Staying Busy

So apparently all it took was the "threat" of having to raise my Cox WiFi bill to get me motivated...at least more than I have been of late with the heat we've been having. I am doing everything in my power to find chores that don't include WiFi use. As I posted previously, I really never even thought about there being a limit to my usage-now I know.

The heat is such that I really don't want to do any of my larger projects because I'm one of those who, once having started a project, I want to see it through to the end no matter how long it may take. And, these days, an hour or two in the sun is about all I can tolerate without taking a break. And so, I have been going around the yard doing lots of little things that have been needing doing but not quite enough to motivate me before. I have re-nailed every fence slat that I found loose, re-nailed the entire fence around the A/C unit that got taken down for the new unit to be put in and never put back totally correctly, tied back the sky vine once again, touched up a lot of the pool furniture, spot cleaned all of the bedroom carpets, scrubbed the chaise cushions, scrubbed the pool slide, pulled every little weed I could find, edged all of the garden borders, re-potted some plants and planted others in the ground, re-attached some loose lattice on the privacy fence, etc. They are all things that I am pretty sure no one else but me would even take note of but, they are things I have been looking at for awhile and knowing they needed doing so...yay me!

My grandson messaged me the other day to say that he and his brother (and maybe his sister) wanted to come for a work day and then daughter #2 called and asked if she could come for a visit and would love to help with anything needed and then my brother called and asked if he and my sister-in-law could come for a visit and that they'd be happy to help with anything I needed. Wow! I had better stop what I'm doing before there isn't anything left for them to do. Lol Just kidding-the things I will keep for their lists are the things that require more than one set of hands, require a bit more muscle than I have these days or, require a trip to the roof which has been off of my list ever since my vision and depth perception started to go. It does make me mad that these are all things I used to do but, I must take joy in all of the things I can still do. I'm a bit of a "where there's a will" kind of gal plus a bit of a jerry-rigger so I can still do most of the things I want...however they get done-the end justifies the means! Lol  

All of that being said, I am happy to be inside for a bit and thought we would head to the family room. I don't think there are a lot of changes in there but, I do love the room at night. I have actually been walking around the house of late trying to come up with a few ideas for things I can switch. I think this happens to me every year at about this time because I'm not as busy since the kids don't have their school things that I'm attending. I've got an idea or two so, maybe if I can fit in a trip to Lowes, I'll have that to share. 

In any case, this year's family room.

I don't remember if I shared the re-do of the book stack cover with you. I never really liked the one I originally did so, after looking at it one time too many, I took off the old one and decoupaged a holiday napkin in its place. I like the new one so much better.

Last year:

This year:

I love the script on the white stripes but now that I look at it this closely, I'm realizing that they aren't as white as the spine of the book-maybe a little distressing is in order? Oh goody, something else I can do with out WiFi-Lol!

This is still one of my favorite inexpensive HL pillow covers that I painted. It was so easy - I just ironed on stars cut from freezer paper and painted over them and pulled them off - and I think it looks so much more complicated!

So that is the family room this year. I don't have a picture once it is dark outside but I can share this one where you can at least see some of the candles-there are actually 11 candles in this room that all pop on about 6 PM. I also have several real candles that I light and I just love sitting in this room in the evenings.

I'm off to stay busy. Hope you stay safe and stay tuned.