Happy Little Cottages By The Sea

Cottage Charm, Coastal Calm

Beach Bum Biscuits

2012 Beach Bum Biscuits Dog Contest

Beach Bum Biscuits/mermaidcottages.comOur most wonderful artist friend with a Parisian flair, Fifi Flowers, is ready to round-up a new Wag Pack of precious pooches for her 2012 Beach Bum Biscuits Dog Contest!

Fifi is inviting our pet guests and their well-behaved humans to submit one photo or one link to a photo if you’d like your dog to be considered for inclusion in Fifi’s next frameable notecard series and calendar collection.  The photos will then be posted online Monday, June 11 for the voting to begin.  You will be able to Vote once for the dog you would like to see painted and there will be six dogs chosen for the new collection.

If your dog is chosen, Fifi will create a custom painting of your dog.  Winners will each receive a set of notecards and also receive a special rate if you would like to purchase your Fifi Flowers original painting.

Email your photo or a link to a photo to: fifi@atelierdefifi.com or you may post a link to your photo in the comments section on Fifi’s website no later than noon (Pacific time) on Friday, June 8, 2012.  This way, Fifi will have time to organize the photos and get them posted to her site.  Voting will last for two days and the winners will be announced on Friday, June 15th.

Fifi’s Mermaid Cottages calendars and note card collections may be purchased at Seaside Sisters on Tybee Island.  Mermaid Cottages is proud to sponsor service dogs through the sales of our Beach Bum Biscuits and Fifi’s notecard collections and through our pet-friendly vacation rentals.

Mermaid Cottages has the coziest and cutest homes away from home on Tybee Island, as we all agree, but we’re more than vacation rentals.  We’re part of a community! We’re active with the local community, including people and local organizations we love. We also contribute to  larger organizations with a wider reach. We even promote Voluntourism events, making it possible for your Tybee vacation to include volunteering with a local good cause.

Fifi’s waiting, so get those photos in!  Now, that’s something to bark about!

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Paw4Vets Fundraising Success!

We had an incredible turn out last Saturday for our Paws4Vets fundraiser! If you didn’t make it, you missed a lot of fun and friendship! Saturday, January 28th, Seaside Sisters on Tybee Island totally “went to the dogs!” We gathered there to help raise money to support Paws4Vets and to help fund the training of one very special puppy. Jimmy, an 8-week old Golden Retriever puppy named after our beloved Jimmy Kelleher of Seaside Sweets, will be trained by the wonderful people at Paws4Vets to be a service dog; he will go on to be the companion of a soldier right here in the Savannah area.

Through the Paws4Vets Assistance Dog Placement Program, our Veterans and Active-Duty Service Members (or their dependents) with physical, neurological, psychiatric, or emotional disabilities can receive Psychiatric Service Dogs, Mobility Service Dogs, and Rehabilitative Assistance Dogs free of charge. All Paws4Vets Assistance Dogs are trained by federal inmates within one of five federal prisons and/or the Paws4Vets Wounded Warrior PTSD Intervention and Assistance Dog Training Program. It’s a wonderful thing, and Mermaid Cottages is proud to sponsor such a great cause!

Saturday was certainly amazing! Paws4Vets founders Kyria Henry and her veteran father, Terry Henry, other service dogs from Paws4People, and soldiers from Ft Stewart and the surrounding area with service dogs came out to celebrate and help in the effort! Mary Kay Andrews was there as well with a fresh haul of wonderful vintage lovelies in tow, and pen in hand, ready to sign books for fans. There was an amazing silent auction full of treasures on which to bid, which included, among other things, a signed copy of Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible!  Mermaid Cottages was there with our Beach Bum Biscuits and tee shirts. The proceeds from the sales of those items, as well as 10% of each purchase made in Seaside Sisters that day, went to the fundraising cause! And, to top it all off, there was a bake sale to end all bake sales. It was a wonderful day!

We were also honored to see GiftShopMag.com and SavannahNow.com feature our fundraiser on their sites! Make sure to head over and read the posts. We are so excited about them!

In all, the fundraising efforts raised $1000 to help Paws4Vets! Thanks to everyone for coming out to Seaside Sisters and supporting this great cause! We couldn’t have done it without you!

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Mermaids in Our Midst: Bliss and Happiness Reign Supreme at Mermaid Cottages

We love hearing from our guests! Every note, email, and phone call warms our hearts. It’s especially touching when we get to hear from our regular guests that return as often as they can. It means a lot to us to hear why they keep visiting, and just what makes them come back. We recently heard from just such a guest!

“Dear Mermaids, we first stayed with Mermaid Cottages back in March 2007. We immediately fell in love with Tybee and the cottages on that very first trip and have been on a whirlwind tour of your homes ever since! We have stayed at Nora’s (twice), Sea Largo, Castaway, Breeze Inn, Dutton Waller (twice), Blue Heron and now most recently, Brooks Cottage. We feel like we are at home the minute we arrive. Every detail is so lovingly taken care of by Mermaid Cottages. The homes are sweet, spotless, and cozy.

Just some of the many beautiful Mermaid Cottages!

In all of these years and all of these homes, we have never once run into a problem or been dissatisfied in any way. As soon as we are “on island” we immediately begin to relax and breathe it all in. As I’ve mentioned to Diane before, bliss and happiness reign supreme there. Hectic lives are forgotten. It’s even difficult to discern what decade we’re in, as Tybee has a knack for transporting us to an era before we were even born…and make it feel completely natural to be there. Each home has its own story, its own soul. Our favorite is simply the one we’re in at the time. We have truly loved them all.

