The Beach House - Nautical Details!

Classic Nautical  - Always a Popular Choice for 

Summer on the Shore!

Nautical is never a bad decision when decorating a beach house - classic blues, golds, scarlet red, crisp white... I can hear the ocean breezes blowing right now!  Crisp and cool with navy and white, sailing style can start with a white background, adding stripes in varying sizes and widths, then add a little wicker, rope or hemp.  (see my starfish garland!)  See how easy it is to put this all together??  Layer your new look with with nautical detailed pillows - anchors might just do the trick!  Then  finish off your new nautical look with a layer of old fashioned marine memorabilia. Think model ships, old world maps, oars, compasses, brass accents... scout flea markets, antique shops.  I think the fun is in the hunt! Looking for  just the right color, texture...   Take a look at one of our antiqued model Sailing Ships!

See how easy that was? Your Beach House now has a new "Seaworthy Style"!

Girl's Lunch at Maggie's on Miller Bay...

So... I should be working on a newsletter for the Caron's Beach House site, but am having a lot of trouble getting motivated. (Gosh, was it the late night red wine and gumbo?)  I have a backlog of beachy blog stories to write, so I am opting for sitting here with my cup of tea, and gooey brownie.

By the way, don't you just love my new "under the sea" coffee cup? It was a present from my daughter and can be found at Starbucks if you would like one of your own.

Want to tell you all about my lunch at Maggie's beach house on Miller Bay outside of Poulsbo. Maggie is the talented designer behind Burning at Both Ends, she creates all kinds of neat accessories; wine charms, zipper pull charms, goblet charms, flip-flop charms - so many cool ideas!  I love carrying her coastal themed wine charms on the website, and she was so gracious to come up with some charms and bead colors just for us. Pretty cool, since she has some very big clients, like the "Made in Washington Store", and "Exclusively Washington".


This is her collection of antique oars and shells that greet visitors on her front porch.  Maggie's vintage painted oars are very special, and come from a treasured uncle's house in Michigan. I like how she wrapped shells and old fishing  floats with rope and tied everything all together.

Maggie can't help being creative, her dad is an incredibly talented artist and is still enjoying presenting his art at local Northwest galleries at nearly 90.  Here's just one example of the beach scenes covering her walls throughout the house, forgot to ask what beach this might be, but it kind of looks like Dungeness Spit in Sequim (?)

This is one of the coolest ideas that I have ever seen: a moon snail shell mortared into their fireplace for a safe keeping spot for matches! If I ever have another house, I am definitely copying this idea. (you all know I already have the shells)  Love all of the barnacles covering this shell, confirms that it actually washed up on Maggie's beach! Could not help it, I had to put the "Rosario" and "Latitude 47" matches in the photo - Northwest favorites.

 Enjoy the collections that are on her mantel too; shells collections, special rocks, beach washed birdhouses...

Miller Bay is a little inlet on the Kitsap Peninsula between Poulsbo and Kingston.  Living nearly all of my life in Kitsap County, I never even knew that this little bay existed until I knew Maggie. The day that we had lunch, it was more of a mud flat surrounded by beautiful homes, and some beached boats!  (P.S. this is Maggie's front yard - sort of!)

Our girl's lunch table on Maggie's stone patio right above the beach, so pretty surrounded by spring flowers, and natural beach grass.  We had the perfect day to enjoy sitting outside in the sun, definitely sometimes a rarity in the Pacific Northwest for the month of May.

Now, for the lunch menu: It was so good that I had second helpings! Maggie made us "Swimming Angel" - a Thai Chicken, peanut sauce, spinach and  brown rice concoction that looked so yummy piled in a charming pasta sea shell pasta bowl by Mud Pie. Accompanied by a sparkling pink pomegranate wine from World Market, and little ginger cookies with vanilla icing.  And yes, I do like to eat - invite me over ANY time!

I used to sell the Mud Pie dinnerware  in my Poulsbo store, so fun and soooo beachy! Managed to keep only one of the dinner plates that I now use for serving appetizers for our cocktail hour on the lanai. She is so lucky to have all of the matching pieces, including serving pieces and the cool napkin holders.

Check out our fun place settings for our girls' beach lunch -


Thank you so much for inviting me over and for introducing me to another beach girl - Sherry Eckert. So happy to always make new friends, especially when we are kind of living the same path.. Check out Sherry's Moondrops Yoga Blog, in her words "Yoga and the beach, the two things in my life that fill me up and keep me sane!!" Check out her blog for musings on yoga, life and doing lots of beach walking... (my kind of new friend!)  You have got to see her jewelry, absolutely beautiful, one of a kind art pieces..

One more final picture before I run off to finish that darn newsletter - here's a close up photo of the rusty kids' shovel with Maggie's ever growing shell collection on her front porch that I had to take.  Loved it, and such a perfect reminder of why I can't ever be too far away from the coast.

Come see our selection of Burning At Both Ends Wine Charms on the Caron's Site!

Nautical Wine Charms

Pirates! 

