Live and Learn...

Hi Everyone...hard to believe that January is over...and Spring is not that far away. 

Back in August, I embarked on a very time consuming and tedious process to update and redecorate my house in The Keys.  I shared some of my fabric selections on My Keys House Makeover.  Being a "closet" interior decorator, I spent many hours researching different fabric options, paint colors, furniture styles and everything else you can imagine.  What made this even harder was the fact that I spent the last 6 months of my life on the road, only home about 8 days a month.  

My husband and I bought our house in The Lower Keys back in 2004.  At that time, the house had been fully renovated in 1997 due to the very unfortunate visit that Hurricane George made on it...in 1997.  So it was in pretty good shape..new kitchen, bathrooms, etc.  We basically painted, re-carpeted the bedrooms in a wall to wall sisal, emptied out the Pottery Barn catalog and called it a day.

In the beginning, we used the house a lot..it is a 3 hour drive door to door from my primary house...but in the last three years...with my travel schedule for my job - I'm sad to say I only go about three, maybe four times per year.  The good part is my husband goes frequently for his cherished guys fishing weekends and my family and friends use it when they can.

Anyway, I decided after the 8 years...it needed a bit of a refresh, not too major since my husband and I are planning a substantial renovation to this house prior to retiring, which is not going to be for a while. I thought some fresh paint, new furniture, slipcovers and accessories could probably get me through another 8 years...when we are ready to do the major work.  So with that, I called upon my trusted decorator to help me select the new look for my house.  After I finished my research, I turned over the project to her...with all of my fabric and paint swatches that I collected...along with my thoughts and inspirations for what I wanted. Hours and hours were spent researching what I wanted. 

Well, after countless months of trying to get this project done, I've finally come to accept that I've been duped.  This person whom I trusted, unknown to me, was experiencing financial problems.  Because I had worked with her many times before, I trusted her and paid her for a lot of the project before it even started.  Yes - I know that was dumb.  And even worse, after I wrote her a nice sized check to begin the project in August, she started pressuring me for more money saying that if I prepaid for things...she would give me a better discount.  I wasn't even asking for a discount.  I fell for everything, including her showing up at my house and me giving her cash to help her out with "her upholsters".  To make matters worse, I gave her cushions from my furniture and a dining room chair for the slipcovers.  

So here I am...for 5 months she's been stringing me along...fabrics on backorder, she has the flu, her mother is sick, etc...giving me all kinds of stories...I've finally told my husband the sordid mess (minor the cash part of course, because he would get mad at me for being so dumb!).  So now I'm starting over.  I have a house in The Keys painted to match fabrics that I don't have the swatches for...(yes very dumb that I handed everything over to her) missing cushions on my sofa and chairs and worse - a missing dining room chair.  My husband has been trying to deal with her and has now also given up.  She's been lying to me since October and now he sees what I've been going through.  So I guess the moral of the story is - go with your gut and trust your instinct.  I knew something was off and I didn't listen to my inner voice that said this is not right.  

So with that - I'm starting over a little more cautiously, much wiser and with a tighter budget.  I've never had this happen to me before and am trying to decide if I should file a complaint in small claims court or just chalk it up to a very bad experience.  Not sure what to do.  My gut says to just move on and learn from this expensive mistake.  Any advice on what you would do? 

So in starting over...I've decided that I'm going to select completely different choices than I had.  I guess that means the new paint job goes since everything was matched to colors in the fabrics.  So here are some of my inspiration photos as I begin the process for a second time of My Keys House Makeover...a little wiser but with a smaller budget.  As you can see, I am really loving the color red right now. 

Have a great week.

Burlap Holiday Wreath

Thought I would share this gorgeous wreath that I purchased from the Etsy Shop Get the Door.  I think it is just perfect for the holiday season and I can't wait to receive it.  I am trying to decide what kind of coastal element I will add to it.  I may do a simple sand dollar or a white sugar starfish.  Or maybe nothing at all.  I will decide when it arrives.  

Here are a couple more that I really liked....

Hope your having a wonderful holiday season....looking forward to catching up on all of my favorite blogs this weekend.  

My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.....

