Oh, What's in a Name?!

For today's "Tuesday Tip", I'm actually going to tell you about some tips I read about recently while contemplating a color update to the kitchen at Point Breeze Cottage. But first, I thought I'd tell you about the name of our shop and the REAL Point Breeze Cottage.

As you've more than likely figured out, the name of our small business and Etsy shop is Point Breeze Cottage, or PBC for short. And if you are a close friend or family member you probably know why that is the name of our shop and the inspiration behind it. But for the rest of you, I'll fill you in. In January of 2009 my boyfriend (who consequently is now my husband) and I began renting a quaint little cottage in Colton's Point, Maryland. Though it had been remodeled on the inside in recent years, the outside desired more than a little curb appeal. But we didn't care. It sits peacefully overlooking the Potomac River on Point Breeze Rd. And the road certainly lives up to it's name. The cool, river breeze is absolutely heavenly in the mornings and evenings.

After moving in and putting our own touches on the house, I began to realize how truly inspiring the spot was. I found myself yearning to lounge on the porch for hours, sit on the pier and stare out at the water, and there is nothing quite like watching the sunrise over a hot cup of coffee before work. Everything about this place inspired the small creative spark inside me. I even began writing a blog to document our life on Point Breeze Road. You'll have to forgive me though, as I've pretty much neglected it as of late.

About 2 months after Bubba and I were married, we received a phone call from our landlord. It was unusual, since we knew we'd paid our rent and weren't having any other problems, but then she shocked us both. She asked us if we'd be interested in buying the house we were living in. She was so pleased with us as tenants and wanted to offer it to us first before she sold it to anyone else. Jaws gaping wide, we told her we were flattered and would love to talk to her more about price, etc. as soon as possible. Upon coming to a fair agreement, we signed on the dotted line and the little cottage on Point Breeze Road was officially ours! I'll be posting more about this process in the future, there are far too many exciting details to outline here...

I've been watching my mother repurpose and reuse items to decorate her home for years, and after a particularly unpleasant day at work, I told her I needed a change, an outlet. She told me if I was serious about it that she would help me in anyway she could. I showed her how to use Etsy and we both decided, "We can do this." We started out with old pieces from home, items from the thrift shop, and yard sale finds. Once we had a couple of pieces finished, we were ready to post and sell, but under what name? What else, but the place that inspired me the most, my beloved home; Point Breeze Cottage.

So, that brings me to the "Tuesday's Tip" portion of this post. I found this adorable color scheme for a kitchen on Pinterest, and it just so happens that the layout of the kitchen in this picture looks exactly like my kitchen.

I took it as a sign and am hoping to update my large kitchen this fall to reflect the bold color palette. Are you thinking about giving your home a breath of fresh air, or a fresh coat of paint? Check out HGTV's "Color Palette's Made Easy" tutorial for some beautiful inspiration!

Thrifty!

With the United States in somewhat of an economic crisis, I’ve noticed a rise in the popularity of Thrift Stores. It’s hard for me to imagine someone not knowing what a Thrift Store or Shop is, but just in case, I’ll break it down for you.

A Thrift Store is a place that accepts donations of used clothing, home goods, furniture, jewelry, and electronics. Some stores are charity or non-profit based, while others can be owned by individuals. The goods that you find in a Thrift Store are often sold at very affordable or “thrifty” prices seeing as they are used. Sometimes the old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” rings true when shopping at a Thrift Store, and other times they are full of junk that people just don’t want. But they are definitely worth browsing through when looking for cheap furniture to restore!

Here at Point Breeze Cottage in Southern Maryland, we have several different Thrift Stores to choose from. After an unsuccessful day of yard saling or maybe during a long lunch break, we like to frequent the Thrift Stores of St. Mary’s County; In particular the Leonardtown and Lexington Park locations. These stores accept donations and the majority of the proceeds benefit the ARC of Southern Maryland.

So for today’s “We Love Wednesdays” we are recognizing our old standby, the Thrift Shop. We’ve been frequenting these establishments for as long as I can remember, whether to donate clothes and other used items, or to look for an affordable piece of furniture that needs a breath of fresh air!

Bar Cart, Goodbye!

The time has come to say goodbye to one of my most beloved pieces so far, the beautiful blue and white bar cart!

The blue bar cart, resting perfectly on the front porch of Point Breeze Cottage!



Though we've had this item for sale for a couple of months now, it's still hard to see it go. This bar cart holds a special place in my heart as it was one of the first pieces that I did entirely on my own.

My husband works for a government contractor who happens to do a lot of work out of Virginia Beach, VA. Last fall he was sent there, spur of the moment, on travel and I decided to take a mini-vacation and tagged along. As I was driving him to work one morning, I noticed a couple thrift shops along my route. So once I dropped him off I went to scope them out and see if I could find any thrifty pieces that were calling out to be made "refabulous".



Ready to check out some of the local thrift stores in the VA Beach area.

 Obviously not use to being out thrifting during the week, I arrived at the first one around 7am...and they didn't open until 9am. I used that time to drive around town, make a plan of which shops to hit and in what order, and of course, snap a picture of myself preparing to thrift!

My first stop was a Disabled American Veterans (DAV) sponsored thrift shop, and it was great! The first thing I noticed was a sign that read, "All prices are final. Proceeds are benefiting Disabled Veterans." Who can argue with that? Anyway, I wandered around for a while and finally made my way back to the furniture section.

And there she sat. A funky, but sturdy, 1970s or 80s wood and metal bar cart that had just been marked down. I instantly saw the potential of the piece and knew exactly what I wanted to do to spruce it up. But this was the first store I'd been in and we still had 2 days left in the area. If I bought this, would I have room for anything else? Would our suitcases still fit in the car? I didn't waste too much time on those questions, because I grabbed the price tag off of it and headed to the front of the store to pay.  Thankfully it fit in the back seat of my sedan and I didn't end up finding any other large items I wanted to purchase anyway so it all worked out. Upon returning to Maryland, I cleaned the metal, painted the funky wood white, and decoupaged the shelves with a vibrant blue and white flower fabric. Talk about cleaning up nicely!

Due to the size of this item, shipping was somewhat outrageous. The piece didn't come apart, so our only choice was to ship it as is in a VERY large box. We had a ton of interest in the cart from people in Canada to California, but no one was ever willing to pay the shipping costs. UNTIL last week, when I got a message from a very friendly, fellow Marylander, who just loved it. We've recently added a new policy at PBC that states that for any purchases within a 25 mile radius, we'll charge $25 for shipping and deliver it to you ourselves. And with that, the bar cart was sold!