Race to the finish

I feel I'm at that point in the summer when there are less vacation days ahead than behind, and we start scrambling to finish all those summer jobs and accomplish those summer goals we put on our list in June. Do you feel like that? I liken it to coasting down a steep hill with no brakes.

I'm trying not to regret anything left un-finished or not even started. We have been busy, doing fun and not fun stuff, and I think the fun stuff outweighs the "un-fun". Talk to the kids and it's a different story mind you....

We had a nice mini vacation in Montreal and Russel, ON. I got my French magazines and didn't cook for 5 days. I got to visit Merrickville, ON, which is an absolute gem of a town. It's got wonderful, old architecture and the lovely buildings are filled with shops. Did I think to take my camera? No.

When we came home I felt full of energy and promptly bought some canning jars and a canning pot, and painted my powder room a lovely blue. I even bought the paint for my shutters: next week's little project.

I decided I needed to do something crafty in between home improvement. While cleaning the basement and decluttering my cookie cutters (gasp!), I came up with an idea to use up some shadow boxes I've had forever and some baking things I don't want to get rid of, but that I don't use. The result:

...now hanging in my kitchen. I love them: too bad the picture is so crummy. I used one of my favorite fabrics for the back. It's a pale, bleached out looking blue with a strawberry print. Very vintage-y, and you know I love that!

The weather has turned incredibly hot and we are loving the sun and heat. I haven't even turned on the air conditioning. I'm deciding to take advantage of the heat for the next few days and try to relax a bit. No painting, no cleaning or de-cluttering. I hope to make some jam tomorrow, but that's not too much work :)

Before we left, I mentioned Our Favorite Girl was having a 7th birthday party. She's a Leo, so she got this stitched card this year.

We did a tea party theme, and the girls made flower arrangements in tea cups (all thrifted, of course, over the last couple of months) and jewelry. These are the before shots, and I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the girls finished arrangements. They were very colorful!

They had a tea in the dining room, with the lace tablecloth, china cups and silver tea pots. The girls were served small sandwiches, fruit and scones. It was all very lovely, maybe not so ladylike at times, but then again the oldest guest was 8!

Figuring my time to make a Barbie cake is getting seriously limited (I can't see the birthday girl wanting one for her 8th birthday or later), I did it this year. I'm really happy how it turned out, though the doll did start tilting toward the back quite a bit. Good thing the critics were all under 8, and didn't notice it looked like she had a bustle in front!

Loot bags were a little different this year. Since the guests would be taking home a flower arrangement as a party favor, I didn't make up extra bags of stuff as well. I had a four of these tea cup bags already sewn up from last year, and two more cut out, so I sewed up three more and thought the girls could put their jewelry in them. They also contained a candy bracelet and a 33 cent hair clip. I thought they were different, and I got my fill making them and got some old stock out of the house.

And that's it! That was my last two weeks. I'm off to enjoy the sun; you should too :)