Inspired by the Islands-The results

After being inspired by the islands in my paintings, I  decided to use my found shells, and glass as house décor.  Most of this has been going on for quite some time, but I recently decided to tidy them up a bit.

Let’s start on the front porch.  This is the  coral plant I am growing.  The plants I put in this planter kept dying.  So I started putting these corals in there.  Works for me!

I’m in love with this conch with the top broken off.  There may be a painting soon!

In the powder room this little vignette came together with coral, aqua sea glass and a candle holder.

This is my collection of heart shaped rocks. Or as Allen would say my rock collection.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?   Maybe I’ll find more before we leave??

My prized conchs in a basket.  One day I’ll tell you where I got them…

These are really unusual conch.  Some call it a trident and others call it a corkscrew.  I call it pretty.

Sea Glass in glass.  With a little brain coral too.

Even the guest room gets a few beachy touches. Actually this is where to boys are least often, so I put my most fragile shell in here. With a pile of sticks.  But it works if you group them right!

I have lots of sea fans that I placed in my old bike basket.  I do believe I need to edit a bit more!

The sea Urchins found a home in this big jar.  Plenty of room for more…

This one is called a Sputnik urchin.  I love the green on it.

They sit on this high shelf with the sea biscuits.

We got that crystal bowl for a wedding present, and it has been used for everything from a goldfish bowl to a salad bowl.  Now it holds these treasures.  I promise to never serve salad from that bowl if you come over.

Who knows what I am going to come home with next.  I am always looking…

Inspired by the Islands- In progress

So back here I was telling you how I decided to sort all my treasures.  If you have lots of little things it begins to look like a mess really quickly.  However if you take time to sort them and group them together, your collection really stands out.

If you know me, you know I love a good sorting, so this was fun!

My sea urchin collection is smaller now thanks to this project, but I still have lots more than I thought!

Big conch

Little conchs

Sand Dollars

Corals

I’ve got to figure out how to shine these shells up, they are lovely!

I grouped them all together in various places and assorted vessels throughout the house and I am waiting to see if I like how they are grouped. 

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen this.

There’s more inspiration around the corner.  It’s coming!

Inspired by the Islands

When we moved here, some of our stuff came with us and the rest went to storage.  It was a busy hectic time and for some reason, I didn’t pack anything to hang on the walls or decorate the house with. 

I’m not sure what I was thinking.  Maybe I thought that a hurricane would come and all would be lost or maybe I just thought of it as stuff and we were only bringing essentials.  Who knows.

It turns out to be one of the best things I’ve done.

After living with bare walls for a few months I decided that I must get something on them.  I went to a store and bought two canvases and a couple of colors of paint.

  These were the result.

They are fine, but not really all that inspiring.

At the same time I was quickly filling up lots and lots of containers of treasures from my walks on the beaches.  Sea glass, sea biscuits, sea urchins, sea fans, shells, limpets and even driftwood.  If it caught my eye, chances are, it was coming home {much to Allen’s chagrin}.

Where before I might have had something I picked up from TJ Maxx, now I have these lovely reminders of our time in the islands.  It is much more meaningful to have what I consider treasures than something that was bought in a store.

Since college I had not painted consistently, but had really wanted to get back to it.  I just thought I was too busy.  So once I was undeniably NOT busy I had no excuse!

I’m still not at a point where I feel comfortable with my technique, but I am getting the feeling of it more.  I have my next painting planned out, but I am nervous to start.  I am pretty sure it will not turn out like I see it in my mind.

Last week I saw this post by another island blogger and it got me inspired to drag all of my treasures out and do some re-arranging.

My dining room table was a glorious mess for a while.

Stay tuned.  I have to show you the results. 

Just as soon as my house is clean.  And the sun is shining.  And there are no boys to photobomb my shots.  And when I have nothing better to do … Should be any day now, right?

Backyard Explorations

On Sunday the boys were playing in our backyard and I grabbed my camera.

We were feeding our leftovers from breakfast to the fish.  Turns out that my boys do not love turkey sausage, but the fish really do!

I’ve been trying to figure out what kind of fish this is.  So far we call it zebra fish.  We are scientists of the highest order, right?

It lives in that PVC pipe that we added to our “aquarium” last winter.

The angel fish were trying to squeeze sausage pieces into their tiny mouths.

We saw a baby barracuda hanging out in the algae.  This one was about the size of my thumb.

The hermit crabs were in the algae too.  The algae is probably like Cracker Barrel on Sunday mornings.  It’s the place to eat on the weekends!

Another small barracuda and a conch!

Jackson found his first conch.

Not sure how it ended up on our beach, but it was fun to look at.

Once we put him back in the water we got to see his eyes.

Hank tried to scare off the little fish that swim in the shallow waters.

He is not the aggressive type, so no fish were harmed.

Miller did what he does best!

Then he decided to help his brother hunt the fish.

The caught a rock.  The fish were pretty safe!

Sometimes I do dream about having a nice grassy backyard, but I really like this backyard very much!

katie daisy