Two dressers, deocrating my new home, and summertime!

Ah... it's officially summer.  Time to string up the hammock and laze away those hot sleepy evenings.  Time to pack up the cooler with juice and salads and head to the cottage.  And time to get some projects done, of course!  Let me share with you what I've been busy with these past couple of weeks.

As many of you know, my husband is now full-time self-employed.  It's so much fun.  We can go out for lunch, or spend the afternoon drinking coffee if we want.  We can take as much time off as we want and nobody cares.  We're really adjusting well to this new life style.  But don't get me wrong - we still work hard.

Mark recently dubbed himself a 'picker'.  He finds so much fun stuff while he's out scrapping, and sells it - via kijiji or yard sales.  People love raking through his barns of junk.  I must admit, I like it too.  It's like shopping at a re-use center - but it's all free.

Here's a dresser he found recently that I refinished.

I listed this one for sale online... but to be honest I may keep it.  I have a big house to furnish, and this piece would serve nicely in our living room.

I also refinished this lovely little dresser for our den.  I had fun with it, as I knew I wasn't going to try to sell it.  Some of these pieces are so old.  This piece has to be over 150 years old.  I sanded it down - through layers of paint, stains and finishes - and just finished it off with a varathane.  I love it because you can see hints of all the various finishes it had over the years.  What a story it tells.

Perfect spot to store my knitting and books.  The drawers are tricky to open, which keeps my knitting safe from little 3-year-olds.  And yes, it's a side-of-the-road find.

Mark found this beautiful coffee table last week, and I claimed it for our new living room.  I've been looking for a big piece that would be good for board games.  I've always loved the look of turned-legs on a coffee table, so this piece was perfect.

The top was all scratched and worn, making it a perfect piece to paint.  I brought it in to my living room today, but I'm still applying a few layers of wax on the top to protect it's surface, so nobody is allowed to put anything on it.  Yet.

My living room is coming together.  As many of my friends and family know, Mark and I are big fans of Dave Ramsey - a Christian American financial expert on the radio.  We live on a budget, and my monthly budget for home decor is $50.  That forces me to be very resourceful and creative.  I love that everything in my house (pretty much) was a freebie-find.  The thing I spend money on is textiles - bed linens, pillows, curtains, etc.  As you can see, I need some pretty long curtain panels for my new living room.  $50 doesn't even cover the cost of one panel, so my latest challenge is figuring out a way to make or find curtains.

I also really love this piece of art from Anthropologie.  But at $1,128 I would be saving up for it for almost 2 years.  I need my friend Angela to help me recreate a similar piece :)

One more small decorating project I tackled was the girls' bedroom.  It's a pretty small room, no frills here.  I hung up the curtains from their old bedroom, and Mark found this beautiful jute rug which I find really makes the room cozy.  The dresser is one from my childhood, and the laundry basket was also found.  The art work was all done by yours-truly.  

 

The view from the other side.  Less exciting.

The girls love their room.  The morning after we decorated it, they woke up and just hung out with each other in their new room.  They told me 'Mom, I just 'lub' it so much'.  I remember when I was 7 and we re-wallpapered my bedroom.  It went from original gold paisley wallpaper to blue bunnies (bunnies for me, blue for my brother who I shared a room with). 

My project for next week is our guest room,  It's becoming the storage room for all of our stuff and I need to get it in order.  But no more talk about projects!  It's summer, and here's some highlights so far.

This past week we enjoyed going up north to a cottage with my family.  On the way, we stopped in at the Silver Bean Cafe in Peterborough, our favourite place to be north of Toronto.  I may be a little biased because we're related to the owners.  They treated us to a gourmet lunch.

 

Uncle Michael made all the kids strawberry lemonade, and afterwards we went wading in the fish pond in the park.

 

The cottage where we stayed was just outside Haliburton.  On the first day, a momma doe came into the yard with her twin baby fawns.  They were so beautiful and let us get pretty close.

 

The cottage was perfect for kids - complete with a sandy beach, boats and a play structure.  My kids were so happy all week long.  It was a great vacation!  Here's a picture of the beautiful lake - and my parents being silly.

 

My sibblings came and it was a full house of toddlers.  We spent the week boating, knee-boarding, cooking good food, swimming and just sitting by the beach with cold drinks.  Virgin daiquiris for me, of course :)

Oh... and s'mores :)