I Love the Weekends

The past work week was my busiest week ever. Seriously. I am tired and I was never so happy to go home to enjoy the weekend - to retreat, if you will.

A few years ago when we built our house, during the construction, the house somehow began to feel like a beach house. From the outside it doesn't necessarily look like a beach house, but in the living room and sitting on the deck and porch it feels like a summer vacation house so while building I decided to redo our furniture.

Everything in our previous house was all about color and I loved all the color then.



But in our new house, I wanted a change. To lighten things up with a lot less color. We got all of our furniture recovered in various off-white fabrics. For accessories I decided to use beach colors, seashells and other natural items I'd collected from various trips as accents in the living areas.


Here are some of the collected natural items from various places in the world. A couple of years ago a feng shui expert came to offer some assistance with some issues in my house and I have to say she was amazed and happy seeing so much nature indoors. (I'll share the details of the feng shui experience in another post).

Salt from the Dead Sea.

A shell serving as a dish holding shells. One of the shells below I found in Florida but most of these were purchased at a shell shop.

A friend made these beautiful glass coasters with photos from some our favorite places. The glass is the color of sea glass so they're perfect for the room.

We even use a collection of shells and rocks to disguise the fireplace starter key.

And of course I keep my shell guide handy (on top of a basket of shells).

Our dining room is the only room in our entire house with a little color on the wall. The table mirrors the color of the wall with some seashell dishes that I bought from Kohls. The Nantucket basket is full of sand dollars and other shells we found on Tybee Island.

It has been a blessing to be at home, to rest in my vacation home. This weekend was a time for me to slow down, reconnect with nature and my family. My middle child turned 26 today so we went to a nearby hotel restaurant that sits on one of the airport runways. It was a relaxing celebration and nice way to end the week (of course I was dreaming of a trip to the coast - oh well). Hope your weekend is a relaxing one.

P.S. I am nearing my 200th post. It's time for a giveaway. More about that later next week.