Wow, that was a fast month! It doesn’t surprise me as the “ber” months tends to fly by! I decided to try the get-it-done process again to see what I could push myself to do this month. Sometimes you need to just set yourself some deadlines or it keeps going and going and going…

I lost a few days (or gained depending on how you look at it), when we spent ten days at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. We were house sitting for our friends and former cove-neighbors while they took a trip to Alaska. It was a beautiful break full of catching up on sleep, reading, lunching with friends, dinner with friends and hitting all our favorite restaurants, thrift stores and a little fabric shopping. I had a couple of doctor appointments too but that’s ok. When we got back, I needed to get to work to get some stuff done. Here’s what I managed in the next twenty days.

Window Treatments

While at the lake, I went to The Second Yard fabric store in Roanoke. I found a beautiful linen/cotton blend fabric to use for the window treatments that I wanted to make for the sitting room. Of course they had less than I ideally needed so I would have to get creative on how I constructed the treatments but I was determined to make it work because I loved the fabric so much. I think the panels add just the right amount of softness and warmth to this room. I love them.

Floral Print Wall

I decided to change up the shelves over the coffee bar area to freshen it up. I wanted a cleaner pulled together look and sort of a uniform backdrop of the pieces I would display on the shelves. I found the frames at Michaels for a buy 1 get 2 free deal. I needed 8×10 frames as that is what would fit on the bottom shelves. I also wanted to hide the black bars that hold up the shelves so I nailed them to the wall just slightly above the boards so they would sit flush on the wall. I then found a 12 piece blue flower print series on Etsy and had them printed at Staples. It was a very inexpensive way to get a little art up there. The frames cost me $54, the print purchase was $10 and the printing at Staples was $10. I love the look. Simple and understated but it goes well with the drapes and overall vintage look of my sitting room.

Purging Continues

We are getting ready to do a little update on our kitchen to include the pantry, hall closet, and laundry room. I have crammed a lot of stuff in these areas and realized that I needed to lighten it up in anticipation of the update. I started by going through my spice cabinet. Yes, I had an entire cabinet of spices. I literally threw away about half of them which left room for me to put all my baking supplies like flour and sugar in the same cabinet, freeing up space in my pantry. Now it is easier to find exactly what I am looking for. Why did I wait so long?

Garage Organization and Painting

This was really Darryl’s project but I helped with some with the painting and organization. When we bought the house, the garage was a mess. The walls were all marred up and just really dirty. I know, it’s a garage…but it was driving my husband crazy. I found a five gallon unopened bucket of White Dove paint in our upstairs storage area, brought it to Lowe’s to shake up and see if it was still good. It was! That was a huge savings on paint. He removed all the stuff on the walls, started patching holes, sanding, washing the walls, trim and windows. I cut the paint and painted the window frames, and he did all the rest of the painting…and he hates to paint! The fun part for him was putting everything back but in a better place. We repurposed the laundry room cabinets to the garage for cleaner storage as we are planning on updating the laundry room this fall as well.

Planted Fall Garden

I cleaned out the remnants of the summer garden and planted some cabbage, broccoli, spinach and carrots. Let’s see how this goes. It is the first time I am trying any of these. I am loving my little garden. I also planted a few pansies and mums, changed out my front porch pots for fall and planted a Redbud in the backyard.

Tile Selection

This fall we are updating our kitchen, laundry room, pantry and hall closet. The timing really depended on our selecting the countertops and tile in time for them to get them in order to do the work before Thanksgiving. It will be tight. We spent a whole day looking at tile and Quartzite and I think we have some winners. That was overwhelming and exhausting and I am glad it is done!

Well, that’s about it, but I have several things in the works for October. Thankfully I have a whole month to get them done.

Denise