Amy Pigott: Beach

Showing posts with label Beach. Show all posts

Going Nautical: How to bring the beach into your home.

Hello Readers!

Today's blog post is DIY related and how to to bring the beach into your home. Nautical prints & accessories are really popular at the moment, and for a room like the bathroom, it can be a really lovely addition to make a room look a lot different.

Our bathroom used to be plain cream walls and our usual bathroom bits around, and not much else. When we decided to try the nautical look in the bathroom it opened up a world of possibilities for the room.

We started by adding some blue to one of the walls to bring in an additional colour which would be needed for when we started to add in our accessories.

Before I go on to show you the bits and pieces we bought to bring the nautical theme into the bathroom, let me explain how my house is built. The house is built on a hill, over three floors. From the front of my house it looks like its two floors, and from the back it looks like three floors. The bathroom is at the front of the house and essentially is underground, with a window coming down what was the old coal hole. Here are two photo's to better explain how it is set up. It still manages to keep the room pretty bright and it means we have an area in which we could make a feature of some of the nautical pieces we bought.

The top picture shows the feature we made, with boats, lighthouses, rope, beach huts and lots of shells. Most of the pieces in here were picked up from The Range, which have a wonderful nautical selection and the pieces are not too expensive.

In front of the perspex window, we have a beach hut draft excluder. It can get chilly there, especially as the bath is right under the window, so it is important to have something to stop the draft. This draft excluder we picked up from The Range.

In front of that we have these blue letters which spell out beach, but in our house you can often walk into the bathroom and find a different word spelt out.

The other end of the ledge we have this cute little boat, which we also got from The Range.

These curtains are just decorative and I think really make a feature of the window area. The burlap on the bottom was sewn onto the top fabric, and made into curtains by my Mum.

I made this bag with my friend, and was one of the first Servietten Technique pieces I did. It looks wonderful in the bathroom.

A recent addition to the bathroom are these little bags, and I think they are great for holding bottles and look like little beach bags.

These few little decorations (the stitched one made by Mum) decorate the walls, and bring the nautical theme into the room a little bit more.

And last but not least, our sink area. The white pallet wood and the white wicker basket unit certainly bring in a bit more of the beach. Its looks distressed and beach worn, and fits in with the theme of the room.

I hope you like this little tour of our nautical bathroom, I love it I think it is a fun and wonderful theme to play around with. There are lots of nautical themed pieces in the shops, but also it wouldn't be too hard to make some yourself.

Do you have a nautical themed room? I would love to see it, please leave me any links below!

A Caribbean Dream: a photo shot of my trip

19:06 2 comments

Last winter I was lucky enough to be able to take part in what was the holiday off a lifetime, A 2 week holiday to Florida and the Caribbean!

Florida:
London - Fort Lauderdale:

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale after a 2 leg flight from London.

London - Toronto - Fort Lauderdale

Our first day in Fort Lauderdale was spent exploring the area, which involved a massive long walk to the beach front, where we ate lunch in this wonderful cafe, where the chairs and tables swung back and forth (not advisable for while you are actually trying to eat however).

After lunch we continued walking along the sea front and then did a little shopping and browsing in the Galleria shopping Mall.

Exploring Fort Lauderdale:

On our second day in Fort Lauderdale we decided to explore the Intra-costal waterways. Fort Lauderdale in made up of several large waterways, on which is built an amazing array of beautiful houses. You can also get to different parts of the city on the water taxi, as it has a hop-on-hop-off service.

Here is a photo of me and mum on the water taxi.

In the evening we did a night time boat tour called the Jungle Queen, this involved a night time trip along the waterways to a small island, where you got dinner and watched a show.

The Cruise:

Boarding the Ship:

Next on our trip was the cruise. We boarded the boat and were shown to our cabin. It was all very surreal.

While waiting for the ship to leave we started exploring and here is a photo of me at the back of the ship.

As the ship left the dock we waved goodbye to the people on the shore and to Fort Lauderdale.

New Years Eve:

Our first night on the boat just happened to be New Years Eve 2011. This was a pudding we had at dinner.

This is me before seeing in the New Year. And this is the outfit I wore.

A Day at Sea:

The next day was a day at sea.

We explored the ship, did some swimming and sunbathing and ate...a lot.

Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos Islands:

Our first stop was Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos and it looked like a paradise.

We opted to do a tour of the island, to take in the history and see everything this little island had to offer.

After the tour we headed to the beach and enjoyed the white sand and clear waters, as you can from the photo above. You also get a glimpse of some of our beautiful ship.

San Juan, Puerto Rico:

Our second stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico, and for our excursion on this day we had planned something completely different. To the rainforest.

When choosing our excursions before we left the UK we decided to do things that would show us the most or would be something unique that we might not get the opportunity to do often, if ever.

So we chose the rainforest.

The rainforest was hot and sticky but the views were amazing, and its something I will always remember.

After our trip to the rainforest we had the chance to explore San Juan by night. We ate, shopped and soaked up the atmosphere before heading back to the ship.

St Thomas, USVI:

Next stop was St Thomas on the US Virgin Islands.

We opted to do a mini tour of the island, first took us high up in the mountains and up to Drakes Seat, where Sir Francis Drake used to sit to spy on enemy ships.

Next it was on to Magens Bay, one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was beautiful and so relaxing and peaceful. We stayed here a while, soaking up the sunshine.

Next it was onto a rum distillery, and amber waterfall before a coffee and back to the ship.

Day at Sea:

Next was another day at sea, where we relaxed, read, took classes, did some sunbathing and enjoyed the views.

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas:

Our last stop on the trip was Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, a private island.

I found this fab little sign which shows just how far away I was from home.

The first thing we did was a nature walk, which took us around the island, we saw historical ruins, beautiful wildlife and I even dipped my toe in shark infested waters!

Next it was on to the beach, for hours in the beautiful sunshine paradise.

How beautiful is this picture?

Disembarking:

Leaving the ship was sad, but it was onto our next adventure. This is the sunrise in Fort Lauderdale as the ship docked.

This was our room on the MS Eurodam.

Back in Florida:

The Everglades:

As soon as we disembarked the ship, it was off on our next adventure, a tour of the Everglades.

I was even brave enough to hold a baby alligator.

More Fort Lauderdale:

For our second stay in Fort Lauderdale our hotel was right on the beach front (our previous one had been close to the port so it was easy for us to get to the ship for the cruise).

We went back to our favourite cafe with the swinging chairs for lunch.

And in the evening we watched our ship leave from the beach.

For the next few days we enjoyed the sunshine, spent the rest of our holiday money in the mall and enjoyed wandering Las Olas Boulevard. Not to mention the food!

I hope you enjoyed this quick blow by blow account of my trip, I was so lucky to be able to go on this holiday and I am so grateful for all the wonderful places I saw. I am now saving hard so that one day soon I can do another amazing holiday just like this!

Have you been on an amazing trip? I would love to hear about it, let me know in the comments below :)

If you enjoyed this post, then please check out the video below :)

Costa Almeria, Spain - Holiday Blog

16:30 0 comments

A little late (my holiday was at the end of June) but I never got round to posting this on my old blog, so I thought I would still go ahead and post a little mini review of my holiday here.

In June I went on holiday with my best friend, to her parents Villa for 10 days of total relaxation in the sunshine.

We didn't get up to a whole lot of exploring, the holiday really was just for us to relax and unwind. We went to the beach, laid around the pool, went shopping, ate A LOT and visited a castle. It was bliss!