My 9th-ish ORC and WASH Your Hands!

Again, I'm not sure if this is Week 7 or what

 but we are in the final week - next Thursday is REVEAL DAY. 

 Or as I like to call it - "show us how far along you are and what didn't quiiiite get finished.

 That's my usual MO!! :)

We've actually been doing quite a few small projects and working in our garden and backyard a lot during this Pandemic so there have been times that this ORC took a back seat. 

Especially when the weather was good and we could be outside!

So I have a good bit left to do. 

Most of it is small, quick projects and the fun, pretty parts

 (except installing the vanity. That's kind of major!)

(I'm still loving this color - Sherwin Williams Anjou Pear!)

BUT, before I can do that I have a biggie to wrap up - 

The floor!!

This was taken late the other night when I was praying I hadn't forgotten all of my HS math!

So here's my Final Week Push checklist:

1. Finish the floor

2. Sew and hang curtains. *This actually happened late last night!! 

Here's a sneak peek at a quick DIY that made for a nice detail.

This rod had a great looking cracked glass finial but I didn't think the nickel finish did it justice and it didn't work with my plans...

A quick spray with my favorite gold spraypaint and it looks fabulous. 

These were very inexpensive curtain rods but with the touch of gold they look pricier!

3. Install Vanity

4.Hang art (still making some decisions in that department)

5.Move bamboo shelf back in and accessorize and create some storage

6. Bathroom rug?? Make final decision

7. Towel rack? 

8.Lamp? Previously located on vanity but I think the new vanity is too small. I'll need to make a decision on what lamp to use and move it to bamboo shelf (I think)

Be sure to check out the other One Room Challenge projects here. 

So many great spaces being worked on this round!

In The Garden

That is where we have been these last 12 weeks or so ...

in the garden.

I've always loved to garden. But this year it has been our refuge/escape/happy place!

I thought I'd share a little of what we've been doing.

Fresh air and sunshine always helps my mood!

I'm a long time gardener. I spent every Summer with my Nana and she could put a dead stick in the SC lowcountry soil and grow a tree!

I always think of the line in Steel Magnolias where Shirley McLaine as Ouiser Boudreaux explains why she gardens: Ouiser: "Because I'm an old Southern woman and we're supposed to wear funny looking hats and ugly clothes and grow vegetables in the dirt. Don't ask me those questions. I don't know why, I don't make the rules!" 

My beautiful grandmother (in a dress and her Keds designated for garden work) wore an old hat of my uncles to garden and mow her large yard - which she preferred to do herself even though everyone around her tried to beat her to it. 

She didn't like the marks that riding lawn mowers left in the grass :)

And this year Mollie has jumped in and joined the gardening game!

So, here's to another generation of gardening Southern women!

(It was a result of having to shelter in place but I'll take it.)

Mollie has done the bulk of the planting 

and I have been cleaning up and painting all of the garden furniture. 

There are regular updates on our trough veggie garden on my IG highlights!

I normally have a very tight color theme to my annuals. (and perennials for that matter!) This year, due to the pandemic, we had to take what we could get. A couple of the flats we were able to drive up/pick up were "assorted." I never, ever purchase an "unknown" color plant but this year we are enjoying the surprise of bloom color and are appreciating how they look beautiful to us because we are thankful to have them. Pandemic lesson right there! 

We have also been very appreciative of all of the perennials that we already had in our backyard. They gave us joy as they started peeking through the ground early this Spring. 

We are still working on a few more projects before we hang up our shovels and rakes

 and sit back and enjoy the backyard. 

I'll keep you updated!

My 9th-ish ORC and WASH Your Hands

   Week...?? ... I just don't know at this point...

I had a setback with the wall repairs and the painter's tape I was using for the stripes but, good golly, I won't bore you with anymore posts about painting this itty, bitty powder room. 

So let's move on to slightly more exciting things.

The mirror is painted SW Anjou Pear to match the new vanity cabinet (to be installed) and is hanging in its place. 