Brewster and Bella enjoy the breeze at Dutton-Waller Cottage.

Our pups, Brewster & Bella, begin to get excited the minute they see our Tybee overnight bags come out. They know they are in for a treat (literally!) as all the homes provide Beach Bum Dog Biscuits! They love the fenced in yards and screened in porches. They too are on vacation from their work as certified Canine Good Citizen aide dogs. They train hard and play hard, but when in Tybee, they go local and relax along with everyone else. They love taking walks around the island, meeting new friends, and napping under a palm tree. We are eternally grateful that Diane, the Mermaid Cottages staff, and thoughtful designers have taken the time to preserve this very special slice of Americana and in turn share it with folks like me. And we are truly blessed to live close enough to come and be a part of it as often as we do.

Mermaids for life, Melissa & Alan C.”

Brewster and Bella love the porch at Brooks Cottage!

Wow, thank you so much Melissa and Alan! It’s letters like this that warm our hearts and make us smile. We are so glad to know we are doing exactly what we set out to do…make your escape to paradise as perfect as possible! Thanks so much for sharing, and don’t be strangers. We hope to see you and the pups again real soon!

Mermaids in Our Midst: Bliss and Happiness Reign Supreme at Mermaid Cottages Read More »

The Beautiful Photography of Belinda Hall

We are already excited about our Paws4Vets fundraiser this coming Saturday, but now we have more to be excited about! The amazingly talented Belinda Hall, of Belinda Hall Photographyhas contributed some wonderful items to our Silent Auction!

Come out to our Silent Auction This Saturday and bid on this amazing package!

Make sure you come out to Seaside Sisters to win this wonderful package! Portrait photographer Belinda Hall will capture portraits of your beloved furry friend and present you with images you will cherish for a lifetime. Your choice of on-location portrait session to include your entire family (humans welcome!) or you may save the session just for your furry friend. The session includes one hour with your professional photographer, 30-50 edited images presented in a password protected online gallery for download & sharing. You’ll be able to download web friendly images & print friendly versions of your pictures. The printing release included as well!

Taken at The Enlisted Men's Mess Hall, photography by Belinda Hall

Belinda is incredibly talented, and we are proud to say she has taken some of the amazing pictures of our cottages you see around our website. Her portfolio is gorgeous, and a definite must-see! In addition to pet portraits, Belinda can help you with just about any photography need you may have.  She says it best herself:

The talented Belinda Hall, photographer extraordinaire!

“The beautiful chaos and passion that life holds drives me as an artist. My specialties include Weddings, Portraiture, Fine Art, Architectural,and Commercial Photography. I am grateful for the opportunity to capture your moments in life, they are not only special to you but dear to my heart because I am given another chance to express the poetry of life through my love, photography.” — Belinda Ann Hall

Beautiful beach photography by Belinda Hall

If you want to see even more beautiful work by Belinda, make sure to stop by her website, PhotosByBelle.com. You can even follow her on Facebook! We couldn’t be happier about her generous contribution to our auction this weekend and would like to say a great big Thank You to Belinda. Your talent never ceases to amaze us!

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Live Like a Local: Mermaids Make a Difference with Paws4Vets

Come out with Mermaid Cottages this Saturday, January 28th, 2012 and help us as we expand our Mermaids Make a Difference campaign! This coming Saturday, from 1 PM-3 PM, Mermaid Cottages and Paws4Vets will host a fund raiser at Seaside Sisters and kick off this newest addition to the Mermaids Make A Difference community service programs. Also featured at this special event will be Paws4Vets founders Kyria Henry and her veteran father, Terry Henry, other service dogs from Paws4People, and soldiers from Ft Stewart and the surrounding area with service dogs.

Through the Paws4Vets Assistance Dog Placement Program our Veterans and Active-Duty Service Members or their dependents with physical, neurological, psychiatric or emotional disabilities can receive Psychiatric Service Dogs, Mobility Service Dogs and Rehabilitative Assistance Dogs, free of charge. All Paws4Vets Assistance Dogs are trained by federal inmates within one of five federal prisons and/or the Paws4Vets Wounded Warrior PTSD Intervention and Assistance Dog Training Program.

“Mermaid Cottages has always sponsored puppies to be trained as Guide Dogs and Service Dogs for persons with disabilities and we are now expanding the programs to include dogs specifically trained to serve veterans. Proceeds from the sales of our Beach Bum Biscuits and our Tee Shirts will also go towards sponsoring dogs for our veterans. We are honored to be partnering with Kyria Henry, Terry Henry, and the Paws4Vets program. We invite everyone to come out and support our veterans and their families!” ~Head Mermaid, Diane Kaufman

So come on out to Seaside Sisters Saturday and meet Jimmy, an 8-week old Golden Retriever puppy (named after our beloved Jimmy Kelleher of Seaside Sweets). This fundraiser is being held to sponsor little Jimmy’s training as a service dog for Paws4People. Funds from the sale of Beach Bum Biscuits dog treats and t-shirts go towards the sponsorship of this new furry hero, so we encourage you to shop ’til you drop for a great cause!  This little puppy will be placed as an assistance dog with a veteran or his family in the Savannah area. How exciting is that! Come be a part of something grand, stock up on some yummy dog treats for your special pooch, and honor those that fight for our country, too. See you Saturday!

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