Hi everyone! My name is Janette, and my daughter Jordan and I have been writing a lifestyle blog together called "The 2 Seasons" for four years. I am thrilled to be here today to share some of the things I did around our place for summer. Jordan will be here in August to show you her house. Our site is loaded with decorating, DIY projects, budget projects, delicious recipes, travel tips and adventures, and just our everyday lives. Please visit our blog and take a look around. You can learn more about us in the About section in our header. Four years ago, my husband and I sold our family home in the suburbs and moved to a townhouse with 3,000 square feet in the historic section of Lexington, KY. Before moving in, we practically gutted the place and made it our own. Instead of a massive front porch, we have a "stoop", and I love changing it up for the seasons. This year I added wave petunias to our planters and love the way they look. This is my first time to use this variety of petunia, and now I am wondering what took me so long. If you would like to read more about the theory behind the planters, go here and here. If you want to learn how to keep squirrels out of your planter, this worked for us. I love to use patriotic colors in the summer. The main colors we use for decorating our entire place are red, blue, green, and yellow, so, the patriotic colors fit right in. I love making pillows and have a great method for making them on the cheap. You can read about that here. When I decided to use red, white, and blue in our great room for summer, I didn't want it to be too "in your face." I mixed in one of my kilim pillows to add a splash of yellow and green. The big pillows are made from drop cloth fabric, and I added the French linen look with fabric paint. You can read how I did that here. One of my main goals when decorating is to use what I already have. When we down-sized, we got rid of soooo much stuff, and it was liberating. So, when it is time to change up a vignette, I usually shop the house. However, I stopped in a farm store for the first time, and found some cute everyday items to use in a summer vignette on the kitchen table. This cute red container that is holding peaches is an egg basket, and they are sitting on a cute metal tray which happens to be used to carry grain to farm animals. I picked up the little broom at the same store just to add some texture to the grouping. You can read more about this vignette here. This is another summer vignette using fresh sun flowers that are resting in vintage milk bottles. Here's another view. We are about to make some changes in our kitchen. You can read all about it here. The contractor was here this week, and I am beyond excited to make a good thing even better. I recently painted our pantry door red, and it fits right in with the red, white, and blues of summer. My pantry and office share a space, and I love it. I am not a fan of air conditioning. So, when my husband lowers the temperatures, I spend a lot of time here in the sunroom. In fact, I am blogging in the sunroom right now. French doors lead into the room from both the great room and the kitchen. It's an easy room to decorate for summer (here) because I just use a lot of the items that I love and that are not quite "good enough" for the main part of our home. We use this room three seasons of the year. It takes on a whole different look for the fall and winter, and you can see how it looks here. Since we live in a townhouse, we have a wonderful bricked in courtyard. It gives me just the right amount of dirt to play in. I can still have shrubs, trees, flowers, and herbs, and they take only minutes of tending each week instead of hours. We upgraded some of the plants this spring, and my ultimate goal is to have a courtyard that looks like this. Bakers Rack Turned Bar[/caption]

However, right now we are beyond thrilled with the way our courtyard looks and lives in the summer.

We hope you enjoyed seeing some summer in our home. Many thanks to Michele for inviting us to participate in her summer home tour series. Now, go out and have a great week-end. We hope to see you all over at The 2 Seasons. Beautiful tour Jeanette! I've gotta say everyone, that I'm loving all that red white and blue! So inspiring for the upcoming holiday, don't you think? Be sure to jump on over to The 2 Seasons to see all the amazing things they have to share.Thank you for joining us and be sure to come back next Friday for another amazing summer home tour by My Creative Days. In the meantime, stay cool. ;)
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