July means the arrival of fun around here.  Two cousins from out-of-state, visit and stay for a few days.  There’s lots of laughing and talking, and eating – lots of eating!  But the best part is … shopping!  We’re all bargain hunters which means thrift stores, garage sales, Marshall’s, Homegoods, etc.  It’s always a blast.

Their visit also means that around this time in June, my panic attacks start.  We only see each other once a year, and I want the house to be all “ooh ahh” and special.  Hubs and I have been working on a few things to get ready.  We’ve both gone through our stashes of materials.

These four bright pots have been on my shelf for over a year.

At a Crafts Direct’s whopper sale, they went from $4.99 to $2.00 and finally another 75% off that.  Seriously … how could I pass up a deal like that. And look at all that color!

You know how I like to work with odd numbers, so a taller piece I already had, was added.  After explaining my idea to Hubs, he drew up a plan and with scrap wood from his workshop, he made this

.

I chose a color from some left-over paint . . .

and did two coats, directly on the raw wood.

Since the pots have no drain plate, we bought plastic trays at WalMart ($0.35 ea) and some $3.33 plants.

There were many varieties of plants and tray sizes to choose from.

For Spring I went blue and green in the living room, so I chose the bluish green paint for the tray.  It works nicely with the bright pots, don’t you think?

Below was the previous look

• The purple plate and bowls were $3 @ garage sale.
• The purple sphere was $2.50 @ local Discovery Thrift.
• The bunnies were $1.00 at local ReUse Store.
• The miscellaneous white pieces are from my collections.
• Flowers were free from a garage sale.

After the windows are washed, the living room will be guest ready. 

A different furniture arrangement and change out of accessories have given it a totally new look.

Great, right?

But what about thoset thirty two days? It’s all that’s left!

In thirty two days, I need things to be clean, comfortable, colorful and … different.  Those 3 C’s aren’t a problem, but that “different” is what drives the panic.  It’s not like this upcoming event is anything new.  Unfortunately, my unpreparedness isn’t new, either.  And I can’t blame it on the timing issues mentioned HERE.  I just keep thinking I have all this time and then suddenly … I don’t.

So I had better sign off for this time … and GET BUSY!

Hubs is already working on a shelf for my salt & pepper collection. My cousin always teases me about having oodles of shakers but never putting any out to use OR show.  Ha!  She’ll be surprised this time.

Meantime, I’ll try to take my own advice . . . to stress less and start more!

Later – Cheryl