Christmas Seaside Vacation

You might remember from a couple of years ago my farmer and I visited Seaside, Florida (that post is here Linebach Seaside Vacation ). It was mid August, ridiculously hot and humid - a perfect beach vacation. Sit at the beach all day, drink frozen drinks, swim, barbecue in the back yard, swim some more - quintessential summertime vacation. Even though that was perfect, and we have plans to do it again very soon, I immediately craved Seaside during Christmas. I imagined this beautiful little town dripping in Christmas lights and garland and trees and ornaments. So last summer I booked a house, found flights, and started counting down the days.

I don't travel during the Holidays - I want to spend Christmas morning at our home. We left on the 30th of December so we were sure to spend New Year's Eve there in Seaside.

I don't know about you but I feel like vacations are better with your people. Your friends or your family... and if you are lucky like us - your friends are your family ;) We went with my sister in law Gina and her husband Randy. The four of us always have so much fun together. It's easy, laid back and always a ton of laughs. The amount of inside jokes that the four of us share are ridiculous - and fun!

Take a look at some of our best Seaside memories.




The first day there we headed straight to our favorite place - The Shrimp Shack for a drink and to sit on their pavilion and watch the waves come crashing in.

 

 



I got up early most every morning, grabbed a coffee or a ridiculously expensive (but so worth it) juice smoothie and explored the town. All while looking completely like a tourist wearing "Seaside"  apparel (or dressing my husband in it) and a camera around my neck. We love you Seaside.

So good...

I'm framing this print for our home - isn't it perfect...

Or maybe I will frame this one. ;) Love the more muted color... It was a chilly afternoon, you can see it in the grey skies.

Crystal blue waters and sugary white sand.

The most iconic Post Office in America... dripping in beautiful garland and ornaments.

Our sandy path to the beach. 

Early morning coffee on the screened in porch.

Gina and I got up early on Saturday morning - grabbed a juice smoothie and hit the farmers market. Can you think of a more perfect day?

Avocados the size of a cantaloupe - they were amazing. 

Everything was so beautifully displayed in these adorable little vegetable baskets. 

 

"There is no better sister than a friend and no better friend than a sister."

 



 

 



Seaside is a very nice place, but it's not too ritzy. That is what I love about it. It's so perfectly casual just as you imagine the beach life should be. Everything from the side streets to the main roads are all perfectly paved in bricks but yet everything is still so simple and charming.

Endless landscaping inspiration.    

A boxwood hedge or parterre everywhere you look. Desperately want one in my front yard.

 

"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow."

 

When you buy too much while on vacation and you have to pay a fee for your bag being overweight on the flight home. :(

Each street is Seaside has its' own pavilion. Theirs privately to use - this was the one from the street over from us but we still checked them all out.

 

And this was ours. You can see how close to our house.

 



 

The use of your own private bathroom as well as huge Adirondack chairs. We sat up here in the evenings and listened to the waves come in. So pretty. 

 

 

Perfect spot to watch the sun come up in the morning.... 

 

 

 

And that time my farmer wanted to pretend to ride waves....

And that time I pretended we were going to the Super Bowl.... ;)

 

My sweet farmer loves it back home and life on the farm... but he loves this place the same - if not more than I do. And I love that we share that.

Seaside at Christmas....

Bud and Alleys Pizza - we must go there (at least once) during our trips.

 

Those who wear Patagonia together - stay together...

More images around Seaside. 

Remember Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show" - that was filmed here and this is his house. Kind of blurry.

The Seaside School has a littler garden center for the students. It's so perfect here I almost forget some people actually get to call this home all year round.

The bikes casually on the front porches adorned with baskets....

 

Rows of beautiful airstream trailers line the front of town. That's where I got my smoothie every morning. 

This Post Office has my heart.

The town square where they have concerts some evenings.

 

Our House.... Called "Take 5"... We rented from Cottage Rental Agency. 

Isn't it the cutest. I can still hear that screen door slam shut.




Some sandy paths in between houses help you get around and to town faster.

 

 

 

More boxwood love going on.... 

 

 

 

 

 

The Seaside Chapel

And Tuesday morning we said good-bye to our little slice of paradise and we headed back home...
Nice to see those Fly Over States.

 

And really really nice to see this.... Home Sweet Home. We love our little time away from home, it truly allows you to appreciate what you have.... And we are so glad we have this. 

 

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A Very Cozy Farmhouse

Christmas is down, packed away in the basement. There is no sign of greenery or ornaments, red and green ribbon, poinsettias or Christmas dishes...

