I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Sunday, June 27, 2010

Beach Umbrellas

my creative space








Yay! I sent my quilt top off today!



Well, packed it up with reams of surely superfluous instructions. It will actually go to the post office in the morning. I am pleased that I finished it before July 1st though I had hoped to have it off  to the quilter by June 1st.
Oh well...no deadlines here at the beach except for those I chose to try for.


I have a new quilter! I am sure [fingers crossed, hopeful smile :-) ] I have found a kindred soul in Tina, in North Carolina.... at GotYouCovered
 
So here's the plan:

The thread will be lime green...


The main design will be beachy! (LOL! What else?) This is my fav:





Or...?:


this and the next 2 designs are from: Debra Geissler  [no copyright infringement intended; used only to share both quilting resources' lovely designs!]

And the borders will have flipflop garlands :



with Mr. Sunshine corners! How cute is that?



Not sure what the binding will be...I have a great fruit salad-y colored woven plaid in my stash. Or I might get this:


Or maybe a boardshorts-style Hawaiian?


I can't wait! 

PS You can read about the designing of Beach Umbrellas here.l

love

                  lizzy



gone to the beach.....

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Saturday Treasures.....


my creative space

See my creative space at the Beach!
enjoy.
Thanks and hugs
to all
who have
visited me.





Usually on a summer Saturday I head right to the beach!

But it was hot and sultry and a new church sale sign ---Antiques! Crafts! Hot Dogs!--- lured me to the curb. It was that word: "antiques" that got me.

NO antiques though, unless you count the sno-cone guy's truck.

Lotta junkola and tie-dyed sundresses. And whoever decided new windows and storm doors or investment brokers and AFLAC insurance were "crafts"?

But a nice lady had a shady booth with a pretty selection of faux, very faux Pandora beads....

I thought her idea of packaging the beads in little condiment tubs was really creative! And she then put the tub in a black organdy tiny bag...so cute!


Only a dollar each, and the rare starfish and seashells that Pandora doesn't make.


Sure they'll  probably turn black soon, but easy to change, the beauty of Pandora beads/ bracelets.


BBQ  and fireworks tonight. It's summer at the Beach! Yay!


Hope you all have a great weekend!

PS More Cape Cod fun pix and story coming soon....shopping! And a very special house and herb garden.

love

                       lizzy

         ......gone to the beach


Friday, June 25, 2010

Cape Cod Part One



pls click above for link to My Creative Space
[maybe leftclick for link? It is post June 18, 2010]



"You're sure to fall in love with
olde Cape Cod...la-la-la."
I'm never sure what the appeal is, but somehow Cape Cod has a magic that draws me back each summer.

This year, since my parents are gone now, we stayed at the lovely Ocean Edge Resort, in Brewster. http://www.oceanedge.com/ An exceptional stay, especially dinner at sunset on a balcony terrace overlooking moonlit Cape Cod Bay. Another great dinner at Joe's Grill at Barley Neck Inn, near Nauset Beach. This fun tavern has great food and a lively atmosphere, housed in an authentic 1800's seafarers' inn.

Cape Cod is one of those rather strange beach vacation places where you could stay for a month (or twenty years!) and never find or see the ocean. Sadly, the water is rarely visible and the beaches are hidden and narrow, with pebble-y shores and coarse sand. Lucky for me I know how to wind past Six Penny Lane, up Saltworks Road, past Paine's Creek to tiny but special Robbin's Hill Beach. We call it Liz's beach, after my mother who loved it so....

This is the first summer we've been in Brewster without a Jeep bearing Cape & Islands license plates and resident beach, yacht club, and dump stickers. But I found out, playing tourist, that we could park there after 3 PM.
Since Cape Cod's shores are so hidden one's eyes turn inland to the charming narrow roads and lanes...

which, in June, are edged by incredible banks of field flowers...yellow and orange lilies, Russian sage, painted daisies, lavender, roses of every kind,usually pink. Grass so green it hurts your eyes!

 And it seems every single greyshingled house is the backdrop for glorious blue hyrangeas.



Blues like I have never seen elsewhere else,

...a quirk of soil and sun angles and clear Cape Cod light.

And now and then, a rare pretty pink...


And here, out on the tip of the Cape's elbow, almost at Nauset Beach and the [rumored to be] large National Seashore Beach, is an ancient churchyard where the Pilgrims now rest, a rolling meadow of peace....

Many of these old stones date to the 1600s, though most are illegible now after four hundred years of Cape Cod weather.
And here's an herb garden in the front of a grey clapboard house built in the 1600s.


Isn't it charming? Cape Cod, in its summer blues!

And surely we'll be back! Circumstances robbed us of our ice cream cones at  Cobie's or Kate's! Yeah, we'll definitely return.

There's that magic, right?

love
                 
                lizzy

                ...gone to the beach


Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It's Really Summer This Time!

                      


pls click above for link to My Creative Space
[maybe leftclick for link? It is post June 18, 2010]





We like to say/ think that it is always summer here at The Beach....


It makes our deluded little hearts so happy! It lets local residents happily parade around in shorts or flipflops in December...and February...and....


But Summer rolled in for real yesterday, 90 degrees, sunny and breezy. Perfect!


The days are so gloriously long...and the nights so short. We are blessed with a full experience of what is called astronomical twilight, which means true darkness has finally overcome the sun and we can see the stars.


[As opposed to nautical twilght, when ships can no longer see the horizon, the division of sea and sky.) Tonight darkness finally fell at 10.35 PM...and the sky will begin to lighten at 3.19 AM. Is that not glorious?

lots of time to search for treasures....



good times...


good memories and good friends....



good waves......



and more good waves....



          "All that I really love
            Is the sky that flattens
            On the bay.
            And the eel grass in the cove;
            The jingle shells that lie and bleach
            At the tide line,
            And the trace
            Of higher tides
            Along the beach."

                                                edna st.vincent millay



love

     lizzy


                                 gone to the beach...............

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Hollywood Comes to The Beach!

Wow! Somehow a set director (location scout?) found his way to my tiny town which lies at the eastern point of a very small barrier island/ sandbar on the shores of the Atlantic.

I didn't care so much about seeing a movie star (Kate Winslet?), this is New York, after all...but I loved seeing the film crew redo this odd little bungalow:




It is supposed to be 1945 California! See the palm trees and cactus?






And our firehouse...with a phony town name.



And the 1940s cars are great....no pix because the police wouldn't let us stop to take photos; I'll try again tomorrow!
The film is a remake of Mildred Pierce. IMDB says it was filme noire! [Film-Noir] so retro, so cool....And in 1945 starred Bette Davis.


Here are a few fun quotes.....


Veda: Did you see the look on his face when we told him he was going to be a father?

Mildred: I wish you wouldn't joke about it.


Veda:  The next thing I know you'll be knitting little garments.


Mildred: I don't see anything so ridiculous about that.


Veda: If I were you, I'd save myself the trouble.
________________________________________

Wally: There's something about the sound of my own voice that fascinates me.
________________________________________


Mildred: Wally, you should be kept on a leash! Now why can't you be friendly?


Wally: But I *am* being friendly!


Mildred: No, I mean it. Friendship's much more lasting than love.


Wally: Yeah, but it isn't as entertaining.


Now if only I could get into the post office to mail my etsy and ebay items! The PO is part of the set too...imagine that!

love
                  lizzy

                          .......gone to the beach