It's Been a Minute!

 It seems like forever since I have been here and I'm not even sure I know where to start. When we last spoke, I think I told you that I had messed up my days and commitments so my decor swap, which was supposed to start on Monday would now be starting on Thursday. But, even at that, I thought I would be done and back here a lot sooner than just now.

The swap from red, white and blue to sunflowers and citrus colors usually takes four days with putting things away included. And that was still on track until Saturday afternoon when a storm came in completely out of the blue. One minute it was cloudy and the next hail was hammering my sky lights so hard that I thought they would break and the accompanying rain was so heavy I couldn't see out the door. In literally a matter of a few minutes I walked to my sunroom to see if I could see any better back there and water was GUSHING down my brick sidewalk and under the door into the sunroom. Luckily, the sunroom floor is slate so no harm done there.

Wind was blowing and things were flying and suddenly, everything went black. Power was out. Luckily, I have my fabulous flashlight from my brother and sister-in-law and Bennett and I went around gathering up what we may need for a long, hot and yes, pretty boring night ahead.

I did some reading-about as much as my eyes could take having to read by flashlight-don't know how Abe did it-lol-ran and got a quick shower before there was no hot water left and was about ready to jump out of my skin when the power came back on. I went around resetting everything, turned on the TV and we were good to go. I think the power was off a bit over three hours.

The next morning I was happy to wake up and see numbers on the clock and everything was good through coffee and breakfast and I was just getting ready to get on with my swap when the power went out again. It was dark in the house and outside and the thunder was booming again so back to my book I went.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. Once the power came back and I had reset everything again, the power went out three more times! Honestly, I have never been so happy to see the end of a day.

Apparently a HUGE storm passed through just my side of town-other areas never got a drop of rain let alone hail, wind, thunder and lightning! Trees took out out power poles and at least two very large ones fell on houses. And, of course, once the sky cleared up, I was outside picking up as much debris as I have had from a hurricane. I picked up parts of trees that are nowhere near my house. I got a lot of it out for today's pick-up but still have much more to go!

Thankfully, I am fine-as is what I can tell so far of my house-and I still had my furry pal here for company so we survived.

And, even though we are still having storms and cloudy skies yet again today, I was able to get some pictures so we can get our late summer 2026 tour started. We'll start in the living room.

When I looked closely at the above photo, I felt as if something was wrong with the balance so I added another book to make the middle cubby just a bit more prominent. Not sure it made a huge difference but I like it...until I don't. Lol

This is a picture that I think I actually bought to use for St. Patrick's Day. When I bought it, the flowers were other colors but I ended up painting them yellow so that I could use it with my sunflowers and I think it works. I know I could find an actual sunflower photo from The Paperhouse Print Shop but I think I am already on sunflower overload so I am good with this. When I finished all of my decorating for this swap, I have several bundles of sunflowers left over so I guess I am ready to cut back some. Lol. It always had that one orange flower so I just left it there.

I think I might also be almost over the book stacks and bead garlands that I made for every holiday/season. Once upon a time, I loved them all but this one almost didn't make the cut this year-and, it is probably still not safe. Once I have a minute, I just might find something else for this spot.

So that is the living room so far. I have an appointment tomorrow and some errands and then I should be back and ready to get on with "life"-as long as Mother Nature plays nice for awhile. I am off to finish up my grout refresh that never got done and then see about starting a new project using a drop cloth from Lowes. I have never worked with one before but lots of crafters use them so we shall see. I will fill you in on that once I get started. Until then stay safe and stay tuned.