The days are long but the years are short.

I read this quote recently and lately I have been finding it very true. Where is this summer going? Someone on facebook posted that it was only 150 days until Christmas. This year is half over and I can't wrap my mind around the fact that school is starting in less than 3 weeks. 

We have been having a lot of afternoon thunderstorms followed by beautiful rainbows. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than watching a thunderstorm from the porch with a glass of wine. When it has been sunny, we have spent time at the pool and finished up swimming lessons a few weeks ago. Keating took 3 lessons that seemed like some sort of torture treatment. He cried every lesson and even tried to escape the pool. By the third class he was swimming, but not liking it. It wasn't until this weekend that he became confident and is swimming like a fish. He is quite proud of himself! 

Two weeks ago I met my old high school girl friends in Hilton Head Island. It was the first time that I had left the boys and went somewhere by myself since Keating was born. We drank wine, caught up, played funny games and were even enlightened on new fangled social media such as Snap Chat. (We also realized how old we are getting!) We really enjoyed our time away but by Sunday morning all of the moms were racing home to see our babies. 

Most of our work around the house has been at a standstill. Our carpenter shows up once a month to piddle around. We are still waiting on the outdoor fireplace to be finished but at least he came and finished our kitchen island that he first started in January! Instead of tackling big projects, I have been working on the decorating portion. I've been sewing up a storm making new pillows and trying to make everything seem a bit more finished, even though it has a long way to go! 

I have a bit of a thing for black and neutral patterns it appears! We also got a new sofa since our old one came back from smoke remediation smelling a bit like dry cleaning chemicals. We stuck the old ones in the office and the kids play room since those areas aren't used as much.

We also added two new chairs to the mix instead of having two sofas. I was hoping for grey velvet after seeing a pair on Scandal (which I am now obsessed with BTW!). I found these at World Market and the price was right when I got them for 15% off. We also replaced my favorite rug because the combination of smoke remediation and carpet cleaner ruined it. The old one is now in our bedroom with the bleached portion hiding under our bed and I found our new one at Homegoods. The chairs came with small pillows that I decided to make new covers for. Below were my fabric choices and I ended up purchasing both. It isn't every day that you find two fabrics that you love. 

I made the grey and gold pillows first but then got lazy on making more covers. I plan to save the animal print for fall/ winter. The animal fabric is all embroidered when you see it close up. Quite pretty, but I'm not sure about using it just yet since I just caught the dog chewing on a pillow. 

Hard to believe that this face could get into that much trouble!

I also added drapes to the bathroom. These were in Archer's old nursery but I had to add fabric to each panel to make them work. I had just enough scrap to make it work! I love it when that happens.

Not all of my projects lately have turned out so great though... case in point. Now trying to figure out what to do with that laundry room floor after spilling fabric dye all over it! Oops!

Back to Scandal, I just finished season 3 and cannot wait for season 4 to air. I am team Jake all the way!