Summertime

Hey!

Yep, it’s me. Looking at the date of my last post, I feel a little like Huck Finn. That is, I’ve been Totally Goofing Off.

Well, not totally. For the last couple of months I’ve been in “home-making mode”, and I have been working on a few projects around the house. I gave the parlor a face lift, fixed up the sun porch, and I gave our bathroom (downstairs -- still no plumbing upstairs yet) a mini makeover. Per my sister’s request, I’ll post pictures of that as soon as I get them off my camera.

And, let’s see ... oh, yeah! Our driveway is finished. No more mud riding through the yard.

And I took all the doors off the kitchen cabinets and scrubbed all the insides and and organized in there. Something that has needed doing for about three years now. I removed the doors for two reasons:

1) Some of them were warped and crooked and wouldn’t close properly, and kept coming open. Driving me crazy.

2) We had a little bit of a mouse problem. Itty bitty gray mice. Kind of cute, but not in the house, thank you. Taking the cabinet doors away left them with nowhere to hide from curious dogs and cats, and I think it’s done the trick. I think they’ve decided to move on. Eventually we’ll replace the cabinet doors, but for now I’m kind liking the open shelf farmhouse kitchen look.


I love the green color inside the cabinets. I think that’s the 1940’s paint job from the last time the kitchen was updated. A while back we painted the walls, which used to be a dingy blue, apricot yellow. The jury is still out on that color, though ... it may be just a tad bright. We’ll see!

Paul and I just got back from a wonderful trip out west to visit his parents in northern California, and my sister and her family in So-Cal. We attended my oldest nephew’s high school graduation and helped my sister and brother-in-law transform their back yard into a beautiful outdoor café for a party. Here’s the invite ... my sister and I designed it together and everyone loved it. Here’s how it looks closed:


... and here’s how it looks open, with all Scott’s school pics, from kindergarten through 12th grade, and his favorite scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6.


We had a great time, and now we’re home and getting back into the routine. A few days ago Scottish artist Elizabeth McCrindle said she was having a “bit of a tidy up” in her studio, which had just gotten out of hand. I’m doing the same thing this week so I can be done with it and have a clean and orderly space to start work in on Monday. I don’t think I’ve ever posted studio pictures of my work space since we moved out here to the house, so I’ll do that after I get it nice and presentable.

Cheerio!