Island Living & My Summer Office

I decided to share a few pictures of my beach house this morning.  Our house is a quaint little place located at Topsail Beach, NC.   Topsail is located between Jacksonville, NC and Wilmington, NC.  It's a very "old school" kinda beach.  Not much commercialization.  We love that about it and hope it stays that way!  Our house is located on the south end of the island in a close knit little community.  We have a corner store, where I bought candy as a child.  We also have three restaurants, the Beach Shop Grille, Homeport and The Breezeway, other than that not much here other than The Gift Basket, Putt Putt Golf,  and the Fishing Pier.  We did get a new shop this year called South End Outfitters.  Everyone was so excited!!! Oh, I almost forgot our cool local bookstore, called "The QuarterMoon", where you can buy books, smoothies, coffee and most recently wine and beer.  They have sunset music and drinks on the lawn which the locals are enjoying.

Welcome to my summer office!!!!

My summer office, yes...this is it!  I have a view of the sound from

this chair.  It's the perfect place to answer emails, blog and work

on e-designs.

 I'm sharing this picture, so you can see the art!  The piece at the top

is called "Shrimp Cocktail"!  Both pieces were painted by a local girl

 named Crystal.  I can't remember her last name, but am going to 

do some research and find it.  I have lots of her work though

 out the beach house. She painted these to raise money

 for her trip to Disney one year.  I was happy to oblige!

My gallery wall.  I try to add something every year.  It's a fun collection of

art or sayings that mean something to me.  I realized this morning that

my niche for my interior design business is "intentional design"

Everything I design has a reason or intention for myself and for my clients.

And the answer is yes...I intentionally painted every wall in the main room

two different colors!  To say this house is colorful is an understatement!

Every Spring I make a commitment to finish up projects by June 1st, so that I can transition to my beach house for the summer months. My sweet husband stays behind to work during the week and take care of the home front.  He does visit us on weekends though, which is nice. My parents and my siblings all have houses here as well.   It is the only time of the year,my children get to spend time with my family, other than holidays. My sister and her family share a house with us.  We love it when they are here.  Her boys and my boys are about the same age and love spending time together.  They ride bikes,play baseball and go to the beach together. I love it when my niece Lily comes up for craft projects.  I have featured her here on the blog as my "design assistant" several times.  I love to watch my niece McKinley on her daily runs around our house!  She is an inspiration!

  It's not always beach days and blue skies here, but it is a calmer, simpler life for me with the kids.  I do continue to do e-design while here and often commit to local projects, but this summer, I have decided not to work very much, so I'm taking limited projects. It seems nice to slow down a bit.  My schedule over the past year has been crazy, so I welcome the break from work and travel. I don't keep a schedule when at the beach.  I tend to go to bed earlier and get up earlier.  I love the early morning quiet, before everyone rises. Our house is small so once everyone is up, the house is full of activity and it's hard to think.  I am enjoying my daily walks on the beach and visits with neighbors. We have an "open door" policy here, so lots of visits from neighbors.  Our door is like a revolving door at times!

Our house sits on a lot that is surround by a street on three sides and has a big glass door, so at times it kinda feels like living in a  "fish bowl" because people drive by and look.  I often wonder what they are looking at, but then it could be they are wondering who would live in a house with hot pink doors and adirondack chairs painted turquoise with pink, white and yellow polka dots.  Those two elements gives clues to the interior design as well.  As you can see from the pictures our house doesn't lack color.  I called it "caribbean crazy".  It's much like our attitude when at the beach which is "life is short, enjoy to the fullest" and that's exactly what we plan to do....all summer long!

I have had readers email and asked to see pictures of the beach house, so I decided I would post a couple this morning.  If you would like to see the rest of the house, just post a comment below.  I don't want to assume my readers really want to see the house so I won't post unless you seem interested.  

Fanny the Flamingo says "Island Living is the best"

Speaking of island living, one of my style icons is India Hicks, daughter of the legendary David Hicks, she also lives on an island but does so year around.  I love to see pictures of her playing on the beach with her children.  Her life looks so idyllic. I just received an email about her private sale....Did you get the email?  If not, pop over and check it out.  Hurry, it's only this week!  I have already loaded my cart! I love everything India Hicks.  

I hope you enjoyed the mini tour of my humble beach abode!  Remember, if you want to see

more I will only share if I get enough readers who are interested, so if interested please comment.  I don't want to bore you guys!  

Hopefully, I will be able to talk a few of my friends down here into letting me share their homes on the blog.  There are some really beautiful homes here!