It's Bellas Birthday!

Hello my friends, are you staying hot or cool right now? It has been very hot again. I haven't been around much this past week because I am volunteering for the next few weeks in order to get some current work experience for my resume. Today is Bella Lunas 4th birthday! Time flys - I can't believe she has turned into a mature Doberman! On our morning outing all the wildlife  came out to greet her-turkeys, armadillos, cats, and lake birds. Where is the camera when you need it.

H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y 

 B E L L A !

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Beachy Birthday finds&free printable

Hello, today I'm sharing my beachy birthday gifts with you. My MIL sent me this lovely candle set. The scallop candle holders is for tiny candles, and the other shells are for tea lights. It has a patina, so it is silver and just needs some cleaning up. I can't wait to display them!

She bought the set in Woodbury, Ct at the Pewter Factory. An awesome find!

My DH and the kids animals got me some coffee table books.

An entire book about sea glass-I'm going to be an expert by the time I finish reading this. It has beautiful photos, too.

This is another awesome book filled with photos of beach treasure and information.

I got those lovely roses from my neighbours garden..

..and from Chloe.

I made peach mini cobblers with homemade whipped cream and cinnamon for dessert-yum. My dogs love to eat whipped cream.

And we had my favorite pizza-Magical Mystery Tour from Mellow Mushroom. I love those toppings-the dough needs some work though. I will have to try to recreate this pizza at home. It has garlic pesto, feta, spinach, mushrooms, and halopeno peppers on it.

dowload here

Here is another free printable for you~enjoy. Have a good week everyone!

Furniture redo-Wicker Patio Set

Good Morning my lovelies, how is everyone? Today I'm sharing my redo of the wicker patio set. Let me first tell you how I acquired the set-during spring clean up in our community last year we found a big dumpster filled with treasures or trash, depending on who you ask. I made my DH climb in there and he resuced the bench, some small items and a rocking chair that you saw in previous posts. Talk about dumpster diving! My DH couldn't believe I made him do that.

The two chairs and table were sitting on the sidewalk in front of someones house and I went and asked if I could have it. I just love getting free stuff-in Germany I used to go 'junkin' ' every year when it was the towns annual junk day. People would put their unwanted items at the curb and the city picked it up for free. The night before you would see cars with trailers and trucks driving really slow through the streets looking for stuff. Needless to say in the morning half of the items were gone! Nowadays you have to schedule an appointment with the city to have your items picked up. Anyways, back to the redo at hand.

The entire set was in bad shape-the bench was painted black, and the formerly white chairs and table were greenish and wet from the AL humidity. I started by washing everything off and letting it dry in the sun for a while. Then the set sat on my front patio for oh, about a year, before I started to work on it again. Sad, I know. In my defense I claim the heat and humidity around here. It all worked out to my advantage though, as I scored some free paint in the meantime see here.

I had to sand the bench down a bit before I was able to paint it. I used the Glidden blue paint on the bench, and Krylon spray paint in white on the rest of the pieces. I also made some pillows from fabric I had. I used a fabric piece as table cloth on the little table and added some shells-got to have those.

I think it was worth the effort-I now can use the set year round and decorate it with accent pillows for the seasons. My cat Chloe loves it too, she lays on the bench and surveys her domain and occasionally sharpens her claws on it. Linking upto Susan, Courtney, and here.

 

Surprise Birthday Bash & freebie

A few weeks ago my friend Karen from the Essential Beachcomber blog contacted me and asked me to throw a surprise blog party for our friend Shellbelle who is turning 60 today! We all met through our common love for Florida and the ocean. Shellbelle is fortunate enough to live in beautiful Florida where she can collect shells to her hearts desire ...

...and use them to make beautiful crafts for her Etsy store.

Happy Birthday Rhonda! Wishing you many more returns filled with shelling adventures.

I'd also like to wish my friend Bianca from Creativity, Life and Me a Happy Birthday!

I had a birthday, too, and Bella's 4th birthday is coming up-July is a birthday month for us.

Here is today's freebie for you! Perfect for your summer decorating-home or blog. Enjoy!

download here

Have a great week and hop on over to say hi to the birthday girls. Cheers,

                                   

Weekend quote

Hello my friends, happy weekend to you. Today I will leave with you a short quote to remind you of the simple things in life. I hope you are somewhere nice and get to do fun things. Next week will be much fun here at Doberman's by the Sea-I have some fun posts and freebies lined up, so don't miss it. Perhaps you have noticed the new look in sky blue? I also made a new header-beachy of course. Do you like?

