~She Sews Sea Horses on a Surfboard by the Sea ~

This was SO much fun!!

~ Seascape II: Now in the 21st Century ~

I apologize most profusely for my lack of attention here.  I just want it on the record that 

It's not entirely my fault.

My computer ... officially older than dirt ... gave me so many Blue Screens that I was actually beginning to lose my fondness for the color Blue.  Until a new computer was purchased and installed, I was forced to avoid any action involving pictures which seemed to upset the old gal.

To add to the fun, when I was finally up and running again, Blogger and Picasa got into some sort of a fight and would not play well together,

Has anyone else had this problem?

In the meantime, I spent a great deal of time sewing on my latest project, this fun little Seascape, complete with a lush green beach and some happy little star fish -- both on the sand and under water.

When it came time to machine quilt the sand, I decided to give myself a challenge: Pebble Stitching. In the end, we are talking about 6 hours of pebble stitching.

I can officially say that I have improved my skills at pebble stitching.

Oh it feels good to be back in the cyberspace saddle.

I am really enjoying the 21st Century!

And loving the color Blue once again.

~ Coastal Christmas Colors ~

So I freely admit that I have jumped on the bandwagon this year and gotten a head start on the decorating.  I actually finished it all before leaving town for Thanksgiving.

Upon arriving home ... I was so thankful that I had.

I love my new Shell Tree, full of my new ornaments ...

... a sparkly starfish on the top ...

... a few snowflakes to remind me that even in southern California, we can always dream ...

... and some sparkly birds.

And just in case you would like such a beachy tree for your own home, here are my resources:

Snowflakes: Crate and Barrel
Starfish Ornaments: TJ Maxx
Birds: Michaels
The pattern to make your own shell ornaments: My Etsy Shop.

Oh how I love Christmas!

PS ... Thanks so much to Maya at Completely Coastal
for featuring me on her delightfully coastal blog!!

~ Turquoise from Target ~

I was beyond giddy to see these lovely blue canning jars at my favorite shopping establishment.

I knew immediately that ...
(a) I had to own them and ...
(b) I would clearly not use them for canning.

I love them with out anything in them because of the way the light bounces off of them.
I can't wait to use them for lemonade.

And they came in quite handy when a friend dropped some gerber daisies at my door.

Sigh.

Thank you Target!

~ Christmas near the Beach ~

 

 

 

 

I am loving the beachy color scheme in my living room this Christmas.

Blue.  Green.  White.

What's not to love? 

~ Color Combo: Sea Shore ~

Prior to moving to my home here ... I was a white wall only kind of gal.  But when I encountered some strange colors from the previous homeowners that I wanted to change, I became a blue wall kind of gal.

The one big exception was the Master Bedroom.  It's walls were already painted in a stunning neutral ... that pretty much matched the carpet.  I soon saw how much I loved how white and blue stood out against it.

I love this room ... and how this sandy, ocean, shell color scheme comes together.

Oddly enough, I made my "Speaking with the Stars" quilt not even thinking of this room and then later found that the colors and the size were a perfect fit.

I already had a blue slipcovered chair with a precious and sentimental throw (thank you Mom!) that perfectly matched the carpet.

It's taken me a year and a half to get the combinations just right ...

And to find the perfect sheets.

(Thank you Target!)

I've carried over my scheme to the bathroom with it's blue walls and sandy colored tile.

How about you?

What's your favorite color combo?

~ Color Day: Red, White, Blue ~

Truth be told ... I really don't have any red in my home, other than at Christmas.  But I revel in red whenever I see it ... and I love to see it in the summer!

This picture above was taken last weekend at Balboa Island in Newport Beach. Just a fun little beach house along my walk that wanted to stand up and salute.
There are also umpteen fun little shops on Balboa and I saluted almost every single one.

This piece of patriotic happiness is from a trip to San Franciso two summers ago.
Taken on Pier 39 (duh) ... on a clear and sunny day.

This is actually wallpaper from a friend's beach house.
I hung out in that bathroom probably longer than I should have ... just to inhale it's beauty.

OK ... so this letter "S" is in my studio.
It stands for ... Studio.
Or Sewing. Or Sea
Or Sand or Sun.

This small quilt ... I want to say I made it around 2007 ... is from a Jo Morton pattern.
With my own embellishments.
It's almost impossible for me to follow someone else's pattern exactly, which I find highly annoying.

This boat with it's own red, white and blue flag is from my Permanent Wave quilt.
You can find that pattern here.

These fireworks are from 2008 in Tempe AZ.

I suspect that at the moment I took this picture the temperature was still topping 100 degrees.

That made no difference, whatsoever.

Because I love fireworks.

Happy Birthday America.

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

~ Anchored in Years ~

My latest project is here. You can find the pattern here.

I've called it Anchored in Happy.
It makes me happy.
And you?

I have been wanting to sew anchors for some time now, but they just had to wait their turn on "the list".

Red, Blue, Stripes, Dots ... what's not to be happy about?

In other anchor news ... yesterday was my birthday.  I don't think any of my children were privy to the fact that I spent part of the last week sewing an anchor ... and yet ...
D#2 gave me these precious anchor note cards to add to my collection and ...

D#3 gave me this fabulous necklace featuring ... guess what?
I felt the love (and way too many gifts) from each child + some other generous relatives and friends.

Please don't try to guess how old I am.

However ... this may or may not be a hint.

~ Pinning the Blues ~

As with a lot of things, I was rather late to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon.  But ... trust me ... I have made up for lost time.  Most of my pins are rooms ... and most of those rooms have blue in them.  Just a portion of those rooms are living/family rooms.  Here is just a sampling of those:

The blue infused room above pinned from housebeautiful.com 

These rich royals came from coralandcoast.blogspot.com

A symphony in blue from housebeautiful.com 

This room with a blue view from  houseofturquiose.com



These baby blues came from  mollyfreydesign.com

These blue accents came from  completely-coastal.com

These blue bookcases came from  houseofturquoise.com

And last ... but certainly not last ...  these blue stripes came from houseofturquoise.com

If you like these ... visit all my boards over here!
If you repin any of these ... make sure to go to the original source.

What is your pinning obsession?