My Short Attention Span

I have a very short attention span which can be detrimental to my productivity, but sometimes it's a good thing.

This morning, my plan was to CLEAN the house from top to bottom.

I got as far as cleaning the entry way, ironing a table runner and cutting flowers for the dining room.

My first distraction from cleaning was deciding that the display on this shelf in the dining room needed refreshing.

 I looked in cupboards for  anything yellow to put on the shelf.

I was happy with the results, but this little plate drove me further off track from cleaning.

The plate has holes for a ribbon and I found some THANK YOU ribbon in my stash, but ended up going with some cute little bee ribbon.

The THANK YOU ribbon made me think that I needed to get with the Thanksgiving program so instead of moving on to clean the living room, I headed to the garage to make some question tags for the family to use on Thanksgiving.

I looked for rubber stamps with words that could lead to questions.

I used two different sizes of tags.

First I stamped the cards.

Then I rubbed colored chalk all over the cards.

And finished up with a snip of baker's twine on each tag.

The little yellow heart shaped bowl is now holding the colorful tags

Steve came into the dining room to ask me two questions -

Are you done with the vacuum?

and

Do you know it is about time for you to leave for your volleyball game?

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions was no.

I tore through the house finishing the vacuuming and made it to the game on time.

Unfortunately my girls had a heart breaking loss of 14-15 in the third game - we won't be going to the playoffs.

My short attention span got me sidetracked, but the house ended up clean and I created a fun little game for Thanksgiving dinner.

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I am joining these fun parties

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Our Home Away From Home - Tuesdays at Our Home

Cozy Little House - Tweak It Tuesday

A Stroll Through Life - Inspire Me Tuesday

Kathe With An E - You're Gonna Love It

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Tuesday's Treasures

White Lace Cottage - The Scoop

A Stroll Down Lillie Avenue

Steve and I are about the most boring and predictable people you will ever meet.

We eat sushi every third Friday at the same restaurant, sit at the same table and order the same dishes.

Every Thursday we eat at the same Mexican restaurant- we switch up the booths, but always the same meal.

We walk the beach every morning and people in the ocean front houses tell us they can set their clocks by our beach walks.

But, we are changing that and breaking out of the mold.

One of our summer goals is to do something each week that we don't usually do.

Saturday night  at 9 p.m. we walked over three lanes to be extras in an indie film being shot in a friend's driveway - definitely something different.

We didn't last long at the shoot - extreme disorganization and an incredibly poor plot combined with cold air at 11:00 p.m. sent us home - but hey, we tried.

For Father's Day Steve wanted to go to our usual local breakfast spot.

JP reminded him that we are trying to be different so we drove to Summerland (just south of Montecito and Santa Barbara) for a lovely brunch at Cafe Luna and a stroll down Lillie Avenue.

JP wanted us to see the tower gardens because he is pushing me to start growing my own vegetables and the towers are great for small spaces.

Little spots for seating beckoned us suggesting we sit awhile and not rush home.

A garden shop housed in an old craftsman style cottage gave me ideas for the container of succulents I just received from a friend

Sweet animal topiaries drew me to a children's shop, but I could not entice either JP or Steve to enter so I left it for a visit when the ladies on our lane do a summer shopping day.

I would take any of these great cabinets for my creative space, but the metal drawers kept calling me.

If I was a gazillionaire those metal drawers would be in my garage right now filled with all my supplies.

But, I couldn't convince Steve that I need old shelves priced in the 5 figure range.

I couldn't convince him that we needed an $1,100 birdcage either, but I would it sure would be fun to have all those rusty stars for a 4th of July themed vignette.

I would like to find some old shutters with a lovely chippy patina, but $850 for a pair of shutters is also out of my price range.

Please tell me that all of you who decorate with chippy doors, shutter, ladders, etc. are not spending that much.

Summerland is all of a 15 minute drive up the coast yet in 36 years, we have never visited the little hamlet together.

We enjoyed the beautiful flowers, including my all time favorite Matilija poppies, and just moved slow the rest of the day.

We went for a bike ride along the ocean, read in the garden and sat at the fire pit after dinner.

I did not finish a single project on my 30 Days of Pinterest list.

Our stroll down Lillie Avenue reminded me that I am on permanent vacation and I won't be fired from retirement if I don't finish everything.

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I am partying at

Little Red House - Mosaic Monday

Four Hours . . .

Moving everything to the my new workspace in the garage left my Ikea Expedit in total disarray.

The alphabetical organization was fun - guests usually end up in the guest room looking at all the little bits and pieces and even questioning my placement of items.

But, it is time for a crisp and clean look.

None of my alphabet collection was moved to the garage since they are used for vignettes rather than creating.

I sat on the sofa in the guest room staring at the Expedit waiting for inspiration.

Aha!

Letters are scattered along the top of the cabinet.

To fill the boxes, I gathered books from all over the house.

I decided this was the space to showcase some of my collections -

hands . . . blocks . . . clocks . . .

and a few favorite family treasures.

The ceramic tobacco canister was my father's and I can picture it sitting on a similar shelf in my childhood living room.

The glass container holding my number collection was my grandmother's.

You can faintly make out the raised letters of PLANTERS PEANUTS.

 I broke a corner of the glass several years ago, but I could not bear to part with it so I used clear packing tape to mend it.

This worn out little school slate was what my grandmother carried to school everyday in the 1880s.      

It took 4 hours to achieve this look.

All my large letters are in one place when I want to create a vignette.

I'd like to say that I was done.

The guest room cabinet is organized, but I created havoc on shelves in our bedroom.

I have several baskets full of odds and ends I removed from the shelves - where am I going to put them?

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Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Vintage on a Dime - Welcome Home Wednesday

A Delightsome Life - Home and Garden Thursday

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup Thursday

Lavender Garden Cottage - Cottage Style Party

Green Willow Pond - What We Accomplished Wednesday

Creative Cain Cabin - Budget Decorating Party

No Minimalist Here  - Open House Party

The Busy Bees

Don't Mess With the Cook

The kitchen is not my domain, so any time I want to do anything in the kitchen, I have to make Steve think it was his idea.

I wrote about moving things around here and here.

When I painted the shelves a couple of weeks ago, Steve immediately ordered a butcher block for the cabinet.

The butcher block arrived on Thursday and Friday night I got busy painting the cabinet white.

After waxing, I did some sanding and wanted to keep going,

but Steve said it looks fine and believe me, I

There were little yellow and white polka dot knobs on the cabinet when it was red, but I went with silver knobs to match the rest of the kitchen.

Steve likes it because it blends in and he thinks the room looks larger.

The shelves sport my favorite yellow and red bowls and canisters.

I bought the Mason jar shelf years ago at a home decor party I hosted.

It was during my Americana phase so the shelf was slate blue and it was relegated to the garage about 5 years ago.

With a fresh coat of ASCP Old White and some new jars it has a new life in the kitchen.

A salute to Valentine's Day is the conversation hearts and blue Dove hearts in the Mason jars.

I did hang up a little banner I made yesterday.

Steve saw it and put his foot down - not in HIS kitchen.

Since he made me a lovely paella while I wrote this post I saw the wisdom of removing the banner.

There is an old saying, "If mama ain't happy, ain't no one happy."

And if Steve "ain't happy", I don't eat.

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I am linked up at

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Timewashed

Under the Table and Dreaming

Stone Gable

Creative Cain Cabin

Boogieboard Cottage

Knick of Time Tuesdays

Cozy Little House