Love It When This Happens...

Days like today are the reason why I don't like to put things on my to-do list in ink any more. I really don't even remember what I had planned for today because when I woke up, there was a hint of spring - or maybe autumn - in the air! And suddenly I knew that it was finally time to catch up on the spring chores that had somehow never gotten done this year. After all, we DID have all of our usual spring stuff with 3 graduations added - not to mention an early onset of our summer rain patterns. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. In any case, I decided it was time to be able to see out of the windows once again.

I will admit to taking a bit of a short cut because I did have another fun project waiting in the wings.

I love it when my windows sparkle! I did the front windows the "right" way...

...and then used this on the windows on the side of the house. They are the guest bedrooms and for some reason, it doesn't bother me if they are not perfectly crystal clear - at least this time. Since I still have all of the outside windows of the sun room as well as all of the windows on the inside to go, I gave myself a bit of a break And of course with me, one thing always leads to another and I also ended up scrubbing the front door, shutters and garage door. It is no wonder that everyone seems to be suffering with allergies these days. When I saw the amount of pollen just cascading off of every surface, I was truly overwhelmed. Now that everything is clean,. I can't wait for "open window weather"!

And speaking of the project in the wings...and you know how much I love projects...

 

And if it involves grand children, all the better. Presley Paige is about to celebrate her 5th birthday with a Frozen themed party and I just can't help myself. I just have to "help". I love this kind of thing! Jennie and I are wearing out Pinterest and I am having the best time hunting for treasures to hide in large blocks of ice, supplies for Frozen sparkly slime, Pin the Nose on Olaf - which I was going to make but caved when I actually found one at the party store because it can serve as decor as well - and things for their favor bags. I am all about the "embellishments! I just can't help myself. This is how I roll. Give me one little bit of encouragement and the next thing you know, we have a full fledged production going. It will be fun! Can't wait!! And to make it even better, some of the gang will be coming to town before the big day so I will get in lots of family time as well!

Off to make Olaf favor bags....and so much more. I will keep you posted - promise. Stay tuned.

"Do-Overs"...and Now What???

So you all know that I have been trying to de-clutter "a bit". This is STILL so hard for me - mostly because of Murphy's Law...if I get rid of it today, I will find an AMAZING idea of how I could have used it tomorrow!!! I was putting away a few 4th of July flower arrangements in a closet I don't use very often when I saw theses lovely creations:

I bought this arrangement at Pier 1 many, many years ago. It was used in the main parts of the house when I was a bit more "floraly" and then went out in my spring decorating when I put out my rose patterned dinnerware and frames. Its last incarnation was in our bedroom - for quite a long time in fact. I have always loved the chippy pedestal urn, but fell out of favor with the faux (and not "good" faux) roses long ago.

In keeping with my de-clutter mentality, it was on the way to the "donate" pile along with this lovely piece....

...when I realized that maybe I could still use the urns in some way. And so I set out to rip these things apart. But, as is frequently the case in my world, it was easier said than done!

The one filled with ivy I had actually put together myself. I must say I did a pretty good job of securing the floral foam to the urn - must have used a whole bag of hot glue sticks - but, the foam was old and brittle, so I was able to cut it into small pieces and pretty much pop it all out.

But, the rose urn was a different story. Seems they used something like that expandable spray insulation that grows to fill every nook and cranny and gets HARD when cured. It was no easy task getting that stuff out. I used every tool I owned - and a few choice words - before I finally won!!!

Now I am left with this and the possibilities are endless!

Right now all I can see are pumpkin stands...think I am OVER summer and dreaming of what is to come. My first thought was to paint them black to use them for Halloween but that would be a bit limiting. I am thinking of going a bit more "creamy" in my autumn decorations this year - that is, if I can find NICE faux cream pumpkins. I might actually have to break down and buy the real ones to get the look I want. Last year they were really expensive so we shall see. But, can't you just see a beautiful cream colored pumpkin sitting on a nest of lovely bittersweet or autumn leaves? Hmmmm.....

...yeah, sort of like that. And here I thought this was all my idea - haha. Thanks Pinterest. If you have the time, hop on over to my Pinterest Autumn and Halloween boards. You will see where I am spending lots of my time. Stay tuned.

BTW, thanks to all of my blog readers in Russia. I have no idea how you found me, but I am glad you did!

"What Was I Thinking"????

Right about now I am thinking I WASN'T thinking. I may have bitten off more that I can chew - so to speak! I have spent almost all of my "down time" the last week or so on my photo purging project. I was actually beginning to feel good about it as I saw some shelves on the etagere begin to empty. In fact, I was beginning to feel quite smug and thought it wouldn't be long before I would be writing my SUCCESS story blog. And then, just like in the comics, that big, old "pop" bubble appeared over my head as I remembered ALL of the other places I still have stacks of photos.