I'd also like to welcome my new followers and readers, and thank everyone for their continued sweet comments! You guys rock.

Ciao,

{Crafting} Wholeport Creativity Expo projects

Hello everyone, as I posted about a while back I received some free crafting supplies from Wholeport. Their creativity expo is running through 1 August on Facebook, and I'm entering these two projects I just finished. The first is a hairclip that I adorned with their buttons. I used Fabri tac to affix them. Simple and easy.

The second project is a wine glass marker. I used a silver painted sea shell and some buttons strung on wire.

Hop on over to their FB page and vote for us or visit their blog for more crafting tips. Linking up here. Cheers,

{Decorating} Beachy vignette

Hello friends and readers, glad to have you here today. How are you on this fine Tuesday? We recently celebrated a birthday (more about that in another post) and I decorated my outdoor table with a beachy vignette. There are two beach themed vignette parties this week: Marty's and the CSI Project's.

I used vintage linen as a base, normally I have this piece on a window sill. I wanted to incorporate several elements from the beach: sea stars, driftwood, sea shells, sand, sand dollars. The rose was part of the birthday bouquet and I thought it would add a nice touch to the vignette and go well with the blue hues.

The sand dollar my DH brought back from Panama City. The driftwood is from a local lake. I glued the tea light holders onto it and added tea lights. I got the idea from Heather over at Simple Daisy the other day.

The blue beachy bottles I showed you here already, but I figured they would go well with my theme. The summer printable I made a while ago and it is available for download here.

The sea stars, shells and sand are finds from Florida beaches and the blue glass sand dollar is a souvenir from PCB. We had a nice BBQ, and it was just the two of us, so there was plenty of room left on the table. I can't wait to have a house with a fire place, so I can decorate the mantel and free up my tables.

This beachy setting incorporates many things that I heart-blues, sea treasures, and crafts. The only thing missing is the ocean. Do you decorate with beach treasures? What about colors for summer? As you know I am loving turquoise and coral right now. Linking up here. I'm leaving you with the thought for the day:

                                      No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Aesop

                                         

Please like us on FB

                Hello and Happy Weekend to you! As you may know we are on Facebook now, and to get an official Doberman's by the Sea page we need 25 likes. Please click on the Like box below to help us out! We appreciate it !! Cheers,                                

                                                       




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{Travel&Leisure} Florida Beaches-St. Andrews State Park/PCB

Happy Friday my friends! It is time for another edition of Florida Beaches. We visited St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach. We loved it-the beaches were clean and the sand was like powder. They had facilities there and a snack shop. Look at the color of that water. Unfortunately the tide was coming in, so not a lot of shells and we couldn't really go out to the sandbar. The ocean was rough that day, but we managed to go in the water anyways.

Lot's of seabirds of course. They are always looking for a bite to eat.

The St. Andrews Park Pier. After the pier the highrises start and this is where all the tourists hang out.

Crystal clear waters-never seen anything like it anywhere else. This is where my turquoise color obsession started-see here.

Great sand dunes. They are a protected area.

You can see here the Gulf was rough that day. To read about our trip to Shell Island visit here. Linking up here. Have a great weekend (hopefully at the beach).

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. Ashley Smith

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{Clothing&Accessories} Coral Inspiration

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Hello everyone, are you staying cool and dry in this hot summer weather? It has been unbelieveably muggy here in LA. I'm in the process of getting together my summer vacation wardrobe, and I came across these wonderful coral inspirations. I think I have found a new color that I heart almost as much as turquoise.

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Coral comes in almost as many shades as blue's. It looks equally good dressed up or casual.

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The above outfit can go well into fall and the coral shirt is very versatile.

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Another fall outfit - the coat gives your wardrobe just enough pop and it goes well with the red bag.

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This dress is dreamy!

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These shoes are more pretty than practical, but I envision a basic black or white outfit with them. And the nail polish is perfect for the beach and those who don't like to wear colorful clothing.

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Love how casual this outfit is-and it also can be worn during fall and with boots in the winter.

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I adore these pants and the clutch-very casual yet still chic. If you haven't yet you should check out Pinterest for its great inspirational pictures. Did you know we are on
FB now-find us here! What summer color do you adore right now? Cheers,

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