It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

I went a little different on my mantle decorating this year and just LOVE it!! I bought the brightly colored balls 90% off at Target last year and Em talked me into buying that fluffy sparkly thing in the middle of the garland for 39 cents...I'm so glad I listened to her!!

What this Mom has been up to...

We are enjoying every minute of our summer break! As much as I love homeschooling, it is so refreshing to wake up each day and not have school be the center of our days. It's been great to tackle some home projects while Samuel takes his afternoon naps.

My first project was to clean out the school room...here it was on the last day of school...it's pretty neat but I had a few fun ideas in mind.
We took a trip to Maryland & DC a few weeks ago I couldn't resist a trip to IKEA. I got a fun new light and some new chairs for the kiddos.

and made a lazy susan for all the pens, pencils, etc...

Next on the list was painting the half bathroom...spray painting all the builder fixtures bronze, replacing the mirror with this one that was hanging in my upstairs hall.

Taking the mirror from the hall was a good idea until I realized I needed to do something (cheap) with the big empty space I now had...I painted some dollar store frames to match this plaque and made a photo collage. These are all from our DC trip and Emily said this should be a travel wall and change out the pictures with each trip we take. I love that idea!

Next was recovering the kitchen chairs...for the 7th time since we have owned this set! I love this black & white damask print...I saw a commercial for Oprah yesterday and she was sitting in a chair covered in the exact same print!! Not that I get my decorating tips from Oprah, but if they are using it for her chairs I must have done something right!

I had a little leftover fabric and decided to cover a lampshade with it. If you are ever in my house, DO NOT look at the back!! The front turned out great, but YIKES the back is awful!! I should have googled "how to cover a lampshade" before attempting this!

Last but definitely not least, we had this old wicker chair in our bedroom that I really wanted to use on my front porch (although now I don't know where my sweet hubby will throw his dirty clothes, oh yeah...the floor). My first thought was to paint it white but I took a walk on the wild side and painted it "Cherry Red" I love how it turned out!

and it makes a great spot to sit & chat on the porch swing!

Mantle Makeover for summer

Ever since we took the Christmas decorations down my mantle has looked like this...and as much as I love my yard sale lemon trees it was time for something lighter for summer. So I went "shopping" around the house for things that felt beachy or summery (glass jars from the kitchen, starfish from Nathan's room, sand from the kids sandbox, shells from our trip to the beach last year, sign and statues from our bathroom, etc)...I added some "summery" pictures and it ended up like this...

I love it and it didn't cost me a cent!!