This picture doesn't even tell the whole story. To the left of this closet is way more room holding many more boxes!

And just when I thought THAT was all, I remembered that at least 4 of the large drawers in my closet storage also hold photos. Is this beginning to feel a bit overwhelming to you as well?

I know the only way this will get done is to do it! I am to blame for letting it get so ahead of me. I know I will be proud if when I finally accomplish my goal - just hope it happens soon because we will be needing this sleeping space to pull out the trundle very soon. Just the thought of having to put it all away before I am done makes me cringe! I will persevere! Stay tuned!

And note to self...that carpet is in desperate need of a cleaning!!

Can't Help Myself...

No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to keep myself from my Halloween Pinterest board....so many ideas, so little time. These are some of the things I am currently considering doing this year - and August is the perfect time to start before my schedule kicks back into full gear again:

 

My plan is to only make things from things that I already own or own and can adapt if they are large. I don't need any more large items to have to store. The mirror is a good example. I have a Halloween mirror that I bought from Grandin Road a few years back so it won't take much to get it to look just like this one.

I will have to admit that I am having some heart palpitations as I look over pictures taken in my house the past few years. I have some rather large vignettes that I love and I have spent a few years accumulating all of the items needed. Now that I no longer have all of my "vignette" display areas, I know I am going to have to do some editing!!! That will be like asking a mom to edit one or more of her children. Don't know how I am going to do this but I will be thinking about it over the next month or so.

In any case, I am off to buy supplies for some of these projects. I haven't been in the craft stores in several weeks so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they have out Halloween supplies already. We shall see. Stay tuned.

"You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs"....

...or something like that. In order to get here:

Which would be a totally empty - but not yet cleaned - drawer. I have had to go through many, many days of something like this...with, I fear, many, many more to come!!

But, as I often say, the longest journey.... I have come up with a pretty decent system. It is not fool proof. I am sure some of the kids are getting duplicates of some pictures while some are not getting any but, when I am ever done, I will have a pictorial history of our times with our grand children - one set for each of them and one full set for us. Is it as wonderful as a beautiful scrapbook? Certainly NOT in my opinion, but at least we will all have these picture memories and as the kids get older and they want pictures from the past (which they already have in some cases as they too want to make photo gifts for family and friends), they will have them. I began by noting the dates on the ones that I could but that too became just too HUGE a project so, when I present the boxes of pictures to each of the kids it will be with a note encouraging them to sit down and look at the pictures together with their parents on rainy afternoons or when they have some down time and need something to do. They should be able to get pretty close to a time line by remembering the event, hair cut, clothes, etc. Doesn't that sound like a lovely bonding experience? Wish I could say that I meant for that to happen but I would really have liked it better if I could have given it to them in chronological order. But, after all, there are only so many hours in a day.

I truly did not remember how many drawers of photos I had as well as all of the boxes and bins. YIKES!! Don't know what I will do with all of those empty drawers once I am done, but it will be fun filling them again I'm sure!  I am just pretty much keeping this stuff out all of the time and sitting and sorting when I have a few free minutes....and some day, I will be done!

Of course, free minutes are few and far between around here but I love it that way. Just got back from a visit at the home of daughter #2. She was keeping my 3 youngest grand children (her nephews and niece) for a day and invited me up to share. I wish I had more pictures but it was one of those visits where we were just having too much fun to interrupt for picture taking. We visited with my brother and sister-in-law at the pool. The kids are such good swimmers that they pretty much entertain themselves these days. Then, we spent the rest of our visit taking golf cart rides - and each child took turns at driving and did a really good job - right down to the "almost" 5 year old. The boys "fished" in the creek behind the house, we took the dogs for a nice long walk, made meals together and found a movie that we could all agree on! No easy task that one! Just mention "Frozen" any more and both boys run in the other direction!

It truly doesn't take much to entertain this one. She pulled this large leaf from the creek and spent many minutes entertaining us!

So another lazy week of summer is pretty much over. I am finding a bit of time to tackle all of the weeds that seem to pop up overnight after our afternoon showers followed by a nice long time recuperating in the pool. I think time with my family and time in our pool are the only things about summer that I truly enjoy. Don't ask me what I am doing living in Florida! But, every store is beginning to show the signs of autumn coming closer so there is a bit more bounce in my step these days! I have actually decided on some Halloween crafts to do soon. I really like to do some of my Halloween crafting in the summer so I am good to go with costume sewing once my "orders" arrive. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can find the supplies I need when I head out tomorrow. Stay tuned.  

