July already

Summer time.

This is what we've seen almost every day since mid June. Good thing Florida soil is all sand, or we'd be boating everywhere. We had over 14 inches in one day, and 7,000 lightning strikes in less than 2 hours this past Monday.  A lot of Downtown Pensacola has flooded more than once. Florida ain't for sissies.

We have kept busy with crafts, reading the Magic Treehouse series, swimming on sunny days, and many other things so no complaints. Tyler has learned to swim with no floaties and with his face in the pool. In one day! His goal: to get a pair of flippers to wear in the pool to play scuba diver. He got over his fear of water in the ears and is even learning to swim to the bottom to retrieve toys. So proud. Our little fish.

• A friend directed me to another blog where the secret to clean grout was revealed. This may be very boring to some, but if you've lived with impossible, dirty grout for years and wanted to dynamite the floors out of frustration, you'll know what I feel when I say the grout looks NEW!

Before and After. See what I mean?

Its a miracle. Ammonia, vinegar, baking soda and water. Who knew?

Amazing Grout Cleaner Recipe: 7 c water, 1/2 c baking soda, 1/3 c ammonia, 1/4 c vinegar. Spray on, scrub, wipe off.  To be honest, I upped the amounts of everything but the water. I found that letting it sit for a few minutes meant no scrubbing. Just the scrubby part of my floor mop and it was clean! This discovery came after a day of major scrubbing and extra baking soda and lots of wiping up the pasty mess. Forget that! Up the ingredients and let them do the work!

• We haven't got much out of our pallet garden because of all the rain, but we did get one Lemon Boy tomato, one yellow squash and one cucumber. 
• We've planted 3 kinds of pumpkins out in the yard. 
• We added a Slip N Slide to our collection of water play toys. Tyler bought it with his own money.

the proud gardener

the pumpkin patch

the slip n slider

Tula and Friends quilt

You know how your fabrics can be calling you? My bundle of Parisville from Tula Pink, and several modern cuts I started collecting were talking to me. Demanding I make something with them. I love how this turned out. The pattern is called Rectangle Squared from the Film in the Fridge blog. That link will take you to her tutorial. Super easy. Lots of solid needed, and you have to figure it out based on what size quilt you're making, but this is very, very easy to put together.


What are you doing with your Summer? I hope whatever it is you are loving it!