Putting Summer to Bed

We're looking at the back of summer here as she's walking away from us. Or maybe she's just rolling over in bed for a long nap. This is the back of Isabela flitting around her room cleaning up yesterday, still in her Sunday morning dress well after 4. I made this dress in the spring and I wanted the edge ruffles to look like the edge frosting on a cake. Sweet.



The girls are so proud of their newly independent bed-making. They share a room with matching twin beds. We got both the spindle beds for 80$ at an estate sale and I painted them cherry red. I got their coverlets on sale for only 35$ each from Anthropologie when I was pregnant with Eleni and presumed (before I knew for sure) she was a girl and that they would share some day. They only had queen size but I cut them both down and have used the fabric for other stuff in their room.



I loved making my bed when I was little - it was the only part of picking up I looked forward to. It was an empty canvas where I played out various stuffed animal-pillow arrangements and always dragged my mom in for some praise. Certainly you did that too. Isabela and Eleni both give me a big bed reveal when they're done. As I got older it was more about showing off the special corner folds of the top sheet that I learned from my mom once in anticipation of my grandparents using my room. I haven't shown them that yet. Anyway, I've learned to leave their crooked and wrinkled covers alone. (That hasn't come easily for me, but I find it very important.)



We spent the whole day with the whole family cleaning, folding, vacuuming, emptying out, straightening up and so on. Not the littlest though. Eleni, poor pumpkin, has been from one bed to another to another battling a tummy bug that has doubled my laundry load. If you saw my normal laundry load, you would come and help me fold, I just know it. By the time I finally got to my room to make my bed it was too close to bed time to bother. (Just like after you get everyone dressed and you finally go have a look at yourself in the mirror and decide its not worth it. But that could just be me.) All the bed washing the night before left Jeff and I without our comforter when it was time to go to sleep so we stole some warmth from a few other spots. He couldn't believe I let him have the quilt. I loved the way the two totally different blankets tangled (tangoed?) on our bed. I loved how hard we slept under all that hard work. Welcome Fall, make yourself at home.