fresh summer porch with a little red, white and blue

There are several patriotic holidays coming up over the summer months 

beginning with Memorial Day, then Fourth of July and 

ending with Labor Day at the start of September.

Yes, I did say summer.
I know some of you are still waiting for spring
but it's been in the 90's here the past couple of days
and parts of Texas have already hit 100 degrees.
Pools open around Memorial Day which unofficially kind of
signals the start of summer around here.

I decided to freshen up the front porch for the season

with a little red, white and blue.

I had this bench in my sunroom/project room and decided on a whim 

that it might look good on the porch.  We had a double size black rocker 

that was falling apart and needed to go.  I think the bench looks a lot better.

I added some new pillows to the bench 

which has been recovered in dropcloth.

I got the large striped pillows at Pottery Barn on sale.

They are a creamy white and blue stripe with the thinnest red line 

inside the blue stripe.  Perfect.

The flag pillows are from World Market.  

They were very inexpensive. 

The larger one with stars has just the red/white stripes on the reverse side.

We added the cutest little flag banner across the top of the

entrance to the front porch.

No, I didn't make it.  I can't sew a lick.

It's from World Market too and for about 7 bucks, it was worth it.

They are made of some type of canvas or twill fabric so they are

pretty tough little things.  The stars are stitched.

Summer brings with it a lot of flies, bees and wasps around here.

We found this pretty blue wasp/bee catcher (again at WM.  We love that place.)

Someday I'll have to show you the one we have in the backyard.

It's a bit different to say the least.

Did you see the pretty red flowers in the watering can?

Those will get their own little post later in the week. 

You won't believe where I got them.

There's my little patriotic summer porch.  

It's not completely finished yet.

I have a smaller little bench I may be adding for more seating.

I still have my old buckboard bench from Austin sitting on the other side of the porch

so there's enough seating for right now.

 

a sweet perk

I got the sweetest gift this week.

As a speech-language pathologist, one of the best parts of my job is supervising and mentoring interns. Once a future SLP graduates with their master's degree, they have to complete a 9 month internship under supervision of a seasoned veteran.  

(I'm well seasoned, slightly overdone :)  

Working with interns is one of my favorite parts of my job and 

I have been blessed to work with some of the most amazing young SLPs.

As many of you know, the current school year is coming to a close and so is the internship of two interns I had the privilege of working with this year

...and they happen to be roommates and friends.

This week, I walked into my therapy room and in my chair was a gift bag and this sweet little thing:

It's a vintage metal shelf rack in all it's chippiness.  

It has tiny little painted details...

...and nice little curves.

It's painted a perfect shade of cream

and chipped in all the right places.

I hung it in my master bath and added some fresh hand towels, washcloths

and new and vintage bath accessories.

My intern, Sydney, gave it to me along with some chocolates (my favorite thing) 

and a collection of sticky notes, labels and notepads 

as a thank you for the support I gave her this year.  

Sydney told me this was a little chipped and I could certainly paint it but after seeing my blog, 

she figured I wouldn't want to do that...and she's right! (she's brilliant by the way)

It's perfect just the way it is.

Thanks Sydney!!!!!

(and special thanks Sydney's mom!  :)

3 Pet Cottage

Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special's themed link party this week is all about your pets in your decor.  

It's a special themed link party in honor of her cat, Beethoven, who sadly passed away last week.  

Since our pets are part of our family, I really wanted to participate in her party this week.

One of my favorite parts of my house is the front porch.  

It's one of the main reasons we bought our house.

The newest addition to our family, Maisy, likes hanging out on the front porch too.

Here she is giving me the stink eye.  I don't think she likes the camera very much yet.

Since she's still a puppy, almost 4 months old, she likes chewing on everything.

We have to really watch her so that she doesn't chew on something that will make her sick.

She's just now tipping the scales at 3 pounds and can almost hide in the ivy 

from this big pot on the porch.

Here are Ballou, one of our chocolate labs, and Maisy posing on the landing of the stairs.

No, I didn't alter this photo to make it look like Maisy was in the witness protection program.

She is in constant motion and moves her head that fast and the camera just can't catch it.

Maisy finally got big enough that she could go up the stairs...

but she can't go down.  Sad little pitiful thing stuck up there.

Here are three girls sleeping together on part of our new denim rag rug.

Bella and Ballou are huge chocolate labs and Maisy thinks she is one of them.

She just doesn't realize their heads are bigger than her whole body.

Here's Bella laying on a vintage quilt in one of our red leather chairs.

No, she's not supposed to be there and she knows it. 

She stays there anyway and tries to sleep.

After the picture was taken, she got the message and got down out of the chair.

Then, Ballou jumped up in the same chair.

Yep, she knows she's not supposed to be there either.

This is why I like comfortable, vintage, not so perfect stuff.

Our pets live in this house too and I don't have to worry much about them

messing anything up.  I just wish they would stay out of that chair.

Sorry, Ballou but this is where you're supposed to sleep.  

I know it's not as awesome as the chair but you'll get used to it :)

Let's try this again...

In my last post I showed you my mantel makeover.  

It went from this...

...to this.

I think we all can agree it looks better but it was still lacking. 

I thought adding some more greenery might finish it off.

It definitely still needed somethin'.

The day after I posted my mantel redo, Grace at Sense and Simplicity posted her mantel makeover.

She followed some step by step directions from some designers in a magazine.

She posted each direction they suggested.

It was at that point that I realized I had done everything backwards.

I did exactly the opposite of what the article suggested.

So, I took everything off and redid my redo.

So first we had this.....

and then this...

and now this...

same exact stuff 

just arranged differently

 using the suggestions from the article on Grace's blog.

Now I think it's finished.  The mirrors reflect the light from the windows 

and really brighten the room.  It's all light, bright and fresh for spring.

Most likely it will stay this way until Christmas :)

What do you think?  Do you think it looks better?