Stormy Beach

Just a couple of weeks ago we had pretty bad weather here in Perth. It was very windy, and even though the sun shone through the storm clouds occasionally, we still had a lot of rain and stormy weather.

At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, just as the day started getting a little less light, I suddenly had this urge to go outside and RUN. Now, I have always been quite sporty, but I haven’t been running for quite some time. And I had not been doing much sport for quite a while either. Nevertheless I had this feeling that I had to get out into the strong wind with a possible shower and a little bit of sun and get my blood pumping and my thoughts and lethargy blown away.

Naturally my run led me straight down to the beach. I had my ipod with my favorite music going. Just before I got down to the beach I had to stop at the toilet block near the playground to shelter from a strong shower. When it was blown over, I went on and got down to the water.

I was the only person on the beach. The waves were pretty high. The sun was close to setting behind a lot of clouds, but you could see it shining through in yellow orange. The wind nearly blew me away. And my favorite tunes were playing in my ear. It was TOTALLY UPLIFTING, MIND-CHANGING, AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL. I stood facing the water and the sunset with my arms outstretched to the side. Like I wanted to embrace the whole world. I took deep breaths. And felt like I was cleansed, uplifted, and everything was all right. I felt so small, but so fullfilled at the same time.

I started running, jumping, dancing along the beach, from one jetty to the other. I can’t describe the feeling. I went totally wild – there was nobody to watch and think how crazy I was! The only encounter I had was with a flock of pelicans on the beach. It was EERIE – the wind, the sun, the clouds, the beach, the waves, the pelicans, especially when one lifted up in the air and sailed on the wind not 4 meters away from me. I never felt so close to nature.

Needless to say that this was the best run I ever had in my entire life. I felt cleansed, revived, calm, ready to take on the world when I came back home. The stormy beach had lifted my heart.

P.S. The beach in the picture is not “my” beach; unfortunately I did not carry a camera with me at the time. If I did, I think the experience would not have been as great as it was, as I would have been concentrating on taking a picture of the beach and the pelicans.

Lobster Creation

Whilst looking at images relating to the beach on Google the other day, I stumbled across some fascinating nautical wall decor by an artist in Florida. John Rankine has been doing nautical art work for 28 years, and I think he has developed quite an artwork in itself!

Lobster and Seashells

These are stunning pieces of a very unique kind. Just perfect if you like to really bring the beach and ocean inside (or outside for that matter) – I think you can nearly hear the seagulls cry just looking at these pieces.

John creates all his art by hand in his studio, and he only uses genuine driftwood from the beaches of Florida and lobsters that have been hand caught following state regulations. He uses only the shell of the lobsters, of course, and the meat is used for consumption prior to turning the lobsters into nautical wall art.

This lobster wall decor that you see in the pictures is not the only art John creates. He also custom designs lobster trap coffee and end tables with different lobster configurations, or driftwood picture frames. How authentically “beach” that is! John only uses natural and recyclable materials.

You can even bring your own prize lobster to be turned into your very own piece of art work! Just go and visit Lobster Creations to find out more, or to contact John.

Seashell Critters

If you love seashell decor and you love to collect seashells but sometimes wonder what to do with all these lovely treasures, just have a look at these lovely seashell critters you can create (especially with your kids!) – I came across these whilst browsing the Internet and found them absolutely adorable…

It is a very simple seashell decor idea but I think it is very effective – it will definitely bring out the kid in you!

Just click on the picture and it will take you to the page where you find instructions on how to do it. It’s really super easy! Don’t you just love these little faces – and I am sure your kids will enjoy them, too!

If you think about it, you could even create Christmas Ornaments with these – just add little beards made from cotton wool and add little red felt hats… Be inspired, there are so many ways to create unique seashell decor!

For some reason I have always thought of daybeds as the ultimate luxury when it comes to relaxing at home. Even just the name suggests “time out during the day”! If you pick the right daybed for your relaxing space at home, you can create your own little oasis away from the stress and hectic of everyday life.

And as I am all about Beach here at Beach Theme Home Decor, I wanted to show you a daybed I came across whilst surfing the net.

Barlow Tyrie Daybed

I absolutely love the color and shape of this daybed. Together with the ottoman it definitely makes you think of waves and the ocean. This could easily go in- or outside and will straight away give you this beachy feeling at home.

You can achieve a very beautiful and genuine tropical look in your home by adding all the right decor pieces and furniture. But you also can take it one step further – you can bring the Tropics right into your home by dedicating one wall to depict a real life Tropical Mural. Murals tend to make the walls of the room disappear and give you the feeling of being in different surrounds, just like being on a holiday.

I remember when growing up in Germany, quite a few houses had “cellars”, and in these “cellars” they had a hobby room where you could hang out with friends to relax. Tropical Wall Murals were very big because they made you feel like you were on holidays, even if it was snowing outside and the warmth in the room came from the heater!

So, if you love the tropics and want to take the decoration in your home a step further, a Tropical Mural could be just the right thing for you!

Art.com have some fabulous Tropical Murals to choose from, and also other scenic prints related to the Tropics and the beach.

Tropical Mural

Doesn’t this look very serene and relaxing?

Today I simply want to draw your attention to a great blog of one of my “online friends” – a blog I came across a little while ago which is full of inspiration, wonderful craft ideas, great pictures and other nice stories and information about everything “coast and beach”. It is called “Completely Coastal” and will be well worth your time.

Thanks to Maya, who loves the beach and who is sharing her passion with all of us who are drawn to the vastness and beauty of the coast, sandy beaches and coastal living.

I am sure you will enjoy Completely Coastal!

This is mainly for all of you who have websites or blogs, too – I want to “give back” to loyal visitors of my website by giving you the option to have dofollow links pointing back to your websites, so I have just installed the DoFollow attribute, KeywordLuv, CommentLuv and Top Commentator Widget to this site.

I know I haven’t that many blog posts (yet), but I still approve meaningful comments of fellow beach lovers (you?) and hope that some of you will benefit from the new features I have installed!

Happy Commenting!

You all might have noticed by now that I live in Australia. Now, once a year Australia is celebrating “Australia Day”, and this happened to be today! True to Aussie culture, most Aussies who live close to the ocean will spend the day in one of the parks by the beach or on the beach, having a “real Aussie BBQ” with friends and family.

Here in Perth people will go to either the beach or to the so-called “foreshore” along the Swan River. There are some absolutely stunning spots along the river to sit and enjoy a day out.

This is possible because -of course – in January we are in the middle of summer here (“Down Under” – everything is the other way around…), and usually January is one of the hotter months, too. So today it was 34 degrees and sunshine all the way. Glorious day! We happened to go out to the beach with a couple of friends, close to a sailing club, and the colors of the ocean combined with the sails of the sailing boats were just stunning! Unfortunately you can’t really see the gorgeous colors like they were in real life on the photos I took.

I made a point of collecting some nice seashells, too, of course, to use someday in a craft project. Never miss out on collecting seashells when you are at the beach – you never know when they will come in handy.

At night time we went to see the fireworks – of course Perth has to have some fireworks to celebrate the day! This part of the day we spent at the banks of the Swan River, the atmosphere was just wonderful. I tried to take a picture of the city skyline lit up at dusk, but I think my hand wasn’t too steady. The black and white spots on the water are actually black swans and white pelicans, would you believe it!!! It was amazing.

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year 2010 with lots of beach trips and beach fun! It has been a great year, hopefully the next one will be as good if not better! Make sure you get to the beach as often as you can, it is such a cleansing and refreshing experience, and do collect your seashells for some artwork while you are there!