January and February are slow on the farm. My farmer spends his days in his office getting ready for taxes... and paperwork organized for the next year, but our evenings are spent cozy in the living room. We usually have a fairly early dinner, then we read books, do some work on the computer or watch television. Basically we take advantage of these times together. Far too soon the fields will be ready to plant again and our quiet, cozy evenings together get replaced by 10:30 p.m. dinners and hardly no time together.

The house is finally back to normal. And while I am busy working on my monthly to-do that I posted about last week I have really been concentrating on getting my living room ready and cozy for the Winter. I had to move around furniture a little bit for the Christmas tree and it's so nice to have my space back. My fireplace is on and cozy in the morning while I drink my coffee.... and cozy in the evenings while I drink my wine. ;)

I dream of a large creamy linen sofa for this space. The leather is pretty, nice and durable.... But not as "cozy" as I would like... Arhaus will be my next stop - you have to check out all of their gorgeous furniture, including a variety of sectionals - and check out this sale! Maybe someday we can replace these big pieces of masculine looking furniture with something like this from Arhaus.

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JANUARY CLEANING AND ORGANIZATION

My farmer and I along with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law just got back from Seaside (I'll post those pictures soon) ! Seaside is on the Panhandle of Florida, right between Destin and Panama City Beach. The perfect little slice of heaven. Seriously - that is the best way to describe it.... Enough about Seaside, we will get to that this weekend.

Back to cleaning...and organizing.....

My farmer and I have a big month coming up. A lot of exciting things happening that we have been working on for a very long time. So to get me through this month I am doing what I do best. Cleaning and organizing. It's good for the soul - good for my soul anyways. There are a lot of things in life that you have ZERO control over - but the function of you're home is not one of them. I know I am probably the minority in the fact that I thoroughly enjoy this, but I do believe everyone benefits from a well ran home. I believe it saves money and time. Two very important things!

If these things are done effectively you will not spend any more of your year doing that much house work. Sure daily loads of laundry, weekly bathroom cleaning, scrubbing the floor during a muddy Spring living with a farmer, and nightly dishes are inevitable and I don't know about you but I don't want to spend a lot of time doing this stuff. When April hits and grass is green and bulbs are poking through the ground you don't want to spend time in your Laundry room cleaning your craft closet. You should be taking long walks, or getting flower beds ready and visiting your farmer in the field...

January is typically pretty slow - use this time... make it count.

Take a look at my monthly "schedule" for keeping our home going and getting it ready for another busy year - which I think just might be our best one yet.

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J A N U A R Y    C L E A N I N G   /  O R G A N I Z A T I O N    S C H E D U L E

January 1 – 7^th

Bathrooms! Organize your drawers, throw out old and unused items, wipe down EVERYTHING, restock your most used items, and treat all cabinets with a Bona cabinet cleaner. (If you haven’t tried Bona products you must. I’m addicted. And they’re safe according to my hardwood guy from when we built our house)

January 8-14^th

Bedrooms! Bedroom organization seems easy… But throw closets in there and it’s a chore. I pull ALL of my clothes out of my drawers (thank you ‘Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up’) and donate donate donate. Or if you prefer start a really great garage sale pile. I keep a couple of tubs in my basement marked “garage sale” and throughout the year I add items I no longer want/need.

January 15-21^st

Laundry Room/Mudroom/Craft Closet! This will be a week I sort of dread. Our laundry room is a catch all for everything. I try to stay on top of it throughout the year but busy times especially during the Holidays - it gets away from me. I do need some better storage and organization items for those drawers. Sometimes organization items are an investment but they do last… I will have to invest in those this year. I’ll do the basic cleaning of my cabinets and focus mainly on my drawers and hope it get it a more function able area.

January 22-28^th

Kitchen…. Another big job but I’ll be in my groove by the time this week comes. Plus I will see the end in sight. I cook so much and we spend so much time in the kitchen that I have a pretty good handle on everything. I will though replace a couple of “grubby” drawer liners and re organizes a couple of drawers. The big thing of the week is the pantry. I have a lot of great labeled baskets but it is so full. That will be a big project, but nothing makes me feel better than opening those pantry doors to full organization!!

January 29-31^st

Baseboards and floors…. Clean Clean Clean…. The last couple of days of the month will be all about the floors and baseboards. The rest of the rooms in the house should be ready to go that by time you wrap up the floors you have one very ready to go home. They don’t get too bad because I do try to stay on top of them... because.... Molly ;)

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Our Christmas Farmhouse

It's our second Christmas in this house. The entire time we were building I thought about Christmas decorations. Where the trees would go, where I would put garland, what I would put on the mantle, how I would decorate the outside.. That's the fun part.

