Sea Shell Inspiration

One of my passed times is to walk along the coastline collecting seashells, its amazing to think that once lived sea creatures inside them, and I can't help but wonder why would these little things leave such a beautiful home behind, their interior's and exterior's is to one's heart desire, I love the ruff texture as I run my thumb back and forward on the outside of its chalky exterior, then turning them over to discover what beauty of colour lies within the smooth interior.

 How can one not like or love such beauty, with this in mind I'm seeking here yet again inspiration from our family holiday to Queensland where I stumbled across many different types of shell that had been washed up on the beach, I still wasn't quite sure what or how I was going to incorporate these elements into my soap and that being the colour, the texture, the smoothness, the sand, and most of all creating an effect the best represents the pearly interior. 

So the Pearl of the Sea was created with all these elements, I tried to capture the purple ombre interior of the shell, and while adding seaweed and sea salt to create the texture on the top, with a light touch of blue mica added the shimmer of aqua water, ground pumice stone adorns the bottom to represents the sand that clings to the shell.   

Femininity of floral scent swimming through seaweed and sea water to find the Pearl of the Sea. Grounded pumice stone that gently exfoliates your skin with a pinch of seaweed and seasalt you feel your skin is moisturized and refreshed.

Great Barrier Reef Inspiration

Well here we are first blog post in years, forgotten how much I love using my camera and posting on my blog, with 2 teenage daughters now, that love making videos for their YouTube channel seam to command my camera equipment 90% of the time ha ha ha, not to mention daily life runs away with you. I'm back I hope you enjoy what I post and Adeline Country Cottage's new direction its heading, now I'm still keeping the vintage feel but with a twist of Aussie scope to the brand, just felt I need to come back to my Australian roots using it as my inspiration, some products will be inspirited from around the world however mostly the colours that represents here in our sun burnt country, So without further ado let's get into it.

January in the height of our summer here in Australia, we surprised our daughters and took them to Queensland for a summer vacation of sun, fun and relaxation, spent time at the fun parks for the girls, and for my hubby and I it was more about trying beautiful foods, walking the shoreline market and just relaxing in general.

But of course being a creative person for me it was being inspired, inspired about the colours of the sea, the sand, shells, drift wood, the care free living of a tropical life, light weight fabrics, the smell of tropical food in the air and the smiles on holiday makers faces.

 Ive always had a love for the beach, growing up when feeling down I always gravitated down to the shoreline as my thinking place, something about the sound of seawater against the shore washes the mind taking my worries out into the ocean, even if I had to drive an hour to get to the beach, I knew it was well worth it, (ha ha ha many sunset photos fill a photo box from over the years of using a film loaded camera, if you where to dive into that box you would be like yep that's sunset oh wait yeah thats another sunset photo), ha ha ha what can I say, whats not to love about a sunset.

   So anyway lets get back to it (my mind drifts away sometimes, must be dreaming of the sea air) with all these beautiful images from our family holiday in my creative mind I wanted to create some products using a few of these elements in mind. I Jumped back into my studio and start flicking through all our holiday images and some researching online, I don't make anything until I know the ins and outs of the products I'm using to create my soap, you know, like what properties and benefits are that is great for the skin, and of course trial and error and a whole lot of love. Ha ha ha sometime I feel like a witch over her cauldron, few drops of this a dash of that. 

So in the next view posts will be about my inspiration and products I have created out of our trip up north to Queensland. 

was inspired by the rolling waves that has this calmness about them, you know how they form a white and aqua barrel of water in swirling motion, like it's extracting or your worries and stress from your mind leaving you mesmerized, well that's what I wanted to capture the calmness and worry free not to mention the sparkling diamonds that reflects off the water from the sun beaming down from above. 