Just could not resist this little Christmas Tree.  I've now worked my way up to four trees...and I do not have an overly large house.  This little one is for my kitchen....as soon as I saw it - I knew I had to have it.  

Is this little tree not irresistible?  I just absolutely love it and am dreaming up little coastal accents that I can add on.  This is from the Etsy Shop Fairyfolk.

I can not wait to receive this little Charlie Brown tree. Hope your having a great week.  

All things from the Sea....

I'm a little late to the Christmas Decorating this year - so right now, I'm in a big rush to get things organized and set up.  I am very excited as I thought I had four trips left before the end of the year...and two just got cancelled so now I'm jumping for joy.  Since I am staying with the same theme as last year, I'm trying or at least attempting to not buy very many ornaments or decorations since this will be my last Coastal Christmas for a while.  

But I could not resist these adorable sand dollar ornaments from the Etsy Shop tuttomare which means All things from the Sea. 

I fell in love with this little Santa

Love the little pink starfish

Had to get a snowman in there

Surfboard is a fun touch

So adorable

Love his little glasses

I just think these are so adorable...I could not resist them. Check out tuttomare as there are still a few left.  I didn't completely clean out the supply!  Hope your enjoying this holiday season. 

Coastal Christmas Countdown

Hello Everyone.  Hope you are enjoying this amazing holiday season.  Hard to believe that another year has gone by and I have my favorite time of the year coming up.  I've spent alot of time in the last week or so - planning all of my holiday decorations.  I have decided to keep one more year of the Coastal Christmas look with the aqua and red theme.

I thought I would share a few of my very favorite coastal inspiration photos that I have collected on my pinterest board called Coastal Holiday Decorating and Christmas Trees.  Please check this Board out for some awesome holiday inspiration.  

Hope you enjoy some of my very favorite images...

I look forward to sharing some of my holiday decorations this weekend when I get them all up.  I am having to modify my set up as I have a new kitty in the house and to say he is a bit rambunctious is an understatement.  Trying to figure out how to set up my tree without him noticing.  

Looking forward to seeing what everyone is up to this holiday season.  Best wishes.

My Keys House Makeover

Hello Everyone.  First, I feel like I must apologize for falling off the face of the earth - or well maybe falling off the face of the blogging world.  For those of you are are also my Facebook friends - you probably know that I did not disappear as much as I've not been in one spot for very long - these last 6 months.  My job has kept me so busy that I really have not had the time to devote to anything extra except my family.  

I feel though - that I must explain that I have five or six email accounts - all set up for different reasons and I feel bad that I've not checked my Love of the Sea email account in months until this past couple of days.  Funny - how being grounded with a Hurricane allows me to go back to the things that I've neglected. So, I owe many of my blogging friends an email and I hope to be catching up on that soon.

In the meantime, I've developed a serious addiction to Pinterest...and have been spending time searching for fabrics, paints and styles as we are redecorating our house in The Keys (especially since Isaac didn't do any harm).  I went there last week for the first time this year...yes - that's how busy I have been...and I'm finally getting around to getting that project done.

So with that - I thought I'd share some of my very favorite pins for My Keys House Makeover.  I finally met with my decorator aka advisor/therapist yesterday and we narrowed down most of the details to get this project started. She's been  ready to hit me over the head very patient with me this last year and has you can see - has provided lots of ideas, colors and samples.  So I will be sharing some of the before and after on what she is doing to help update my little Keys getaway that I've forgotten to getaway to.

Here are some of my inspiration photos:

Here are some of the choices that I narrowed down so far...

These are the fabrics I narrowed down for the guest bedroom shams and bed skirt.

Leaning towards this one  The coral for the bedskirt and the shells for the shams.
I'm thinking to add on green and pink contrasting pillows. 

Some of the choices for the living room. 

More choices. 

As you can see - I love Coral Reef.

Leaning toward this for the master bedroom. My husband loves this one. 

I love this...but can't figure out what to do with it. 

TIme to make decisions.  And these are the ones that I narrowed it down too.  

Next week - I'll be posting final decisions on the living room, dining room and sun room.  Then the fun can begin.  Hope you are all having a great last week of the summer.  Hard to believe that Fall is almost here.