A Colorful Summer Cottage

Welcome to the Summer Celebration Blog Hop 

hosted by Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home.

If you are following the blog hop in order, then you were just visiting Katie of Let's Add Sprinkles whose home is full of color and creativity.

I made a vow at the beginning of summer to spend less time decorating and more time playing.

Reading in my garden 

and walking on the beach would take precedence over projects.

 I wanted to say "yes" when our daughter-in-law's dad called to say, "let's go sailing!"

I made my life simpler by using dried flowers and paper blooms in the entry - there is one little arrangement of fresh blooms that gets replaced weekly.

A bucket of dried flowers has been sitting on the dining room table for weeks - less time arranging flowers allows for longer beach walks.

I actually did take time to make a few changes in the living room - the first was to slap a fresh coat of white paint on the fireplace.

Steve painted the sign hiding the TV at the beginning of summer - favorite beaches where we have lived or visited.

The milk can was recent gift from a friend and I bought faux blooms at a favorite shop - as the owner assisted me, I told her I wanted the flowers to look like they had come from my garden.

I looked for weeks for matching chairs on either side of the living room windows, but had no luck so Steve gets to keep his well worn leather chair for a little while longer.

Instead I "shopped the house" and moved things all around - the cabinet was pushed down and I moved the white chair into its place.

The smaller table had been beneath the window for awhile and the green chairs were where the cabinet now stands.

Croquet balls from my childhood set, an oversized die, pool balls gathered over many years and tiny bowling pins found at a flea market

 add just the right amount of color around the room.

I kept the game theme going in the old cabinet as well.

As I edited my pics and wrote the post, I decided that I needed to tweak just one thing in the room.

Can you spot it?

Of course, that triggered a few more tweaks, but they can wait because I'm sticking to my plan of playing all summer and heading out to the beach.

And I'm sending you off now to visit Cecilia of My Thrift Store Addiction.

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