Seashells in an Old White Bowl ~ and A Grain of Salt

Hi everyone! Sometimes, when you're alone and relaxing do you drift around on the internet and read stupid stories just to unwind? Some ask what one's guilty pleasure is, and I suppose that would be mine--"perusing stupid stories/ wasting time" --- [really dull life, right!].
Recently there have been many many lists, Do's and Don't's and things one should never do after age 21 or 35 or 40.
80?
I don't know why I read them and here's where the above grain of salt comes in, I think they're bullsh!t.
But a couple recently were real eyeopeners...I was shocked, I admit.

Here we go: "Things no adult woman  should have in her home'':

Can you read it, above? Seashells!  Bowls of seashells. Forbidden by the style police. And the writer goes on to mention having a coastal beachy look is tacky too. OMIGOSH! Color me flabbergasted. Gobsmacked! 

Big white ironstone bowl, English c. 1880, from Cape Cod Dump swap shop...filled with seashells and fragments of blue or brown transferware china.

I love my bowls of seashells. I've collected and displayed them for years. 

The article went on to say that not only should your home not be beachy, it should NOT be blue and white. The quote was something like, "Just because you live near the ocean there is no reason your home should be blue and white.''

And then they got into the bedroom. All white bedrooms are banned. "All white bedrooms were cool, maybe, back in the 1980s when Swedish style was revived. That was a loooong time ago." First of all, again, I love my almost-white bedroom.

And / or blue and white bedroom.

  

But the big faux pas? No. Ruffled. Sheets. 

"Aged and staged"----hahaha, skewered by harsh words.
Hey  if I  want ruffles, dammit, I'll have ruffles! Shabby Chic from Target ruffled sheets are my fave.

Mo likes them okay too.

The no-no lists go on and on. No flipflops after 40. No charm bracelets, no bangle bracelets---ever. Even if you're twelve. Canister lighting only, sigh. Think what it'd cost to replace my scorned yet functional lighting as it is. No white appliances [yeah, I love watching stainless steel rust in the salt air]. No afghans, no quilts,---too ''granny''. No silver flatware, too hard to polish.  No cheap screw top wine! No clunky PCs with external hard drives, only slim MacBook Pros [?] allowed. On and on.
My life is a train wreck of mistakes and flubs.

Ask me if I care? No. Ask me if I'll change? No.
But---seashells in a beautiful old bowl...who knew!?

**********

However. I recently had been looking for a teeny tiny decor change as everyone in Blogland starts wanting Fall and Pumpkin stuff the day after the 4th of July. Not me, Fall belongs in Autumn, like October or November, but I did think maybe something different on the coffee table would be fun. I was suddenly tired of daisies in a blue jug.

A tin basket bought a few weeks ago, great turquoise color...ah hah!  I plan to fill it with little pumpkins come October, but I decided I'd give it a trial run now.

Dug out my glass fishing floats.

Hmmm. I like it.

I have a lot of floats because my mom gave me her collection and I add more when I see them at the flea. Extras have gone into the two gallon blue Mason jar.

And on the coffee table also a stack of  British natural history books. These are treasures, bought second hand here in the US on a book site. I'll show you more of what they contain in a future post.

Speaking of Mason jars, I'm making pickles this weekend. Refrigerator dills. I haven't made any since I threw out a big batch after H Sandy, when the fridge was out for a month.And I wanted to make this peach crumble, from Bon Appetit [at end of post] , but the store peaches were harder than baseballs and about as appealing. Maybe real and ripe from the farmers market when the harvest is in in a few weeks, I'll try again.

have a good weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

  

or this: