them.  That's right, I stitched this out myself on my machine.  I am still stitching away and enjoying it so much.  I've added lots of lighter weight and smaller designs to my collections for linens.  I am doing embroidery for others now as well.  Because I am enjoying my embroidery so much is part of the reason why I have been so absent on the blog here lately.  It's all good though.  If you'd like to follow along on either of my Facebook pages, just click on the links here at:


and/or


 Please make sure you LIKE the page when you get there so you will get my updates.  If your interested in anything yous see on those pages, send me a message if I can help you.   You can also find me on Instagram and Pinterest too as The Decorative Dreamer.








I stalled for just a small bit on the centerpiece because my space was so limited on this smaller sized table.  Then I remembered I had this very tall stem glass my son gave me when he worked at Home Goods one summer while in school.  After I had the stem in place, I remembered several other pieces and then it came together so fast.



I even had everything I needed on hand to fill the stem.  Well, okay it's not quite filled but its just enough.  I layered a bag of white sand, then a few shells, sea glass and more shells.  The shells were a bag from Stein Mart a few years back and the sand and sea glass were from the dollar tree.



My old ceramic beachy S&P shakers from when we had our camper are still so adorable.



The willow basket candle holders were from Wisteria several years back and were the perfect heights for the sides of the tall stem.  I pulled out the clear glass that is usually inside of them and added my mercury glass jars for extra shine in between the wood.




  And here it is, and that is how it all came together!




 Thanks so much for stopping by today and if your feeling kinda beachy and you'd like to bring some seafood...well, come on over!


I hope you all are having a wonderful summer!  If you happen to have a moment I'd love to hear from you too!


Hugs and Waves!



 

Friday, October 5, 2012

Our visit to Tybee Island

Hey yall! How's life treating ya?  Mine has been pretty busy and about to get even busier (the life of a retailer) so I am so glad I got to get away for a nice little vacation recently.  If you follow my blog you already know that my husband and I finally got to visit Tybee Island and Savannah, Georgia.  I have been wanting to go here for a few years now.

I recently promised to share a few photos from my trip so here they are.
Here I am standing (smirking) in our cute and cozy little condo for two!  

Rarely do I share pictures of myself but since I was all gussied up and ready to go to dinner this night I thought these would be okay to share.

We were going to Uncle Bubba's (Paula Deen's brother) restaurant for dinner this night.

This was the view off our balcony.  It wasn't Ocean Front but was Ocean View. 

We stayed on the north end of Tybee Island.  It's the end that feeds into the Savannah River.

It's also the end of the beach where the boats occasionally come by.  This was a shrimp boat that came by and parked close in for awhile.

We sat back in our beach chairs every evening to enjoy watching the dolphins play.  I've never seen so many dolphins in one area regularly.  They even jumped up high doing back flips a few times.  It was so fun to see them!

Here are a few more random shots of the North shore at Tybee.






There were a few beautiful homes on the North shore.  I love how they did not look like the typical beach homes you see on the coast.

Check out this door to the beach!  


On our first full day at Tybee we went downtown to the South beach area to check it out.



Lot's of Oceanfront condos with public parking in the front, but it's not free. Be prepared to pay everywhere for parking on Tybee. LOL!



Here are a few shots of the pier at Tybee.




We also decided to do a little walking around the furthermost point of Tybee on the South end to check out the homes.

There is quite a variety of styles.


I just love this little scene I spied through the trees...

...and this one over the fence.

There were so many attractive beach homes both old and new.

And so many colorful ones too!

The next day we toured the riverfront at Savannah which is only about 15 to 20 minutes away.



Here is a  memorial statue of the waving girl who was often seen waving the ships in.

My yacht! Haha!  I wish!  But seriously, this was one big beautiful boat!

We had lunch here outside on the upstairs patio at Tubbie's.  It was delicious!

Then we returned back to the condo just in time to  catch a glimpse of a barge ship passing by...

..and to soak my tired feet in the ocean just before sunset.


I see a Mermaid in this photo, do you?

What a gorgeousness beach and weekend!

 I hope you enjoyed our visit to Tybee Island as much as we did.  My husband actually enjoyed Savannah just so much that he wants to return again to check out the rest of the city in more detail.  There's so much to see there you can't possibly do it all in one day.  I give both these locations a big thumbs up!

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!