What to do in the midst of a heat wave….

Hello Peeps! How are you? I haven’t gotten around to many of you this week because I just haven’t been sitting at my computer much – despite being inside with the a/c blasting. A minor problem with some sciatic nerve pain has kept me off this chair but it’s on the mend. Because of that, I got this post , which is shorter than usual, ready to publish today in bits and pieces over the last several days. So if I seem all over the place, that’s my excuse! LOL I am head out the door a little later to have lunch with my friend Chris – this is her birthday lunch a bit late – she had the nerve to be on vacation on the actual date!! We were hoping it would be much cooler than the 93+ days we have been having but it’s going to reach 90 so we have an official heat wave going here in Central MA. UGH! It’s been so miserably hot and the air has been so heavy and humid that we have had dangerous air warnings. We are being told to stay inside, don’t go out unless you have to, stay cool at all costs, even if that means going to a mall to stay cool. I bet the malls and stores love it when the weatherman says that! With all those warnings we are getting, I had to go back and re-read my own last post to remind myself that there are some good things about August. But it was much more fun to read what YOU all like about August too. Thank you so much to everyone that commented on, posted about or emailed me with your lists. You reminded me of several more things to be thankful for ~ like the orchards opening for the season, all the American flags displayed, spitting watermelon seeds at each other, and sitting around a campfire toasting marshmallows. making s’mores, and watching the fireflies dance in the dark.

So of course I have been staying inside with the a/c cranking and have only ventured outside when it was to see our sweet Liliana. I decided to tackle a few projects this past weekend . It kept me off this chair (or any other chair I could use to sit here) and out of trouble while Mr. Red Door watched the PGA golf tournament. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been thinking of adding more stenciling back into several rooms for some time now. I still have all the old stencils I used in the past and even a few more I bought used from a friend when she moved south, but I just wasn’t motivated to start. Too many other fun things to do I guess. However when Linda Babb from the Primitive Stitcher emailed me with some pictures of one small bathroom she has been working on, and then she also updated her Picture Trail with pictures of another larger bathroom ~ both with just gorgeous colonial stenciling ~ that really inspired me to get started! Her home is such a joy to look at and I get ideas and lots of inspiration. If you haven’t seen it, you really must! Click HERE!

The first room to get more stenciling to the master bathroom. It’s not a detailed stencil but the same simple design I had used near the ceiling – this time it is above the chair rail and counter. I am thinking of doing something in the corners too. The other side of the room has tight spaces in the corners so that is the challenge.

I also added back a small pineapple stencil to the front stairs. This is what you see as you come in Behind My Red Door from the outside so what better way to say WELCOME.

The body of the pineapple is actually the Caramel color of the living room walls, and the leaves are the brown of the hall doors. It certainly does photograph differently!

That lead to tweaking the shelf above the front door. I took several things off the shelf and added back just a few different things.

Do you remember the nails I got on my shopping trip with Jill? With Mr. Red Door’s help, I got my pantry door peg rack cut out, painted and antiqued and installed. It is just what I envisioned! The pantry was a coat closet when we moved here but because we come in on the lower level through the garage, we use the second and much bigger coat closet down there. This closet is directly across from the kitchen and so it made sense to turn it into my pantry.

The whisk broom is the one Janene so generously sent me several weeks ago. Thanks Janene, it is just what I wanted for this project.

This picture below is looking down the hall – see the last door on the left. That is my office and where I sit to create and blog. The one before it is Mr. Red Door’s office and we call back and forth to each other when we miss each other. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

One of my peeps asked me to show her the view into the living room. We are comparing our homes floor plans. When I took the one above, I had my back to the black settle bench you see below. I hope that helps L.T. !!

So what have YOU been doing to survive the heat? And if it is unseasonably cool where you live, wanna trade???!!!!

Until next time – hugs, Linda

P.S. The next time I am back here, I plan to join in the Textures of Home challenge by Carolyn over at Primitive Devotion. I so enjoyed the posts Jen from Taylors*Farmhouse*Attic did about her textures several weeks ago so when Carolyn mentioned her challenge, I decided the time was right!