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WHEREAS, the weeks between mid-August and late September find summer annuals nearing the end of their life cycle, the sun just a little lower in the sky, and true Autumn colors of red, gold and yellow feeling a wee bit premature;

AND WHEREAS, there is just something jarring about decorating with azure ocean blues, bright pink flamingos, and lush Summer florals one minute, and then pumpkins, acorns, burlap and nubby blankets the very next;

THEREFORE BE IT NOW RESOLVED that Faded Summer shall be added to the calendar and recognized as a permitted transitional “fifth season,” bridging between Summer and Fall by virtue of its color palette featuring dried rosy pinks, deep plum, the green of an artichoke, the blue of an oft-washed denim jacket, and other colors evoking the feeling that Summer will soon be over, but it isn’t just yet. 

Wishing you a happy “Faded Summer,” on the way to Fall but not there yet! 🙂

I am sharing for Inspire Me Tuesday at Marty’s lovely blog, A Stroll Thru Life.

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last posted – I mean seriously, I thought it was just like, a couple weeks ago!

Anyway, in the last month I’ve been insanely busy… Greg and I closed up our booth at the antique mall, so we had to haul some of the stuff home. This was in addition to all the stuff we had hauled home over the last few months that had not sold. It was a lot, and it was all in my basement. So the plan was to have a big blowout garage sale on June 2-3 to get rid of all the “smalls” and a bunch of other stuff.

Of course, this comes with all the requisite moving stuff around, hauling it up from the basement, unpacking, pricing, etc. I actually kind of enjoy that part – however, I must point out that Greg did virtually ALL of the heavy lifting. If I had had to haul all this stuff by myself, I simply could not have done it. Unless perhaps I had started in January.

Anyway, here is just a portion of it – there was a lot household decor and glassware in the back (not pictured), to the left of the garage. Sale days were to be Friday and Saturday.

Friday was a very active day (but really hot – 90’s and sunny), and we sold a lot. Saturday morning was also busy, but it was sooo hot… we made the decision to close up early, so at 1 pm Saturday, we put the remainders out on the curb:

This was pretty good strategy on our part, because starting Monday was to be curbside cleanup day in the neighborhood. So the rest of the weekend, the curb pickers were out in full force, collecting up what they wanted. And by Sunday afternoon our leftover pile looked like this:

On Sunday afternoon, I was doing a little container gardening at the back of the house and I heard some thumping coming from up front. I came around to find that it was this young skinny gal from down the street, trying to shove that big blue cabinet into the back of her SUV all by herself. I told her to hold on a minute and I went and got the two-wheeled dolly, and I pushed the cabinet down the street for her. (And the useless men she lives with were waiting for her at the house – no help at all. Yeah that’s okay, young bucks, leave her to fend for herself with only her grandma to help. Dicks.)

And on Monday morning, it was down to literally just a couple of boxes and the big ottoman they were sitting on. The solid waste crew came and took the rest away before I even left for work. I feel VERY good about the miniscule amount of all that stuff that went to the landfill.

With all the “smalls” gone from our antique booth business venture, I felt like I had literally lost weight – physically and mentally. My basement and garage are finally mine to reclaim! More about that soon!

You may have read my recent tablescape post and thought to yourself, “that tablescape is awesome but daaanngg, that is a small house!”

And you would not be alone (or wrong) as I thought the very same thing!

Well I thought you might like a tour of the whole place, which would take all of about 60 seconds… So how about we not try to do all that in one chunk and I’ll just show you the “great room.” Or as I call it, the “great and small room”.

First, here’s an exterior shot of the entire  house. It’s a rental, very small and plain but very well maintained and in a terrific neighborhood. (More about that in a future post, perhaps.)

This house is actually perfect for me right now. The entire footprint is only 24 x 26 feet, plus a small enclosed mudroom at the back. It does have a decent basement, half of which is finished as a rec room and the other half of which is a laundry/utility room. The landlord, Jerry, calls it a dollhouse.

Until recently, my boyfriend Greg and I shared the house, but due to a shift in our relationship we’re no longer living together. So now it’s just me, and my sweet cat Lily, in the dollhouse.

Okay back to our tour of the great and small room! Here we are standing just inside the front door. As you can see, this open space encompasses the living room and eat-in kitchen. Bedrooms and bathroom are to the left, through closed doors because when I tidied up for these photos, that’s where I put everything. 

Well I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Ha, just kidding, it’s small but I’ll share a few more pictures so you feel like it’s bigger.

Here’s a better shot of the kitchen; I do like the open feel of everything! The mudroom is behind that pocket door between the cabinets. The door to the left goes into the smaller of the two bedrooms.

Here’s the view looking back toward the front door from the kitchen. The mudroom is behind us at this point.

I might have a little too much furniture, but I don’t mind because these are all pieces I love, and some are family pieces. I’ll share a little more about them in the future. Oh, except that sofa. It’s broken in the middle so I’ll be replacing it as soon as possible. Which is too bad, because it’s really comfortable!