Home Sweet Seaside-Inspired Home

It's no surprise that I love anything inspired by the sea. You can't go very far, actually you can't go one step, in our apartment without seeing something that suggests you're on a beach or a boat. I think only a coastal-inspired soundtrack, filled with seagulls and waves crashing, would complete the experience. Either that or we could move into a house on the beach. Now that would be the day.

Until we buy and move into our perfect beach-side getaway, I'll continue decorating our place with items that make us feel almost like we're on a beach vacation while sitting on the sofa. Nautical looking lanterns, sea-inspired artwork, and seashells collected over the years take their places on our tables, shelves, and walls.

1. I found the starfish, glass jar, and cork stopper at Patina antique store in Denver. Since we have access to the beach now, I'm hoping to find some starfish myself. What better way, except maybe having an aquarium, to bring the sea to your home than by sharing these lovely little marine creatures?

2. I love filling jars and candle holders with sand and seashells. If you can't spend every waking moment on the beach, then bring the beach to you.

3. Even our bathroom has a sea glass inspired palette.

4. The lanterns on our dining room table sort of make it feel like we're dining seaside. Behind our table you'll find a piece of artwork featuring some delicious looking seafood. Since we can't afford lobster and crab, we might as well look at it while we eat chicken and rice, right?! ;)

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Recently I've pinned a few inspiring images
to my Pinterest boards.

You can see my love for sea inspired colors come to life in these images.

Source: blog.alicelanehome.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Source: designlectures.com via Ashley on Pinterest

I look forward to having a house
that we can make our own some day.

Until then, I'll keep pinning inspiring ideas!

Bad Blogger

Lately I've been a bit M.I.A. in the blogosphere. It's not that I don't want to read your blog posts and write meaningful comments, but sometimes I just need to focus on and put more effort into what's going on directly around me. This doesn't mean I'm missing out on your blog posts, because I've been quickly browsing over so many of them for the past week or so. I comment on some, but I may not comment every single day. However, I do still get enjoyment from reading your posts... so keep them coming!

Here are some things I've been doing this week:

eating creamsicles

 killing cockroaches

wrapping presents

{No, it's not for you. Sorry}

Not too blog worthy, huh? But now you know.

As much as I love getting your input via comments, I just wish I had more time on my hands to comment on each and every one of your blogs every single day. There just isn't enough time in my day to do that, but that doesn't mean I don't wonder what you're doing! Please forgive me for being a bad blogger lately.

Happy Friday!!

I hope you all have plans to do something fun this weekend.

Not in the Mood

I have a lot on my mind, and that doesn't leave much room for thinking or writing. However, I do feel like leaving you with a random assortment of thoughts from some favorite books to why I love golden retrievers.

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Yesterday I did something very bad.

Okay, bad depending on how you look at it.

I spent money on something I shouldn't have. I bought a book.
We already have a bookshelf full of books, which I refer to as our library,
but after reading 37 pages in the bookstore yesterday I just had to buy this one!
A Big Little Life by Dean Koontz

I may be a bit biased since I grew up with a golden retriever,

but they really are an amazing breed of dog.

Below is a picture of me and my dog, Gnomie, when I was just a baby.

My parents named her Gnomie since she was the runt of her litter, and Gnomes are small.

Makes sense, right?

She used to follow me around our place when I was crawling,

and my parents said she always slept next to me when I fell asleep.

She was basically my guardian angel in dog form.

If you want to know what love is,

get a dog. They will teach you.

Other great books featuring dogs:

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

There was something about our dog, Gnomie, that made you want to hug and squeeze her. I used to tell her all my secrets, and, since I was an only child, she was a constant companion. She was great at multitasking when it came to meeting the demands of a needy only child. She was also one of the best listeners I've ever known, but maybe that's because she couldn't talk back. I think if she could have spoken with words she would have though. Dogs always seem to know just what you need, and Gnomie was no exception.

Do you have any favorite books featuring a dog as the main character?

You're Invited to the (Arm) Party

Right now, you just might find yourself asking what is an arm party anyways? I wondered the same thing when I heard the term, but today I'm hosting an arm party all my own. You're invited!

{If the party gets too rowdy, you can always kick someone out.}

By hosting an arm party, I really mean wearing an arm full of fun bracelets. The great thing about an arm party is that you get to invite any kind of bracelet you want. You know, you might include the colorful one with all of the spunk, or maybe you want to invite the bracelet that will be sure to keep everyone else in check or even the single wallflower bangle. Today I invited handmade hemp and yarn bracelets paired with silver, sparkly, and beaded bracelets. They're all invited, and when you put all of these unique individuals together it's sure to be a par-tay!