This tree... I love this tree each year. White lights, bright reds and greens and silver. All of the special ornaments that mean so much to us are so much fun to get out each year.

I'm missing my tree skirt in this photo... 

 

 

Before I get any farther take a look at my little Santa babies... Ignore the black border - its a cell phone photo, but how sweet are they? The oldest is my sisters girl, Ella and the baby is my brothers little girl Palmer, otherwise known as my sweet pea. 



 

 

Back to it... Molly's dog bed and some festive toys. She ripped the alligator with the Santa hat the shreds before I could get a cute photo.

 



That pillow is so sweet.... If Pottery barn sells something hat has a yellow dog of some sort on it - you can guarantee I will purchase it.

 

I love Christmas Trees - and there are currently 5 in our house - but I also like to keep the decorations pretty simple and minimal. In my laundry room I have some simple paper whites growing away. They love the light coming in from that window.

Simple faux boxwood wreaths tied with red satin ribbon for our 'mudroom" area.... That actually never really has mud. ;) Garland on top with nutcrackers from my mother in law...
My garland looks a little wimpy here in the photo, I think the right side has fallen back some.

 

We purchased another 9 foot Christmas tree this year. Believe it or not my farmer actually loves the trees as much as I do. He even Facetimed me while I was at work and he was in the store picking this one out. But he did come home never ever wanting to go to Hobby Lobby ever again. ;)

 

 

This is an oversized tree. Large ceramic glazed lights, large oversized candy ornaments and candy canes and large white glittery picks. Its hard to tell in the photo because it doesn't photograph well, but this really is a fun tree. 

If you follow me on Instagram you know that Trader Joe's is my new favorite place... I got a ton of fresh greens there last week for a little Christmas Party we had last weekend. great blooms that are really cheap. I just loved it there. Did I mention how cheap it was. Tis the life a farmer at the end of the year. ;)

 

 

Preserved boxwood wreathes (that we still have from our wedding) hang on the hutch doors with a  thick red satin ribbon. 

These old fashioned Santa plates are from Pottery Barn. I exchange these plates out for each season, next up are white plates with bunnies. ;)

 

I shared this photo on my Instagram this morning - I love this sign from my friend Mandy's shop called Flawed to Fabulous.... It's so perfect for this spot.

 

 

Ignore my boiling pot of water on the stove - I think this is red beans and rice that I'm making... ;)

 

 

My table decorated with my Christmas dishes passed down to me from my mom.. 

 

 

A peak into the living room... My tree still with no skirt and Gilmore Girls playing on the tv. #reallife

 

 

My staircase.... Wrapped in over 100 feet of garland with simple red satin ribbons tied. 

 

My farmers office has a tree too... Muted green, gold and brown ornaments adorn this tree.

 

 

Another peak at both trees from the front of the house. 

 

Upstairs we have a tree with colored lights and bulbs. It needs a little white or silver I feel like to really stand out.... But for this year it will do.

A picture of the whole room. Such a sweet little area.



That's all I have for this year. I will be sharing photos of our Linebach cookie making and packaging project this weekend - perfect ideas for gifts for neighbors, teachers, friends, etc...

I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas season.

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Farmhouse Holiday Sangria

Sangria and I go way back.... I have a different recipe for most every season. Remember my summertime and Fall sangria I posted earlier this year?

 And sometimes I make up recipe with different wines, juices and fruit at home. You can't really go wrong. It's the perfect drink to mix up if you are having some girlfriends come over. It's chilled, sweet(ish), and always a little festive/fancy. 

These carafe's (purchased at IKEA) are the perfect little serving item. They're so fun and add a special little flair. At brunches I've served juices from them and tied a colored ribbon around them. 

Add a handful of fresh cranberries. Then one apple

Pour in your wine...White Grape Juice, Club Soda and Sugar. 

Then add your sprig of rosemary.

Grab a couple of glasses and the perfect entertaining tray (like this perfect find at Home Goods)

Farmhouse Holiday Sangria

Ingredients:

1 Apple
1 Heaping handful of cranberries
1 Large Fresh Rosemary Sprig (and more for garnishment)
1 Bottle of Pino Grigio
1/2 Cup of White Grape Juice
1/4 cup Sugar
1 can Club Soda

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