Yes, we have all been home on lockdown/quarantine/social distancing without a sink in the ONLY downstairs bathroom for about 5 weeks now. Good times.

I polished the vintage brass chinoiserie container that I use for a trash can in here. 

Any progress is celebrated at this point.

I'm going to make a decision on knobs or pulls for the cabinet and get those ordered. 

Scratch that - all of the faux bamboo knobs on Etsy had a projected delivery date of July 30-August 10. 

I'm all for waiting and finding the right thing but this is 2 little knobs

 and all the sheetrock delays have made me ready to wrap some details up ASAP. 

So late night googling yielded a possibility at Home Depot available to be delivered within a week. Sold. 

I also wanted a rug from Anthropologie but it won't be available until late Summer. I know us. 

We need a rug in from of the vanity before August. We are drippy people :)

So I googled around looking for something similar and found a couple of contenders on sale with free shipping

 so I ordered both. 

Maybe we will vote to see which one stays!

 I think Cooper has made a decision :)))

But we can't make that decision until after I do what it is I'm going to do to the floors.

So that's up next on my to do list!

Oh, and the powder room door is finally white.

 Several years ago I painted all of my interior doors black. I love the look but it just didn't work for us. Now all of the doors downstairs are back to white. For now ;)

Time is running out on this ORC. Hopefully I can show you finished floors next week. 

Fingers crossed. 

Be sure to see what everyone else is accomplishing here.

Summer 2020

Summer. The true start of the Summer season, the official "start date" is almost here.

I have always, always waited "all year long" for Summer. 

Summer is my favorite season. 

When I was young it always meant long lazy months in the Low Country of South Carolina, staying with my grandmother or aunts and running along the SC beaches with my cousin. We had amazing vegetables out of the garden, ate fresh catch, stayed out too late or too long in the sun and it was perfection. An idyllic childhood.

As an adult Summer has never been that free but it is always my favorite time of year. 

Even with responsibilities there is a different feel to Summer. Meals are eaten on porches , it is sunny and warm, flowers bloom, and there are things that happen in Summer that happen at no other time of year. 

I don't mind any of the things that people complain about during 

the Summer- bugs, heat, you name it. 

I can handle it because it's Summer.

But the Summer of 2020 has been long awaited in ways I could have never imagined.

We have struggled as a nation. The whole world has struggled. Human kind has struggled. 

We have been isolated in our homes watching one terrible thing after another unfold. 

I'm not going to dissect them. 

We all know what they are and we have each of us responded

 in the way that our hearts have dictated. 

I don't think a single person on earth could honestly say they haven't been touched by the things that have happened so far this year. We haven't. We have lost more than one loved one in 2020, we have watched friends and family struggle financially, medically, mentally and spiritually. We have watched good people be harmed. We have examined our personal thoughts and beliefs on equality and caring for our fellow man. 

And it has been overwhelming. And hard. 

But the thought, the belief, that keeps me going is that we CAN do hard things. And we will do them. We will make changes, we will find ways to seek joy. We will heal financially, medically, mentally and spiritually.

We will grow. We will work at these changes and I think we will be better for it. 

I have faith that this is true. I have hope. And I'm seeking joy. 

In any little way, in any place I can find it. 

And I am going to celebrate that it is Summer. 

I have always thought that everything is better in the Summer and I'm setting out to make that true for myself and my family. And for you, hopefully, if you follow along here or on Instagram. I'm going to post the pretty flowers, the perfect watermelon, sparklers, fresh shrimp, sunsets, a quote or a verse, and anything else (even if it only last for a few seconds or it's just the littlest thing ) that brings me joy. That makes my heart feel hope. I think finding hopefulness is what is going to get us all through. Hopefulness and kindness. (Feel free to disagree. As I've said before - you do you through all of this but I'm keeping the faith! And I won't be participating in negative or unkind comments toward others on social media.)

So I am hoping, wishing, praying that the Summer of 2020 is our season!