Calm Your Farm Bubble Bar has a swirling motion of white blue calmness of lavender essential oils filling your bath with all that foaming bubbles of the waves you see tumbling and crashing towards the sea shore, while aqua glitter reminds you of the sparkling like diamonds that's been reflected from the sun and lavender buds reflects the sea flora below.     

was inspired by one of the most beautiful place in the world, off the coast of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef in the largest living thing in the whole of the world, did you know you can actually see it from outer space amazing and very special, inspirational for sure, well for me away.

So with the Great Barrier Reef in-mind and the hue and texture, I wanted to create and capture this is a soap, was a lot of trial and error in the making but I feel I've captured it beautifully in this hand soap. 

Swimming among the coral reef in the turquoise waters, well you will fall in love with the zesty lemongrass sage, poppy seeds that gently exfoliates your skin with a pinch of seaweed and sea salt you feel refreshed and alive.

Also known to get rid of those fishy hand smells, if your one to cut up bate for fishing or deboning fish for your dinner, Great Barrier Reef Soap will be your best friend removing these odours. If you are wondering Great Barrier Reef is a #Vegan product.

Well thats it for my first post back, if you have and questions about the soap leave a comment and Ill be sure to answer any questions that you may have. Stay tune for the next post where I have more soap inspiration from our holiday. If you are a soap maker or not please leave your link in comment as I would love to pop over and visit you.

And always remember inspiration is all around us.

Sneak Peek...

Well hello there, yes it has been awhile since my last post, with many things to think about and what direction Adeline Country Cottage is going, It's time to go full steam ahead with no distractions, I am back on board and have been working hard planning new things for us and creating unique items that you can purchase in our little online boutique over the coming months...hope you like our sneak peek!!!

Lost my way...

A beautiful sweet vase with delicate roses

 Something about me:

Over the years I have worked hard building well what I thought was building Adeline Country Cottage to be one day a family business, but for the last few year I have felt lost, lost in why I started in the first place, lost in my design eye and lost in the wonderful world of eye candy. Hm mm well I do know why I started, something I could call my own, something where one day my family can read/look back on or build on, part of my life's journey and for them to enjoy too...

This business card is the very first business cards I made and never used them and not to mention I found them a few weeks back...bought me back to where I started.

The one thing I have a passion for and that's design, designs of my styles, colour, colour makes my heart sing, and photography, images that draw you in so much that you have to or got to have it, which has lead me to fill my home with treasure that really I never wanted them in the first place, so for me this is a major trap and why I'm lost, lost in others ideas, I have found that I've been following what others do or want and not what I want...I posted a few weeks back on facebook that I feel like just giving up, being so over whelmed with anything and everything, to much stuff! 

lovely pattern design on a vintage bowl

But with weeks of searching and having deep hard look at myself and of my business that it's time to get back to my roots and start going with my gut feeling, and creating things or buying what I like, not because the people want them, well if they do it's a bonus, but to enjoy what I have created or bought...many times I have made tags and sold them and never kept one for myself, it's only been in the last two years that I started to, the boxes that I've made or the Christmas houses or decorations, soft furnishings, making over furniture and many many other things I haven't kept one, not even for my girls, so that's something that needs to change, make them for my girls and home first before selling or giving them away...

I love the colourway of theses leaves

Or not to mention lost in the world of home ware treasures that I have abundance of, that I was drawn in by the eye candy photos, saying buy me I'm so pretty, you don't really need me, but look how pretty I am and I bought it, wanting to create my house into that design that you created, (and notice I called it my house and not my home, I have a thing if you don't own the home your renting a house)...yes lost.

platted rose handle, plant wrapped in old shopping paper bag

Well you can blame me, I'm sure we've all done it, but when is enough is enough, well a girl can never have to much treasures I say, Still lost. 

grey metal leave

I also ask myself to blog or not to blog, I also ask myself do people visit my blog and read or do they just flick passed looking at all the eye candy, or to click by me to get to another on my sidebar, oh yeah some do and yes I'm guilty of that in the past.

