So, what did I actually do with my summer?

Summer vacation is pretty much over for me.

My “free” time is about to end.

Gone!

(Insert violin music!)

Last week was spent putting my classroom back together; tomorrow starts a week of trainings and meetings; and on the 25th school starts- kiddos and all.

My sister-in-law knew I’d been busy and asked what house projects I had accomplished during the summer.  I  all I could think of was one little thing.

But I’ve been so busy!

So . . .

I decided I needed to document my efforts to prove to myself that I had accomplished something useful.

Our patio furniture had seen better days due to sun damage, water exposure, and maybe being left out a little too long in the fall.  The fabric was literally falling apart.

Before:

After checking out the cost of replacement cushions (times 7), I decided to try recovering them myself, after all, how hard could it be?

I found this fun outdoor fabric on sale and figured it would be a simple little project.

I cut the old covers off to use as patterns and thought I was good to go.

Well, it wasn’t as easy as it looked and I ended up taking forever to finish them.  The hard part was getting the side strips not to pucker.    I also had to go back and buy one more yard of material (which wasn’t on sale anymore), but if you don’t look too closely, it looks all right.

After:

I knew I’d done more projects, so I walked around the house trying to find some evidence of my summer labors.

My sister Linda and I had done some “shuffling” as we moved things around to different places in the house.  (It is so helpful to have someone with fresh eyes help you make little needed improvements.  Thanks, Linda!)  These curtains changed from a bedroom to the dining room.

Before:

 

After:

We gathered up all the bright dishes we could find in other places and moved them to the hutch.

Everything got a good deep scrubbing, too!

I spent a lot of time working in the yard.

Our rocky-hard clay soil makes it difficult to keep things healthy, but we have really green thumbs in the weed department.

Our grow box garden has done really well, however, and the Black-eyed Susan’s seemed to flourish.  (O.K., the vegetable garden is my husband’s baby.) 

Did I get to all my desired projects, you ask?

Unfortunately, the answer is no.

The bedroom with the missing curtains now looks like this:

It will be a little harder finding time to finish things up now, but my husband will do the patching and painting. (He is removing chair rail molding.)

Do you have summer projects, or do you spread them out during the whole year? 

Well, my early morning workshop will be here before I know it.  Time for bed!

Hope your summer has been rewarding and fun!

JoAnn