Kitchen islands big and small...

     One of the favorite things about my kitchen is the large island that anchors the room.  It is the place where I chop, bake, roll out pizza and pie crusts, and fold laundry.  It is the place where homework get's done, Pinterest gets perused, and it's always the center of every party that we've thrown.  While planning Chez Beach Cheeky, we have accounted for a large island there too, I'm talking really gynormous because when you are at the beach you tend to bring loads of people there too and they are always eating!
Here are some that I love...We all know I'm obsessed with light and bright, love this!


Oy, stop the island madness!  This one has two!
Source: anonym.to via Kaylene on Pinterest

This is a house in Watersound just up the road from where we are building, how gorgeous is it?!

Source: google.com via Susan on Pinterest

Perfectly beachy...



More light and bright...

Something a little more vintage...
Source: google.ca via Francesca on Pinterest


So great!


Nesting, clay crocks, and dust bunnies...

     I'm going through a bit of a nesting phase where I'm purging, cleaning, and reorganizing all at once. I go through this brief phase about four times a year.  It starts right after the holidays...as much as I love Christmas and decorating to the nines, I can not wait to get the mess all put away!  Spring...hence the spring cleaning, the start of summer...purging the homework/projects madness, and fall.  OK in Dallas it's not exactly fall, but we've had a couple of late September kind of days around here which makes me think we are close!  Late September weather in Dallas tends to be mid 80's during the day and high 60's at night, which for some insane reason we are getting right now.  Normally, it's in the high 90's to 100's for another couple of weeks and 80's at night!  So as I write this, I can report at 8:57 pm it's only 75 degrees, and I'm outside wrapped in a cozy little blanket helping to prevent the wee little chill and West Nile Virus!

While it's really hard to tell here, this is my cozy blue and white (shocking, I know) vintage quilt from  Ebay!  I collect them and love them...(note to self, blog about old feed sack quilts!)
I've been sweeping, dusting up the dust bunnies, and I finally moved all my old clay crocks to one happy place.  They used to hold the three pups doggie toys...yes, they are spoiled, and yes they have a lot!
Old clay crocs have been called the tupperware of the 19th century holding such items like pickles as well as being used for making butter...
I love them in their new spot...
Look away from the dreadful Tuscan wall infatuation, which FYI was not my doing people, but the previous owners, oy vey!  I need a kitchen redo...like yesterday...  
I love their simplicity!  This is the 6 gallon made by Marshall Pottery in Marshall, TX, I think I bought this at an auction not long after moving here...
 The other two are five and three gallon crocks topped with crowns that probably were by Robinson-Ransbottom that produced crown pottery with the number of the gallon size inside the crown and which came from the Ohio region.  These were purchased years ago in Indiana so that would make sense...

Here they are mixed with my French transferware, possibly Belgium (blue and white from a tiny town Washington, Louisiana where I bought an entire set of amazing plates, bowls, platters, and serving dishes ) and English (red and white from ebay!) transferware and Vernon Kilns California Pottery blue platters (Treasure Mart in Kokomo, Indiana...go figure!)...



Bringing wood beams to the beach...

     We are still going back and forth with our architect on Chez Beach Cheeky, and by we...I mean me because Big D is really letting me fly solo on this.  I'm moving rooms, shrinking rooms, increasing the island size, adding windows, ya da, ya da, ya da, and the latest back and forth is over wood beams.  The plan that I am most excited about is a large open kitchen/dining/great room with four sets of french doors all down one side that open up to an old fashioned large back porch facing the lake to get the best views.  This will be the view looking out the french doors from the back porch area, sadly the tree will be gone and it's a really great Live Oak that I would have loved to have kept, but the builder said its gotta go!  We just cleared the lot of most of its underbrush...
View facing the beach from what will be our dock...
Since the main part of the downstairs is essentially one huge long room, we are thinking about adding in some wood beams to break up the space a bit.  He is suggesting white, but since the walls are already board on board white, I'm thinking we should go with a weathered wood beam look instead.  I think it will help anchor the room with out weighing it down too much since there will be so much white everywhere anyway.

Something like this, not this much wood, but the feel of it and the design...

Or this

Or this...

The only hiccup in the whole thing is that wood beams like this are a wee bit more than the white ones he was suggesting to me, so I said 'define more' to Mr. Killing My Wood Beam Buzz, and he said potentially four times as much!  Wha?!  NOOOOOOOO! Come on man, get with my program here!  So we shall see if they stay or go, and by we, I mean Big D accidentally on purpose getting liquored up and me braking the news to him so he can approve said purchase of pricey beams! I'm going to peruse the internet for pricing options to see what I can come up with...and while I'm on there figure out how to make some saucy martinis...




Weekend to die for dishes, Zara's havin a sale, oh yeah, FYI people...it's shark week...

