Summer Sabbatical

Hello, everyone! I hope your week is off to a wonderful start! 

I have two items to share with you today. 

First, I finally got my dining room boxes unpacked after our new floors were installed. (I know, I can't believe it took me so long!) I put my big metal tray on the dining room table with a few farm house-y yard sale finds I unpacked. The tray fits the new table perfectly, and that makes me a happy camper.

The second item I have to share is that I'm taking a summer sabbatical from blogging here at The North End Loft. I'll be spending the summer refreshing my creative blogging spirit, resting, studying, and hopefully acquiring some new skills along the way. 

Some of the other things I'll be doing this summer are helping my daughters decorate their new homes and gardens, taking long walks in the hills with Tucker, building a new shed for our garden, cooking lots of good summer food for family dinners on the deck, and spending many lazy hours on the front porch with my dear husband. We're also planning a big 4th of July party to celebrate my husband's 60th birthday and my brother's 65th birthday. I can't wait for that!

Blogging these past three years has enriched my life in so many wonderful ways. I never expected the outpouring of welcoming encouragement I received from the blogging community when I began, nor that I would develop so many friendships with amazing women from all over the world, friendships that I will always cherish. I never expected that so many lovely people would be interested in what I have to share, and that has touched me deeply. My favorite part of blogging is when a reader tells me they've been inspired. 

That's what it's all about for me.

I'll miss all of my friends and followers over the summer! I hope you have a great time while I'm gone. We'll have lots of fun when I return next fall, and I'll have tons of new ideas and projects to share.

Happy Summer!

 

    

Summer Barn Dance Chalkboard Art

When I was thinking of summer art for my chalkboard earlier this summer, I tried to come up with something that would celebrate our new farmhouse decor. 

Nothing is more symbolic of a farm than a barn, and what could be more fun in the summer than a good old barn dance?

 I decided to hang this chalkboard in a little corner of the entryway between two windows, and use it to welcome visitors into our home.

 

Do you remember this old chair my husband's parents gave us that I painted a while back, upholstery and all? (You can find the before photos and the tutorial here.)

 

I brought this old dresser home from an antique store twenty years ago. It was primitively made by hand, and I love every single mark and scratch on it. You can still see the remnants of green paint someone before me stripped off to the original finish.

  

 

The dresser used to be in our bedroom, but I'm using it to hold table linens now.

 

The large tray is from Antique Farmhouse.

 

 I think I'm the only blogger who shows a vignette with Reader's Digests that haven't been covered with beautiful paper or painted with an artistic faux process. (I think that's item #587 on my to-do list.)

 

I'm not sure if this is a brass sheep or a cow, but it was on the top of a 4H trophy I found at the thrift store. It's very solid and heavy. 

  

The old Elvin Bishop song is one of my all-time favorites.

 I bought this frame at a yard sale last summer for $5, and just painted the old scratched and faded fiberboard print inside it with black chalkboard paint. I've found that the store-bought black chalkboard paint holds up to repeated erasing with a wet rag better than my own homemade chalk paint. A complete tutorial for creating your own large chalkboard from a frame can be found here.

My SUMMER banner is card stock-reinforced burlap with the black letters transferred on using charcoal and then painted in by hand.

 

Bright flowers in antique bottles for a splash of summer color.

 

Autumn is just around the corner, but I'm squeezing every sweet moment left out of summer. I can close my eyes and still imagine the warm sun setting over a barn lit by fairy lights, full of laughter and dancing. 

We're gonna party till the cows come home!

Let's take this party to:

Vintage Inspiration Party 
Cozy Little House 

From My Front Porch To Yours
Rooted In Thyme
French Country Cottage
The Charm Of Home
Shabby Art Boutique
My Repurposed Life
One More Time Events

My Fabuless Life
The Life Of Jennifer Dawn 
 

Last Days of Summer Fantle

Only one more month of summer is left!

 

 

As a treat to myself for cleaning up my happy mess of a craft room today, I decorated my fantle for the last remaining days of summer. Summer isn't going anywhere soon here in Boise, and it will be warm here right up until Halloween. 

 

So I still have plenty of time to enjoy my summer fantle. My fantle is a fake mantle, a shelf overhanging my craft table that I decorate like the mantle I wish I had. The weathered background boards are from our backyard fence. Whenever I want an old board, I ask my husband to take one off the fence and replace it with a new one. It's my renewable forest! 

I cut a few paper triangles out and folded the glued edges over some string for bunting. I just love bunting.

I've been inspired by Jennifer at Town And Country Living to start collecting  old bottles. The green antique one was found buried in our yard and is labeled with the words THE MOTHERS FRIEND. Unless it held a couple shots of whiskey for ma to hide in her apron pocket and take a quick swig out of when the kids were getting to be too much to handle, I don't have a clue what it was? Do you?

  

My daughter works part time at Anthropologie where I bought the last one of these plates in stock at the store downtown. I love the green with gold swirls, the edging and of course the fuzzy bumble bee. 

These are a few old spice jars I haven't gotten around to putting French labels on yet, so I cut up little squares of burlap and frayed the edges, then glued on some buttons. 

I wish it was as easy to clean my craft room as it was to put this fun little project together. Thanks for coming by to check out my Last Days of Summer Fantle.  I hope you're enjoying the end of your summer, too!

There's nothing like a great summer party! Join me!

The Vintage Farmhouse 
Rooted in Thyme
Jennifer Rizzo
Common Ground
Shabby Art Boutique 
My Romantic Home
The Shabby Nest 
My Repurposed Life
DIY Showoff