THE COTTAGES OF SAINT SIMONS ISLAND

Dictionary.com defines cottage as:  a small, modest house at a lake, mountain resort, etc,. owned or rented as a vacation home.  I think the title of this post should be more along the lines of "The Mansions of..." or "The Anything but Cottages of..."  A lot of the homes here ARE second homes.  Some are rentals, some not.  Not all the homes are as grand as most I photographed.  Some are down right dilapidated.  Still, the majority of the homes on Saint Simons are beautiful. And large.  The following caught my eye for one reason or another.

Enjoy!

UPDATE:  

I agree with everyone who left a comment.  The first cottage is my favorite, as well.

A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT

Not your typical pink flamingo!  I rather like it.

Sunset reflected in Kim's office window.

Probably the cutest sunglasses ever!  I just want to know why they don't make these in adult sizes.  I, for one, would for sure wear them!  Modeling them is my almost 4 year old nephew, Ben.

Should I change careers?

Or perhaps NCIS would be a better choice?

And last, but not least, I got this sparkly, glittery bracelet the other day at The Attic.  The picture does not do it justice.  

(All photos, except the last one, were taken on my trip to Georgia.  Still to come, the cottages of Saint Simons Island, but I'll save those for another day.)

BATHROOM SINK SKIRTS

A client e-mailed me last week with a rush job.  She and her husband decided to put their house on the market and needed a couple of things done rather quickly.  One of them was this curtain for the cabinet in her kids' bathroom.  The green and white polka dot matches the tile on the counter.  Before this job, every sink skirt I did was the type below.

This sink skirt was in a showcase home a couple of years ago.  I used to do this kind of skirt fairly often when I lived in Chicago.  The old pedestal sinks lent themselves to this treatment very nicely.  I haven't had much call for them in San Diego.  I think the designer used it in this bathroom more for color.  There was also a roman shade of the same rose fabric.

WELCOME BABY

I did these rocking chair cushions a couple of years ago for a client in Point Loma.  It was her first baby and she chose a pink toile.  Instead of a self-welting, she wanted to have a purchased rope cording.  If you click on the picture, you can see the detail better.

She wasn't a really frilly person, but thought long ties with big bows would look good.  Since I do like bows and ruffles, I was more than happy to do it.

Years and years ago, in another lifetime, I sewed for the baby store Bellini.  This was for one of their clients.  I always loved this angel fabric and it came in about 8 different colors.

The client had this vintage wicker baby bed that got the same fabric.

I even made a little 'mattress' for the bottom.  The thing I remember most about this job was trying to decide which direction the angels should face on the hood.  I finally chose to put them so that the baby would be looking at them in the correct position and not upside down.  Not that a baby that small would even be able to distinguish the angels, let alone understand they were upside down, but just in case, I did it anyway.

CRESCENDOh LAUNCH PARTY

Last night was Jenny Doh's launch party for CRESCENDOh.  And what a party it was.  Seeing old friends and making new ones was just a part of the fun.  There was good food, good wine and good music.  You could just feel the creativity and talent in the air.

Jenny Doh and me

Deb Hodge and me

Miss Maija and me

Kelly English Snelling and me

Jane Pollock, Kelly English Snelling and me

Melody Ross and me

The amazing back of Jane's top.  No jewelry necessary!

A NEW MANNEQUIN ON THE BLOCK

I guess it was inevitable.  
With so many implants out there, I guess the mannequins had to follow suit.

SEA STARS

I got these sea stars while on Saint Simons Island.  And, no, I did not find them on the beach.  I got them at a  really cute store called TRES JOLEE.  What you cannot tell in this picture is just how large they are.  For a little perspective,

the small one in this shot is about 2 1/2" and is the size I use on my sea star charm necklaces.  The large ones I brought home are almost 12" across!  I was a little concerned that I might not be able to get them home without breaking them.  The owner, Jolee Benoit, took one and started beating it on the dresser that was there.  Seriously!  It didn't break and she actually had to wipe off the mark on the dresser that it made.  Needless to say, they made it home packed in my suitcase without any breakage.

Their new home is standing on the edge of the frame I have in my living room.  They are so big that displaying them was kind of a challenge.

I think they fit in perfectly with the shells and volcanic rocks from Hawaii and blue glass jars and weathered beachy blue frame.

PERIWINKLE LINEN SLIPCOVER

I cut this slipcover last November, before Kim left for Georgia, and never got around to making it until I was going to see her.  There were actually two slipcovers for this chaise.  The other never made it on while I was there.  (It was the brown stripe that I did her little chaise and an ottoman out of it before she left.)  It's a little wrinkled because it literally came out of my suitcase and onto the chaise.

The image was printed on the linen after I cut the piece for the inside back.  It's kind of hard to tell, but it is a dark brown ink.

For a different twist, I did a ruffled welting on the cushion.

The back view.  In the upper left corner, Paws is visible on her little chaise.

Button back, with a slightly gathered, unlined skirt.  Definitely a beachy slipcover for Kim's very beachy house.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN

And what an adventure it was getting here.  My day started way before the crack of dawn when my alarm went off at 3:30a.  We left for the Jacksonville airport at around 4:15a, the dogs in the back of the SUV with my heavy suitcase.  I thought it would be lighter coming home as the two slipcovers I brought to Kim would not be in it.  Ha!  I brought a bunch of linen home to make pillow cases from.  When my suitcase was weighed at check-in, it was 49 pounds!  At least it wasn't over-weight.

(Sunrise on Saint Simons Island)

Anyway, I got checked in and to my gate in plenty of time.  My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:25a for Memphis, where I had about an hour before my flight to San Diego.  Everyone was on the plane and just waiting for take-off when the pilots decided something needed to be signed off on and, well, to make a long story short, we all had to de-plane.  In the end, it was determined that I would miss my connecting flight in Memphis, so I was put on a flight to Atlanta that was leaving right then.  We got to Atlanta early so I had some time to get a breakfast sandwich and relax a bit before boarding.  As I went through the boarding gate, my seat assignment was changed - to a MIDDLE seat.  Yuck! Okay, I was still happy to be getting home and just about an hour or so later than my original arrival time.  My suitcase, however, did not make it.  And as of this posting, it still hasn't been delivered.  Okay, again, that's all fine.  I'm home and it's not like I don't have plenty of clothes, etc. here.  Actually getting home from the airport proved to be a bit challenging.  Deb Hodge was going to pick me up, but as we flew in, I could see there was a huge traffic back-up on the road to the airport.  Turns out there is construction, a water main broke and some kind of running race that had the streets blocked off.  I knew it would take her 3 days to get to me so I thought I'd take the shuttle.  In the end, I took it, but only to the ferry terminal, which was about $15 less than having him come all the way here.  So I took the ferry across the bay and walked the rest of the way home.  So glad to be here and Emily is thrilled I'm back.  I have lots of pictures to share from my trip and I will do that in the coming week.  

(Plus, I have lots of blogs to catch up on.  I may need a vacation from my vacation!)

(Sunset on Saint Simons Island)

LEAVIN' ON A JET PLANE

Okay, not really.  But I am going to babysit, or should I say, dogsit for Kim's 3 dog-children.

I haven't seen Kenyon, Paws and Scout since they left in November and moved to the other side of the country.  They traded one island for another!  I'll be on Saint Simons Island for 10 days.  I may or may not have computer access, so I will most likely be AWOL for a while.  My foreign exchange student and next door neighbor will be taking care of Emily and holding the fort down here.

I'll be sure to take lots and lots of pictures and will have plenty to post about when I return!  See everyone then...