 I read somewhere, beautiful pictures help people come back more and more as they love seeing eye candy images, and read in another place to have the common Curtice to leave a comment, if you have time to go visit you have time to comment even if it's a few words, I have done that a few times yep guilty here too.

But after looking back over my blog posts over the last few months, I have come to realise, I don't have passion in my writing, I say how I talk and that's just me, I guess what you would call it here in blog land finding my voice, which I have also read, I also come to realise that I haven't opened up of my true feeling and how I SEE the world, what my likes or dislikes, what I love to cook and eat, what I hate doing at home like the washing, cleaning etc, etc, I guess people get bored with what you write or maybe I'm just not passion it enough for them to listen/read about, just saying or letting people into my softer side...ewww who wants to hear you say. but I guess I really should because it is my journey, and I really should write how I feel and not worry about it as it's for my family and for me as I like going back sometimes to see how far I has steered of course lol and for you of course too:) who like to follow.     

plant: old mans wiskers

So after a long had think, I going to change and restructure a few things and go back to my roots and hopefully come out with a better plan.   

a little Christmas tree

A better plan for business of what I love and passion and for family who mean the world to me...

and the decorating begins.

A even more happier life!

x

Kirstie

Who's feeling Christmas coming very fast this year :)



Christmas Under the Tatted Roof

Well it's leading up to that time of the year where we all start thinking about Christmas, Last year I wrote some post on "Inspiring Christmas Table Setting" you can read about them Here and Here well this was one that I never had time to post about as the crazy season, well was crazy busy.

And not to mention I no longer live at this house as we have moved to a different location. Now what inspired me to do this Under the Tatted Roof Christmas setting you ask, well after a long weekend of garage sales and lots left over, most of it what you see was just sitting around the back door here, loving the colour palette I got to work setting it up.

some modern chair had some coffee bean sacks pulled over them.

twine tie off the silver ware, crystal wine glass get a simple coloured bead, each one has a different colour so guests don't get there glasses mixed up.

A bench seat with white cloud pillows to relax after a Christmas lunch, An old rustic ladder that holds some handmade Christmas ornaments, some rustic wire baskets to collect unwanted Christmas wrapping paper. 

 Sheer curtains hang to screen, a large wreath hangs from an old rust iron frame, once was attach to a fly screen door, Jewel Spray Silver Disc Ornaments lay on vintage lace and pine cones that can be purchased Here     



Cream vintage plates with gold trim, vintage pure white napkins and a white Christmas gift tag for each guest, A White Christmas House sits in pine cones in a rust old freezer basket, Dancing Reindeer around the pine cones, White Christmas House and Frosted Reindeer can be purchased Here and Here  



an old vintage cream and gold chandelier and white chippy pantry door are decorated with holly,



a simple tag, of thoughts to you,

A large white dove makes its nest in the pine needles, while a handmade snow ball and vintage music Christmas tree hands from a ladder, the table center graces a milk white bowl that house a white Christmas barn and baubles, holly and vintage glass ware.

just a simple way to decorate for Christmas with just a few things around your home and garden.

enjoy!

Kirstie.

Adeline Country Cottage goes to Time Worn Style Mountain Studio 2 the Final Part...

A few months back I visited my dear friend Alicia of Time Worn Style Mountain Studio, upon driving through her lynchgate with only just enough room for my car to fit, I was thinking how beautiful is this! it was like driving into a secret garden.

Weeks had gone by with many mornings waking from a beautiful dream,
dreams of this lynchgate that I couldn't get out of my mind of what
and how I'd like to decorate it with a table setting for that lazy summer afternoon luncheon.

So I thought the only way I'm going to stop these dreams is to contact Alicia, and tell her about my dreams
about her lynchgate, and of course to ask her if I can come up one day to set it all up and have a styling shoot,
and for Alicia to assist me in the styling, to my surprise Alicia loved the idea.

This is where it began Adeline Country Cottage goes to 

Time Worn Style Mountain Studio...