{  arm party top to bottom:  Dillard's (wore on our wedding day)
homemade by my cousin  |  gifted (see this post)  |  turquoise bangle from forever21

handmade by moi  |  Tiffany & Co. (gift)  }

Want to know something else that's great about the arm party? It's so much fun that it can distract viewers from spending too much time looking at your lackluster outfit. When you want to wear a baggy shirt and frayed denim shorts, just throw on an arm party to breath a little life into an uninspired outfit.

{ I purchased that green ring on a beach in Italy... but that deserves its own blog post }

Maybe someday I'll get to feeling brave and wear a crazy arm party while covering my body with a potato sack. No. Not really. I probably won't do that, but the chances of getting away with it are good when you have an armful of fun bracelets to distract people. The arm party is never boring. Now let's get this (arm) party started!

Head over to Pretty Shiny Sparkly to see other arm parties in action.

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Oh. I almost forgot!
Today you can also find me over at Patchie[Verbs] sharing
one of my very favorite waterside getaways. There are lots of pretty pictures too!
Go and read all about it. (:

Your Friendship (Bracelet) Means A Lot

Friendship bracelets are making a comeback! Seriously. For real. The very bracelet I used to spend hours making, while laying in the grass next to the lake, is making a comeback. The friendship bracelet is not just for middle school girls. Anyone can wear them!

Still don't believe me? I've seen quite a few bloggers featuring photos of their colorful bracelets. Kristina, over at Pretty Shiny Sparkly, is hosting another Bloggers Do It Better link-up featuring stacks of bracelets that another blogger has coined an arm party. So get out your favorite bracelets, layer them thick, and link up photos of your own arm party tomorrow! Let's see that lovely arm candy.

Great. Not only do I have a nail polish obsession, but now I'm going to be spending my time making friendship bracelets too. As if I need another time waster. I already have blogging and Pinterest for that. Oh well, I might as well add friendship bracelet making to that list too.

Is it weird keeping friendship bracelets that you make yourself? It's almost like I'm asking myself to be friends. I mean, at least I like me. Yes, I'll be my friend! How sweet of you to make this bracelet for me. Hi, my name is Ashley, and sometimes I talk to myself. We all do that sometimes, right? ...Right?! Oh well. I might be a little crazy, but at least I have a pretty friendship bracelet from yours truly on my wrist. Check back here tomorrow for photos of my newest friendship bracelets.  (:

In the meantime, you can check out some

other blogs for friendship bracelet inspiration:

Fashiolista shows us a pretty assortment of friendship bracelets

Honestly... wtf shows us how to create chevron pattern friendship bracelets
Michabella Living a Life of Love hosted a blogger bracelet swap
Emily Recommends shares some unique friendship bracelets

Are you hopping on the friendship bracelet train?

Just Another Magic Monday

Before my husband and I even knew his job would take us to Florida (which you can read about Here), I was talking about visiting Disney World. Last year we even took part in Disney's 'Give a Day, Get a Day' but never used our free park tickets, because we just couldn't manage to work a Florida vacation into our schedules. Even though our free Disney tickets expired, I was still set on visiting Disney in the near future. Imagine my excitement when I found out that through a friend of a friend we could visit Disney World for free!

If you read my last post about our time spent at Disney, you'll see that anything free at Disney World is something worth celebrating. Parking at the theme parks alone costs about $14/day, but Downtown Disney parking is free. Even though parking is only free at Downtown Disney, a hot dog with fries will set you back almost $9 alone. Your bank account will thank you whenever you find ways to save money at Disney World. Our bank account downright jumped for joy when we were so graciously given free entrance by a park employee. Too bad we didn't live closer to Orlando, or I know where I would be looking for a job!

Unfortunately, we left the dSLR on this visit to Disney World. I knew we would be focused on getting the most out of our time at the parks, and I was worried it might take some abuse in the midst of our craziness. I really hope we visit again (when the weather is much cooler) so that I can get some better photos from around the parks.

I have more photos and possibly a video to share with you from this trip to Disney World, so check back in the next couple of days for those. When I read a blog post over at Keeping up with Kelly & Company, she mentioned making videos on iMovie. We have a Mac too, and our computer came with iMovie but we never use it. I can see where I'll be spending some time over the next few days.

I just saw a cockroach scurry away into the little space between our carpet and baseboard. I have to run! Talk to you later. (:

I hope you're having a magic Monday!