Dark Inspiration: Winter Sea, Beach, Storm Clouds

Hi! Snow is coming!? For you too?  This past week I finished un-decorating from Christmas...it takes me longer to put away, I think, than to get the stuff up. Maybe because I have more helpers before than after.

[and this year I hardened my heart and discarded many old ornaments...not antiques, just sentimental treasures no longer used. sigh. That was hard.]

I adore the holidays, the red and green, the pine and holly, the glitter and extravagance...but in January I am so relieved to see my home dressed in its beach clothes,  its shades of serene blue and white.

                 

                     

I've temporarily set out my indigo blue batik seashell pillows. Due to my sewing machine's ills, I did not yet make my new set of accents for winter. And began auditioning wintery fabrics...

My inspiration is my winter beach and sky....

I'm planning a palette of deep blue, black, stormy grey...added to the base white of course.

Here are my final choices...

I don't think my family will like the linen, top piece, above ...these French grain sacks/ towels are an acquired taste from blogland and eBay.

I love the black seashell toile! It's a pillow sham, quilted cotton and the only one I found at Homegoods one year. I can't decide if I should do one big statement pillow or make two, but add side panels of ticking or charcoal linen? [Thoughts?]

And this is a new Bali batik, above left and  below, It just says storm clouds to me, I love it...and also its artisanal character, not to mention smoothest soft cotton, very washable!

This grey starfish cotton is wonderful but perhaps too ditsy...it may become a table runner, for the coffee table..or even a runner backing, napkins, or?

I also add a few simple blue quilts...

and I dig out my favorite black and white transferware.

I display it with my favorite dark blues until late spring when it is replaced by all blues and white ironstrone.

This is a new pot from Goodwill...had to have it for 5 bucks! I bought it to use as a conatiner for forcing paperwhite bulbs for the dining room table, but even though I'll never use it for soup, I think it's too cute and perfect for plants, right?

The bulbs will go in my [very valuable, but what the heck] antique Staffordshire tureens instead! Tomorrow is indoor gardening day! I ll show you my  bulb planting projects soon...
Then I have my grocery store lipstick pinky-red tulips, I couldn't wait for mine to bloom! I love the red, though white is my first choice when available.
Such happy, hopeful flowers...they make me smile! You too?

love

              lizzy

gone to the beach!

in the [maybe...] snow! yay!

Spaghetti Night---Yum!

Hi! This has been a confusing January so far, hasn't it!

Last night when I went to bed the temperature was 54 degrees! The previous night it was 11*. I suppose it's better than snow, but what to wear, how to cook, etc.---confusing, right?

Today dawned beautifully cloudless and seasonably 30s, but the wind was howling again at 30, 40 MPH. And maybe that snow, or sleet will finally arrive Thursday night?  Saturday? This uncertainly leads to constant checks of the Weather Bug, lol.
So I decided to make a big pot of spaghetti sauce. Yummy and comforting and will nicely stock up my food supply Just In Case.

I think it's safe to say I have never served jarred pasta sauce here at the beach. I just really dislike store-bought sauces. I always make my own, either classic marinara, with or without meatballs...or traditional Bolognese sauce---meat sauce. My mom taught me to make these sauces when I was about ten years old and they've been good friends over the years.

Tonight, however, when I was opening the tomato paste it occurred to me that this is not an particularly economical meal now, in modern times. My little grocery  only had small cans of Contadina paste...and they are now $.95 each! I need at least six...

Here's the breakdown:

tomato paste   5.70

homemade Italian sweet sausage, 4 links,  5.53

ground sirloin 7.26 , ground chuck 4.93

lrg Vidalia onion, garlic 1.00

parm   4.50

box of white mushrooms 2.99

I won't count the seasonings...garlic, parley, basil, oregano, pepper, sugar, fennel seeds. Or the olive oil. And the pasta itself was on sale 2/1.00! Mueller's, an old favorite brand from when I lived in Ohio. (wonder if I'll still love them? Or now I'm used to Italian imported pasta?)

And I won't count the essential but leftover red wine, a mediocre red in a charming bottle/ label....

So the big pot of sauce costs $31.91 + to make!  [3 or 4 dinners for 3 people..say 10-12 servings= about $3.25, including pasta,  a serving. Okay that sounds thriftier, doesn't it.)

Hmmmm....it's worth it.

Any economical faves out there you want to share?

love

           lizzy

          gone to the beach   

  

PS I didn't put the recipe but I can if anyone wants it, very simple!)

Stormy Weather

Hi! We've been having quite the wind storm the past few days! I feel pummelled, just doing local errands (yay! sewing machine is fixed! I hope...). Sustained winds of 40 MPH, much higher gusts...and those readings are taken inland, so it's a lot more extreme here. 
The winds are from the west, so they don't hit an exposed side of my house...but the blowing sand makes the beach impassable. Like being sandblasted, especially painful on my eyes!

Friday night when the wind started howling I had to put on my Crocs and go out to rescue my large driftwood finds. I had them drying on the deck.

These are all rare circular pieces, either keg lids/ bases or spool ends. One is a hoop, a produce basket stave with a crescent section of the base still attached. These become angel wings, signs, Man in the Moon folkart or vintage jacko'lantern faces. This is a big haul! I've found only maybe six more in all my years here.....

This isn't from my beach, below, [oh, I wish!, sigh, HomeGoods...] but I am trying to age it outside in the sun. It's a repro soccerball sized fishing float, handblown clear, pale green glass with rope. I didn't want it to sail away in the wind! 

Otherwise very little to be discovered on the beach right now...

a few shells, some pebbles..

And, amazingly I found a camera! Washing around in the incoming tide. I took it home and even more amazingly it works. The person has 600 photos, from the past four or five years. All over Greece and, perhaps, Turkey? and England...what wonderful places this camera has been! At first I thought it had fallen off a cruise ship and floated onto my beach but the last pics are recent, of a big adorable dog on my beach at sunset.
I feel like it is a karma thing...Someone found my camera and returned it, now it's my turn. Shall I post notes on the sand fences? Ask the other dog runners? Craigslist Lost and Found? A note in the post office and at the little Italian grocery store? I've never seen the dog before, but you can bet my eyes will be peeled for someone walking that distinctive puppy!

                     

love

  lizzy

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