     So the weekend started hot and ended, guess what?  Hot!  But we actually hit 70 degree's overnight, and I actually felt like we needed to break out the sweaters and the long underwear around here because I was not, in fact, breaking into a sweat at 7:30 in the morning!  Most of the weekend was spent in the water and/or eating which is theoretically not the best scenario for wearing said bikini whilst carrying a box of Cheese-It's and a side of Lay's BBQ potato chips.  This is the kind of hifalutin fare one digests whilst boating and feeding one's self and wee little baby ducks along the way...Big D and I are like Beyonce and Jay-Z, ballin out of control minus the yacht, hanging with Kanye, and well pretty much everything else.  Next came a Saturday night date night out with friends which consisted of beef kabobs, topped with Hatch Chili pepper hollandaise sauce, roasted Mexican corn with cojito cheese, smoked ham mac and cheese (that the waitress swore would change our life, which it did, because I could no longer button my shorts people), and to add a little more caloric intake to our already overwhelmed systems, and since we were already playing a seedy game of Russian roulette called 'how much cholesterol can you eat in one sitting', we ended the evening splitting a warm butter cake with cream cheese topped with ice cream and rum butter sauce...and...that's right...and...(because why only have one people when no one has even started to feel chest pains yet), peach crisp topped with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.   I would like to show you pictures, I really would, but at no point were my hands free long enough from stuffing my proverbial face to actually snap a photo.  So you're just going to have to take my word on this.  Ya da,, ya da, ya da...more eating/cleaning the house/never ending hot mess of laundry you know your usual Saturday/Sunday deal, and then it's out to brunch for more crap and on to Zara who is having a major sale...

Like this great little white number I came home with for 19.99...
 and we almost picked up this pink tulle dress for 30.00, for my daughter's homecoming, but decided against it...
Oh and FYI it's Shark Week!  
Watch it...it's kind of addictive!
Poor little seal...




Dreaming of fall when it's 104 outside...

Dear hot as hell summer,
     Here's the thing summer, we've got to stop seeing each other.  I'd like to say that it's not you it's me, but who's going to believe that...I mean really.  Anyhoo, I think I owe you the truth.  Summer, I'm sick and tired of breaking into a sweat at 7:30 in the morning, getting second degree burns on the back of my thighs in a car that is 200 degrees, and watching all my plants commit suicide.  I mean it's all a bit much and depressing already.  You were great in the beginning, you really were.  In May I couldn't live without you, although technically that was your twin brother spring, but who can tell the difference between you two crazy kids?  All those times we had together walking barefoot from dusk till dawn, sipping Pinot Grigio al fresco in the evenings watching the sun set...good times.  Now you're just a pain in my ass and have gotten on my last nerve.  It's time for someone new, someone fresh, someone who I can share a blanket with and actually discuss Austen, or McEwan instead of those tawdry beach reads you keep giving me.  That's Jane Austen summer, not the city you simpleton.   It's time for you to take this time to get your act together, and maybe, just maybe, I'll feel different about you next May...or your twin spring, who is, let's face it...pretty hot.  In the mean time I've met someone new, and I think he might be my favorite...fall. 

Your's truly,
Maureen

Here's to my new boyfriend fall, that I just can't get enough of...
Love these blazers from J. Crew...
Source: jcrew.com via Maureen on Pinterest


And here
Source: jcrew.com via Maureen on Pinterest

Love the polka dots!

Source: jcrew.com via Maureen on Pinterest

I'm in love with this peter pan collar shirt!  I swear half my closet is gray, and the other half is black!
Source: jcrew.com via Maureen on Pinterest

My latest acquisition from Nordstrom is a great pair of boots by Stuart Weitzman, again gray and black!



This is gorgeous, love these ballet flats from J. Crew.  My philosophy is that a little bit of leopard goes a long way.  Too much and you're Theresa from Real Housewives of New Jersey...

Source: jcrew.com via Maureen on Pinterest


I heart you fall!

Wisteria Flea Market 2.0...

     A while back, I went down to Dallas to check out the Wisteria Flea Market, and I was all a flutter about the great pieces that I wouldn't mind taking home with me.  I decided it was time to go back and check out what was new, so I hopped in my gas guzzlin SUV and headed a few miles down 75 South to see peruse the fab finds once again.  I found some pretty great things...some I may have to aquire for chez Beach Cheeky...

Like this...How great is this?  I had to sit down and make sure that me bum would be quiet happy on said chaise, because some couch/chaise prospects may look amazing, but can be horribly uncomfortable.  I can report that this was very bum friendly...thank you very much...
Loving the Ikat drum shades here...

Love this art wall of hand blown glass...
It looks great on this table too...
Some more great tables...


Trunks for storage...
 Both of these have a beachy feel to them...
Some great lamps...

Loving their Kooboo chairs...

Hot summer Sunday nights, tortellini, and West Nile Virus...

     I love most everything about summer Sunday evenings.  There's a slow paced rhythm to them that involves food, family, TV, and almost certainly the outdoors.  It is so hot here right now, that one doesn't even want to step outside until 7 pm unless you are fully submersed in a pool situation.  Ce soir included my delish Cheesy Baked Tortellini, the Kardashians, and mosquitos.  I've been sitting out here with the pups watching Courtney entertain the idea of doing a water birth...um yeah, that was truly terrifying, and I'm kind of wondering how I was possibly capable of giving birth three times.  Oh that's right, now I remember...copious amounts of narcotics and an epidural instead of the always tempting torture chamber of a water birth.  Anyhoo, whilst trying to get my outdoor relaxation Sunday night on, the hypochondriac in me is kicking into overdrive and with the notion that I'm contracting West Nile Virus with every mosquito that comes my way...

Go away creepy, vile, mosquitos...


'Cause you're killing my Sunday night mojo...