Welcome to the Blog!

Well, here it is.  My first blog post here at Cottage Harbor Homes.  If you follow me on Instagram you’d know that during the month of July we traveled to Florida and took time off from work.  Most work at least… I still kept up with my Etsy orders.  During this trip I’ve been giving a lot of thought into how I can make my business grow, and how I can connect better with my followers.  Instagram is fun and stories are a great way to share with you all, however I was thinking about a deeper way for you all to get to know me, and not just as the face behind the coastal cottage style décor and beach totes that I share on my feed day to day. 

My name is Laurie and I am impulsive.  When I get an idea in my head I want to accomplish it right then and there.  I can’t tell you how many great spaces I have created on a whim.  Flip flop that and plenty of my impromptu projects have fallen flat on their face.  The idea to start a blog wasn’t impulsive, technically.  However today I decided I was going to actually follow through with it and here we are. 

I’m sitting at the outdoor grill area adjacent to the pool at our condo in Boca Raton.  The sun is glistening off the Intracoastal waterway and shining directly into my face.  There is a family at the table next to me eating dinner, another family at a table right next to the water, and a man grilling and drinking a beer.  My two boys are fishing on the dock with my husband.  All is well in the world. 

As this vacation of ours comes to an end, I can’t help but feel a little blue.  Another year, come and gone.  The month went by so fast it’s unreal, and I am questioning how it’s possible that our time here is basically over.  Rather than dwell on the summertime sadness, though, I want to shift my thinking to recall all of the memories we have made during our stay.  We have met old friends here, and met new ones.  We spent time with our entire family here and in the keys.  We spent so much time in the water, and my four year old learned how to swim officially.  We watched the sky light up with fireworks on the 4th of July, we watched some fun tv shows and we made days out of catching lizards and jumping in the pool.  I’m going to miss getting my steps in by walking laps on the boardwalk everyday.  I am going to miss the comradery here at the condo, seeing the same friendly faces poolside and grill-side every day.  I am going to miss the phone calls alerting us to a delivery at the front desk for us, and mailing my Etsy shop orders in the USPS drop box in the lobby.  I am going to miss the Publix BOGO’s.  The walk to the beach.  The sunsets.  The boats passing by.  The view from the balcony.  Well, you get it.  I’m going to miss every little detail about being down here in our little slice of heaven.  But you know what New Jersey has that Florida just doesn’t?  Home.

Home is where the heart is, and I am looking forward to snuggling back up in my own bed and relaxing in our tiny, quiet backyard.  That being said, we will be spending a good portion of the remainder of our summer at our cozy little cabin in upstate New York completing projects that have been on our master list since the day we closed on it last November.  We’ve been waiting for the time and weather to tackle them, and now is it. 

I look forward to sharing these projects with you here on this blog, and I look forward to keeping up with this space as a way to keep you updated on all of the things I can’t get to on Instagram.