Environmental Impact

I'm really missing California today.

It's been hot, extremely hot for May. In the high 90's. Yesterday saw 98˚ before the sun went down. I started thinking about Carlsbad and Oceanside where I used to live. A cool off-shore breeze always took the edge off the midday sunshine. I even thought longingly of May Gray, June Gloom and the feel of the cool fog droplets against my skin as I wrapped myself in a soft hoodie to take off the chill, but wearing flip-flops, always flip-flops. Yep, I miss it.

My youngest son lives in Anna Maria, Florida, within walking distance to the beach and where we vacationed last month. It's even cooler where he lives than it is here. At least 10˚ cooler. It's always cooler near the beach.

Maybe I'm just missing the beach.

Although I grew up in central California, my parents were avid fishermen and we spent a lot of time camping on the California coast near Santa Cruz, generally at New Brighton Beach or Sunset Beach. Back in those ancient times, flip-flops were called zories or thongs, long before the word 'thong' was used to describe butt floss.

Anyway, when I was about 12 or 13, we moved to northern California, within 30 minutes to my parents' favorite fishing spots and the beaches where I would spend most of every weekend.

Within 10 years or so after Tom and I married, we moved to southern California, where we lived maybe 2 miles from the beach. Now, here, in Arkansas there's not a beach in sight for several hundred miles. {sigh}

When I was in Florida last August, I brought a little bit of the beach home with me and decided to inject the beach theme into our guest bath. I bought these little pictures at an outlet store in Florida and hung them on the wall....

And when I got home, I found this shower curtain that matched the shells perfectly...


I did the same thing during our vacation this past April. I've grown tired of Tuscan. I've grown weary of brown and vintage. I decided to bring a little more of Florida into my home, specifically the entry way. A large mirror with a brown vintage frame was replaced with a smaller collage of beach inspired illustrations and a 1970's photo of Tom and me in vintage western/cowboy garb lost out to a beach scene. The coat rack will be painted a lighter color at a later date.

Out are the dark metal plate racks on either side of the entry closet door. In are pictures of palm trees.


When my cousin and her husband joined us for the last few days of our vacation, they came bearing an armload of bright colored flip-flop gifts - hand towels, place mats, wine glass coasters, jewelry and a metal towel hanger. I love the colors; bright, sunny, cheerful. But when I took the towels into my bathroom, I realized how uninspiring and bland it was, even after the remodel and the new sink. The baskets are brown. The towels are brown, tan and dessert green. Not only are they BORING, but they are over 10 years old....



Tom hung the new towel holder for our new towels.


A quick trip to Target for some new, brighter colored towels....



The towel holder will be repainted another color....maybe a nice sunny yellow. And the off-white, nondescript shower curtain will be a thing of the past once this one is delivered...

Photo Source: BeachHouseLinens.com

Yes, dear friends, if I can't be near the beach, I'm bringing the beach to me. What if I had Tom build a low frame around the whole bathroom floor and I filled it with sand? Too much?