We had played around with a few stylings that I had in mind, this is exactly what I envisioned...
A place hidden away under the lynchgate, a place where you feel taken away from the busy life one leads, a place to share with friends on a lazy summer afternoon lunch, with delishes food,
fine wine, great company with laughter echoing through the garden...your mind wonders! lets bring you back!

I love traveling around to opp-shops, antique stores and online to find that perfect piece, with a love of all things blue, pale pink, white, cream, silver, gold, silver grey timbers, crystal class, dried pink roses, vintage tins and of course chandeliers. I also like mixing old with the new,
so with styling this setting came very easy, a place where I dream to be.

I love layers of white vintage table cloths, the freshness and the feel of luxury, I think Rachel Ashwell once said "like old hankies'...vintage table clothes can be found in many places garage sales, opp shop (thrifty stores) antique stores etc, I don't pay anything over $25 for a large size,

I have thought about buying new french linens, but there is nothing nicer then an old soft well worn table cloth, that you can pick up around the corner from home that doesn't cost to much, thats if your on a tight budget of course, dont you agree?

The vintage cream plates with the tatted gold rims can be found for a few dollars per plate, you can be lucky to pick up a set, but in my case it was one at a time and at different places and of different sizes,

here I have used 2 napkins, vintage white and pink, you can never have to many napkins at the table, the thought behind this is the large white one for your lap and the smaller pink one for those little bits of food around the mouth can be wiped away...as I laugh!

vintage napkins can be sourced everywhere, the white napkins here a set of twelve where $15 and the pink 99c each, I have used a very sheer vintage ribbon to hold the napikins together and placed the fine silver cutlery inside, 

now silver cutlery sets can set you back quite a bit but with a little resourcing you can be very lucky to find them at a good price, the set I have used here for a place setting of 12 that came in the box for $50 great find if you ask me,

The clear crystal wine glasses I find most familys have, weather there handed down or given as a wedding present or buy them, they are dim a dozen in thirfty stores couple of dollars I've seen them for, and who said they all had to match as long as they all have the same size.

Dotted around the table are some odd glass jars to add tea lights in, well there nothing really special, just find some that works for you for a couple of cents,

The blue drinking glass are a reproduction, now these glasses Alicia was so happy to assist me with, they have the cut of a crystal glass and had been put into a dish washer and lost some of it's blue, they look like they have the vintage fadeness, but you know I think it adds to the appeal of the table setting, Oh and did I mention Alicia gave them to me as a gift...I love them!

the tall blue water bottle can be found in kmart for $1.99, the small vintage bottle dotted around the table are an easy find,
prices range between $2 to $12, they come in different shades from clear to a tint of blue.

The two gorgeous blue hobnail vases, they are the most vibrant Greek sea blue with a white rim around the top very had to find, if you see them grab them, they are worth alot of money, lets just say anything under $100 is a bargin, the two here where under that price.

I love fresh flowers, but didn't want to much here after all your in this beautiful secret garden that provides such natural beauty,
I went with some dried pink roses, placed here and there, and an old silver grey bucket that housed some blue hydrangeas,

A sweet little table crystal drop candelabra, and blue chairs found in one of Alicia's junket runs.

I love the idea of hanging my milk white chandelier, and liked the idea of having a white picture frame hanging, but I wanted something different so we hung both of them,
the whiteness of the frame and the chandelier as the vocal and brought the outdoor room all together, the vintage frame cost $50 and had nothing but a slap of white under coat paint,

the milk white chandelier was my bargain of the century cost me $5 yep your reading right $5 dollars, I just happened to be at the right place at the right time!

Well I'll let you scroll and view the rest of images

I had such a wonderful time with Alicia, thank you so much Alicia for opening your home and garden for me to for fill my dream...And thank you to Sonia for publishing this photo shoot in

Creating Vintage Charm magazine and putting Adeline Country Cottage on the front cover.

Kirstie.