Tropical Designs!

See you at the Beach! Headed to Aptos and Santa Cruz tomorrow...

Earth Day at Caron's Beach House - Part 1

When I started writing the business plan last spring (2009) for Caron's Beach House, it became so clear to me that I had to make Supporting our Future a critical part of my mission statement.  It's funny how this has really changed my outlook on simple every day life.  I have become a better recycler at home, a smarter cook with less processed foods/packaging,  a better garbage picker upper, I try very very hard not to drink bottled water and if I do, we re-use the bottles. The simplest change that I have made is that  I always take an extra bag with me to the beach to pick up plastic and other debris - nothing needs to end up in the swirling garbage dump in the middle of the Pacific.

So, here's what I did and what I wrote for the "Caron's Causes Page": http://www.caronsbeachhouse.com/servlet/the-template/charitablecauses/Page  (the entire page)

Supporting our Future:

Caron’s Beach House has made a commitment to support various charitable organizations through your generous purchase of our products. This is a very significant part of our mission statement as a company; giving back to our communities, protecting our environment and supporting important humanitarian efforts for education, health care and well being. We are inviting our customers to join us. To further those efforts, Caron’s will be featuring a variety of beach house style décor products in which a potion of the proceeds will be donated to support our favorite organizations.

And this is how I ended that page after highlighting several of my favorite organizations - 

"Because living on the coast is our passion, we believe in thoroughly researching our products, striving to find sustainable home décor items, and to also work with manufacturers that also share our vision whenever possible. We also support beach cottage industry artists, and their artistry in our “Beach Finds” collection (check here often for new items!)

As part of the commitment to support our earth’s future and oceans’ health, Caron’s Beach House will also recycle, re-purpose, and re-use as much of our packaging material as we can (bubble-wrap, peanuts, cardboard) – don’t be surprised to find that your shipments might not be packed in a brand new box!"

And, I do stick to this philosophy. Some days it's a lot more work, but I feel so much better when I ship a box out to a customer and know that in some small way, I am helping the oceans.

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and as a way to support Ocean Conservancy.Org here's what we are doing:  The best part is that up until May 7 - all donations to Ocean Conservancy's Science program will be doubled! 

This year we will be donating 25% of the sale proceeds from your generous purchase of the hand-crafted iridescent glass reminders of the sea! 

Two colors available; purchase either the Sea Green, or the Marine Blue Starfish before May 2, 2010 and Caron's Beach House will donate 25% to Ocean Conservancy.Org - one of our favorite causes to support! 

This organization works tirelessly to bring awareness of our Oceans' plight  - they also have been the instigators of the largest volunteer effort, EVER.  Last September, 498,818 volunteers in over 100 countries picked up 7,446,130 pounds of trash.  

That's what I call amazing work!!  Please join me in supporting the continued effort of this great organization - take a look at their website, they can actually help you organize your own beach clean-up day!

www.OceanConservancy.Org

I have some shipping to do - and then I am headed to Half Moon Bay with my extra bag to pick up plastic...Have a fabulous Earth Day!  Here's a few photos from HMB, last week's walk before the surf got me!

Looking for Beach Cottage Inspiration

Took a break this weekend from my never-ending task of adding products to the Caron's Beach House website (hoping to launch mid-February!), for some inspiration at the Fremont Flea Market.  If you are a local Northwest person, and have never gone to this unique event, held every Sunday rain or shine, you are really missing out on some great handmade crafts, awesome vintage finds and lots of interesting people.  This is definitely a Seattle tradition - I like it much better than Pike Place market for FREE parking, less tourists and for the chance to hang out in the funky neighborhood of Fremont.

Here's a few of the things that I saw this weekend!

Vintage booth full of Tiki memorabilia - kicking myself for not buying the purple tiki cups for $2.50/each!  

Vintage Monterey Bay watercolor with bamboo frame - also should have bought..

Thought that these were interesting. Actually saw quite a few different images like these. My grandfather served aboard the Aircraft Carrier, The Enterprise during the 1930's, and can't help that I really like these images pre-WWII.  

Also saw globes in every shape and size, this one was the perfect table top, desk, or bookshelf decor.  Can't wait until I have a real office again and this is one of the first things that I will put on my desk, right next to my favorite shell finds....

Was so excited to see my friend, Amber of Season's Creek Furniture and Decor! Some of you might recognize the colors that she uses - the aqua and the greens were featured in my old store in Poulsbo. 

Season's Creek collection of painted furniture and accessories, vintage shells and linens

Gray-Blue wicker tray with seashell vintage seashell bowls (I know, I should have bought these too!)

 Love the clear green plates! Perfect touch for spring - 

Close-up shot of Amber's repainted frames! Like her imagination, think of  how a painted frame could make over a room... frame a plain mirror, bring out the highlights in a stormy sea picture....

Simply one of my favorite things to do. Hang out at the flea market and let my imagination run wild with ideas for creating my own space, and helping others define theirs!  Happy Hunting for beach treasures -