For my August mantle I decided I wanted to do a beach and turquoise theme, mostly because I knew I had a bunch of stuff that would work, ha! 🙂

With this mantle post I thought I’d talk a little bit more about where to find your decorative items from, because you might be thinking that you don’t really have anything to decorate with, and the point of this is to be able to switch up your decor without any spending money.
My son’s beach themed room was the perfect place to hoard items from for this mantle! I got the beach sign, the Seashore book, the California canvas, and barefoot print, and the small clay turtle from his room. Then I went and looked at what I had in my own room and even though I don’t keep a lot of dust collectors laying around, I was still able to find the small glass jars of seashells, the rock, the wedding beach picture, the two books that are stacked with their pages facing out, and the faux flowers. I found a few last items in my kitchen and there you have it, a free change up in your home decor that took about 15 minutes from start to finish!

Now to the second part of this post…. I’ve thought a lot about this and have had a hard time deciding what to do. Last summer I took the month of July off since we were moving and we had so much going on. And it was really nice to just be able to focus on moving, unpacking, and getting to know our new town a little bit without worrying about getting a blog post up in time. As much as I love this blog, I know sometimes I focus too much on it, and not enough on other things in my life (like my kids or making sure dinner is on the table on time, sorry honey). So, since we have some trips planned for the last month of Summer, I decided to take the month of August off from blogging. This was a really hard decision because my blog audience has really grown this year and it’s been so exciting to see! There is definitely a part of me that is afraid I’ll come back in a month and have to start over from scratch. But I really think a little Summer vacation will be good for me, my family, and my home. 🙂
But wait, I’m not just leaving you without something to look forward to! Here are some things I’m hoping to be working on and have to share with you when I get back:

• hanging the frames in our master bedroom
• making art for the hall bathroom
• painting the trim in the hall bathroom
• decorating a baby shower
• organizing our garage
• making something for the dining room wall