Cottage Living

Whenever I pick up a magazine and see a perfectly styled cottage, or one with all white decor, I laugh to myself...clearly, those people do not know the true joys of cottage living.

Our family cottage has been a mainstay of our summers for the last twenty years.  It has undergone a few changes here and there, mainly an addition to add a bathroom and a few bedrooms, but all in all, the footprint, and decor has stayed the same.  It is a cottage, in every sense of the word...no pretenses, no fussiness, just pure, sweet cottage living.  What exactly is cottage living, you might ask?

Cottage living is mismatched pillows, kooky signs (people seem to think these make great hostess gifts), stacks of boardgames, and vintage kitchenware (that wasn't even close to 'vintage' when it was purchased).

Cottage living is wearing your bathing suit from sun-up to sun-down, running in and out of the house with sandy feet (and hoping mom doesn't notice), and wiling away the afternoon on the old wicker porch rockers.

Cottage living is swimming until even the dog tires, playing with decade-old toys (and realizing they beat plastic toys, hands down), and napping whenever and wherever.

Cottage living is eating family dinner on the porch (or, sometimes, on special nights, in the tree-house), passing platters of corn, watermelon and bbq chicken...but it can also mean being too tired to cook by the end of a sun-and-sand soaked day...and having a cold beer and a bowl of cereal for dinner, instead.

Cottage living is what you look forward to for the entire year...and then just like that, its over...nothing but a perfect memory.