Summer In My Living Room... Part Deux

Dear friends in shabbiness...

how are you out there?

It is officially Summer around here...

as of today, the monkeys are here to stay.

I'll be letting you know how that goes...

Anyhoo...

I realized it's been a little while since I showed you

Summer in my Living Room Part One...

and since I have been enjoying this room ever since...

I think it's time I shared the rest of it with all of you.

I mean, I don't want to be shellfish.

So...

to give my living room a little summery makeover

I started with lots of shells and old bottles on the mantle...

and I knew that I wanted a bunch of pink peonies for my old French zinc pitcher

after falling in love with Maria's gorgeous arrangement on Dreamy Whites...

I happened upon this fun antique grain sack in my wanderings one day

which when I got it home and started playing with it.... 

became a summery table runner.

I dragged a bunch of fun books out of hiding and used them around the room...

they will be easy to find when it's time to flop on the comfy chair with a summer cocktail!

Oh, and I finally finished one of those poor, forlorn projects... woohoo!

I found this cute Italian footstool at my thrift shop ages ago...

brought it home to Frenchy~up its brown wood but nice and curvy legs.

It's been in the living room ever since... waiting.

I finally painted it a French gray...

(no before pic... sorry, that was BB - before blog)

and then let that paint dry a goood looooong time... 

before finally grabbing it in exasperation a few weeks ago,

said 'that's enough' and went in search of sandpaper, steel wool, a nail file...

anything to shabby this thing up, please.

That's kinda how I roll.

So here she sits...

 fitting in a lot better now....

And putting my feet up is more fun with her around. 

And now for my estate sale "curiosity"...

which I just love.

And this is decidely not a "she". This is an "it". 

"It" had so much quirky personality and beachy, breezy spirit...

I had to bring "it" home last summer.

Just don't ask me any questions, cuz I don't know either...

I wasn't quite sure/am never quite sure where to put "it"...

until I decided what to do with the empty fireplace.

I thought of this shabby birdcage that hadn't been out in a quite a while...

and I'm so glad I did because I love how it all turned out...

like a pretty little sandcastle in my beachy wonderland...

So this is where you can find me this summer...

especially in the evenings when we're back from the pool and it's time 

for a cocktail on the patio...

except the mosquitos are already partying out there...

 so I think i'll just stay in here and look longingly out the window at it.

Yours in shabby beachy quirkiness,

oneshabbychick

P.S. To see Summer in my Living Room... Part One

click here.

Many thanks to Maya at Completely Coastal for featuring it!!!

Linking to...

my shabby fortnight

Hello out there!

It's Friday evening here...

I'm plopped in the living room... 

with lovely candles, big band tunes and a refreshment...

Reflecting on what it is I've been up to, keeping me away from this blog... 

You know, I love this little spot in the blogosphere...

 but sometimes there's just not a lot you can do about LIFE getting in the way... 

Or at least sometimes, if you wanna get something else DONE, you gotta go get it done 

and hope everybody still loves you when you get back :~}

So here is my Fortnight~In~Review... 

{the good news is, it's a whole bunch of good stuff I've been up to}

First of all...

I've been spending a lot of time with a nice gang of shrubs...

 They've been very patient this spring... 

So now that it's almost 100 degrees out there...

 I've finally gotten around to digging large holes in chock-full-o'-rocks dense red clay so they can finally spread their toes in the cool earth. 

I've also been moving perennials around here and there that were in that particular bed...

It's such satisfying work... 

To make my little world a prettier place... 

Butt-kicking work. 

When I take a break I usually hang with the sweetpeas on the patio...

because any day now the mosquito overlords will arrive...

and there will be a lot less patio time around here.

So if you don't find me out there...

 I might be on my daily hike with the dog in the woods.

This is part of the trail a few months ago...

green just beginning to pop up.

Now this is a dense green jungle, with poison ivy encroaching on the path...

everywhere.

Oh yeah... 

I've also spent part of the last two weeks scratching poison ivy...

Or I might be out rehearsing Renaissance chamber music in a big old stone church 

where our voices float up to the vaulted ceiling...

getting ready for my last few concerts of the season.

That is hard but satisfying work too...

Or maybe it's after school and the pool was beckoning...

always a good idea when it's almost 100 degrees...

I've even discovered that, yes, I can study early music scores in a chaise lounge, poolside...

and if I'm at the pool I might as well swim some laps...

On the way home I will probably need to pick up our CSA share at the farm stand... 

and see what gorgeous produce the earth has made for us this week...

such a fun and satisfying way to buy "groceries".

Then of course there's all the rest of life: 

homework, friends, school concerts, dinner, laundry...

well, you get the idea.

By the time dinner and dishes are accomplished...

{i.am.toast.}

I've still got a few more shrubs to go, plus a bunch of perennials...

the weekend is supposed to be positively pleasant.

I've got a date with these babies...

Happy weekend to all...

oneshabbychick

linking to...