Snips and Snails...

I am giving myself today to stay home and do some little things that have been on the to-do list for much too long. You know, those little things that really no one but you will know if they get done or not yet they keep niggling on your mind until they are!

I have been meaning to hang a new hummingbird feeder FOREVER! Every time I am out by the pool, I see several hummingbirds visiting the plants in the gardens. They are so beautiful that I really wanted to attract more and even I can only plant so many plants!

As I was waiting in the garden center the other day, I looked up and saw a feeder and snatched it up immediately.

I also grabbed a bottle of the pre-made food with electrolytes. I have no idea if this stuff is any better than the sugar water I used to make myself, but these days, pre-made always seems to sound better to me! I liked this feeder because there is a little water well at the top to deter ants and anything that can send those little critters running is good for me!

This plant actually seems to be their favorite and the one that draws them to the gardens.

My plan had been to take down the copper hanging bird bath in the forefront of this picture and hang it from that hook. But, that bird bath has a tiny constant drip when I have it on and it not only provides fresh water for the birds, but the moving water attracts them as well. So, I decided to take down a bird house that had been hanging on the shepherd's hook and hang it there. That bird house has seen much use. For a number of years, the birds used it for nesting and it was so much fun to see the "parent" birds flying back and forth and in and out of that house. They would fly straight into the little hole and every time one of them did it, I worried that they would miss and hit the house - but, that never happened.

I was a bit reticent about removing it, but I know for a fact that it was not used this year so I am hoping I can relocate it and another happy little bird family will find it next spring.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I will soon have flocks of hummingbirds waiting in line for the new feeder!

Of course the next unfinished project on my list is my new "sewing room". You would think it would be done by now. How hard is it to pull out and set up a sewing machine?! But, you remember that I had to clean out the knee hole area of the desk and that took some doing! I have pretty much gotten everything out of there and either in the recycling bin, garbage or a new home. I will have to leave the rolling file because it is FULL of file upon file of seasonal papers and embellishments and even though I am not scrapping any more, I am still doing my seasonal crafts and go to those files often. Since it is on casters, it should be easy to just wheel out when I need to sit there and, actually, since it has a nice large, flat top, I can probably pull it up next to me and have some extra surface area for pins, thread, etc. as I am sewing....so maybe a win, win!

As I was contemplating what all I would want to leave out on the counter top, I decided I definitely wanted the stuff I use for hand sewing as well. The fact that I have to rummage through my large sewing basket - which is down in one of the lower cabinets - truly keeps me putting off all of the little fixes that need to be done around here. I learned "a stitch in time saves nine" many years ago but still I just keep that "fix it" pile growing and getting taller and taller. I am hoping having everything right at hand will help.

With that being said, I decided I wanted my thread out as well and remembered something I had not seen for awhile. Wonder of all wonders, I remembered where I had put it.

Many years ago I made this thread holder for my mom in a shop class I had to take in junior high. She always used it and it sat by her machine. It was one of the things I wanted when she passed away but I never had a place for it to be out and so it sat in the back of yet another closet in this room. What better way to have some of my most used colors of thread handy.

I think I am actually very close to making the big move with the sewing machine later today. Then, I will finally be able to check another thing off of that pesky "to-do" list. Baby steps! Stay tuned.

Summer Time....

....and the living is easy - at least around here. I have been taking it easy and pretty much still doing what I want. We had an impromptu invitation to a lovely happy hour at daughter #3's house on Friday and now I have been invited to Gainesville to spend some time with daughter #2 and my three youngest grand children who will be spending some time with her. This is just the reason nothing gets written in ink in my calendar any more. Better show you the kitchen before I get another offer.

How lucky am I that Yankee Candle co-operates in giving me a candle that perfectly matches my theme this summer?!

As much as I am not a fan of summer, I do like the citrus colors and sun flowers just make me happy - so I can manage to cope throughout the season. But, if truth be told, here are where my thoughts really are:

 

Ran by the Yankee Candle store when I was out the other day and found this "Farmer's Market" scent. It smells so good and just perfect for the END of summer and the beginning of autumn - can't wait. It is taking everything I have not to light these candles but I will hold off a bit.

 

And this is the new decor in my family room. The munchkins drop in a lot these days and I love that they have so many things that they enjoy in our house that they can make themselves right at home. Of course, the Legos are one of the favorites so I am just leaving this here so that they can jump right back in each time they come. After all, these ARE the lazy days of summer! Stay tuned.