Happy Little Cottages By The Sea

Cottage Charm, Coastal Calm

August 2008

Artist Week continues – Sara Tetley!

Sara was a guest who stayed with us last year and while here painted some of the charming cottages that dot our island! Her art is for sale directly from Sara ( but we’re hoping to have her featured at one of our local galleries sometime soon! ) In the meantime, you can contact her directly for prices on any of these pictures or to commission your own cottage.

314 800 3441 or email sara.tetley@pgav.com

PS check back with us – Sara also have a vacation rental in historic downtown Beaufort , SC . I’m planning a road trip there later this summer and will be sharing details in a future blog. Beaufort is the perfect side trip to add to your Tybee vacation experience. Check back… In the meantime, here is Sara in her own words.

“I love to paint on Tybee – it’s almost impossible to be on the island without encountering something inspiring. The beautiful light, sweet scale and eclectic charm is magical. That’s my idea of a fulfilling getaway-to begin to notice everything around with delight.

My watercolors focus on the cottages, with occasional diversions into still lives or landscapes. I guess I’m drawn to homes because I’m an architect. I was taught to paint awhile back at college by a hip Scotsman named Muir Stewart (these days you can find his work above every featured house plan in Coastal Living magazine)

I am a southern gal. I was raised in Virginia, Georgia and NW Florida and went to college in Alabama , I have no idea what I am doing in St Louis except dreaming about the south and the water…….. hope you enjoy my art! “

Artist Week continues – Sara Tetley! Read More »

Local Art Event Openings- WOW!

We had two very special art events this past Friday night here on the Island. Two of our favorite artists had unveilings of their newest works of art.
Ralph Douglas Jones aka The Fish Art Guy unveiled Ralphael the Magnificent Flying Turtle to a large crowd of cheering fans. Despite the rain, we were all there supporting this great piece of art, which by the way, is for sale for $25,000. There is a wide variety of other fish art at prices the rest of us can afford- so stop by! 912 713 8647 http://www.fisharttybee.com/
Across the street at the DragonFly Studio, Denise Elliott- Vernon had a showing of her newest collection of art, Reincarnation. Denise is such a special lady, very involoved in the local art community and helps out whenever asked. Her beautfiul new collection features nature- the egret is just one of her very affordably priced art. Dragonfly Studios is located directly across the street from Seaside Sisters Coastal Cottage Shop. For more info, call 912 786 4431.
We are so lucky to have such a talented artist colony where all sorts of art is celebrated and cheered. Be sure you stop by both these studios as well as all the others to see all their fabulous art. Go to http://www.tybeeisland.com/ or http://www.tybeevisit.com/ for a complete list of art galleries.

Local Art Event Openings- WOW! Read More »

The 2008 Olympics have begun!

The Opening Ceremonies did not disappoint last night. The show was world class and China took this opportunity to show the world their greatest resource is their people. From the 2008 precision drummers who were in complete unision to the little girl flying the kite to the atheletes of the world marching in so full of pride to the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron- breathtaking beyond belief! The above pictures show the lighting!
Two websites to visit as you enjoy the world coming together to cheer- the offical website for the games : http://en.beijing2008.cn/ where you can see all the pictures of the Opening Ceremonies. You can also show our team how proud we are of them and cheer them on! http://www.americascheer.com/

The 2008 Olympics have begun! Read More »

Mothers and Daughters

I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter how old you are or how old your child is, you’ll still fight over clothes and hair. My darling daughter Katie ( Katherine Willard Flanagan) is 27 1/2 years old. She literally travels the world on her own ( just returned from 4 weeks of travel to Viet Nam), is an incredibly responsible young adult working for a great organization called the Leadership Academy in Brevard, NC working with high school kids. Katie is about as good a child as you can imagine. I’m very , very lucky to have her as my daughter. But we’re still mother and child- no matter what our age!

Katie was home this past week from her travels before she heads back to her school this week. There was only one thing I wanted to accomplish while she was here- to have our pictures taken professionally by the absolutely amazing photographer, Christine Hall. This is something I never did with Katie growing up, I have tons of pictures of her that I took with my little disposable Kodak camera, but never by a professional . The past few years I’ve seen in various homes of young famlies here on Tybee truly spectacular professional photos of their families. I don’t yearn for much in life ( having pretty much everything I want and need) but pictures of a happy family are something I did envy. You saw Christine’s work with the picture of Danny the cupcake eating dog titled Pure Bliss. You’ve hopefully read my earlier blogs and if you’ve been to her website, you’ve seen the family, wedding and portrait work she does. She finds a way to capture the essence of your family or whoever she’s taking a picture of…. She’s also Paula Deen’s family photographer of choice and there is one picture of Paula with her grandson , Jack that is just so precious on her website.

So… Katie agreed, but wasn’t very excited about the pictures, but said yes because she’s a good daughter. And the preparation began- I wanted Katie to be herself, but also wanted our outfits to not clash.. Katie is a true bohemian and the first outfit didn’t work. Not a happy camper. Then we had the hair “discussion”. She had taken these gorgeous antique hair clips and twisted her hair in the clips. Would have been great for a night out, but not for a picture with her middle aged mom. So we “discussed and discussed” the hair and she took out the hair clips making her feelings known very strongly. I told you- doesn’t matter the age, you and your mom are still going to fight about what you’re wearing, how your hair looks and yes, even the make up!

We loaded up the dogs and drove down to the location for the shoot. We are in the south, in the dead middle of summer and 100% humidity… You figure it out. Hot and sweaty. Christine was professinal, wonderful and took some amazing pictures! Even Katie agreed it was a very fun experience . Christine has a blog on her website and blogged about us on her Monday August 4th blog. You can see some of the pictures and see more of her photography go to http://www.christinehallphotography.com/ and then go to blog. The above picture is one of the pictures she took. Isn’t this a gorgeous picture of Katie?
Thank you Christine for EVERYTHING! We can’t wait to see all the rest of the pictures from the shot. And to any of you looking for a memory to last forever, contact Christine for your own pictures!

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