My outdoor living room, made from indoor-outdoor furniture I borrowed from my breakfast nook. Doesn’t it look inviting?

I’ve added an outdoor living room to my outdoor office. This is where I sit to read magazines, browse catalogs, text people, and drink tea while watching my dogs play. I try not to do any work in this area – if I need to write or pay bills or work on websites, I go sit at the nearby outdoor patio table. I want to be able to relax in this space and enjoy the summer.

Are you enjoying summer? Going on long walks, eating dinner outdoors, picking berries, going to the lakeshore or beach, stargazing?

QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:

• Make socialization plans for your Labor Day Weekend. Who are you spending time with? Are you hosting a party, going to someone else’s house for a barbecue, picnicing, camping?
• Need to clean your coffeemaker or espresso machine? Then it will be ready to go for your weekend mornings!
• Fill your car with gas if needed, and grab cash at an ATM for a bit of pocket money.
• Need to rent movies at a Redbox, or return some of your Netflix discs?
• Take a quick look at yourself today. Need to touch anything up? Nails looking good? Need to remove any chipped nail polish (don’t forget your toes?). Need to give yourself a manicure or pedicure today, and possibly shave your legs real quickly? Need to make a color appointment or dye your roots this weekend? Are you wearing something that makes you feel pretty?

TODAY’S PROJECT: Bathroom Touchups

Method Home Bathroom Cleaning Kit

I’m having visitors over on Sunday for Labor Day weekend. While the rest of my house is pretty much “good to go,” I do hesitate to invite people to use any of my three bathrooms. So today after work I’m going to do something about that.

It should take less than ten minutes per bathroom (mostly because I’m skipping scouring the tubs and showers, since the guests won’t be using them). Instead I’ll do a quick swish in each toilet, a wipedown of the toilet tanks, empty the wastebaskets, switch out a handtowel and bathtowel here and there, launder my and bathroom rugs.

Next I’ll work on my bathroom counters, sinks and mirrors. I’ll tuck my toothbrush, toothpaste, razor and hairbrush out of sight in their proper place in the top drawer.

I’ll finish by mopping the three bathroom floors, which won’t take long because my bathrooms are so tiny.

Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena Room Freshener

Right before company comes on Sunday, I’ll spritz the bathrooms with just a little bit of lemon verbena room freshener.

LOVELY BATH & BODY: Citron Honey Coriander

I don’t care for the taste of coriander, but I sure love the way it smells, especially when blended with citrus! The summer line from Crabtree & Evelyn includes a bath/shower gel, hand lotion, body lotion, hand wash, and body scrub.

Citron, Honey and Coriander collection at Crabtree & Evelyn

LOVELY BLOGS: A Place for Everything

Here’s a nice practical housecleaning tips blog by a woman who lives in a row house in Brooklyn. I’ve really enjoyed her recent posts on house cleaning strategies for people with ADHD; afternoon tea while in costume; and her efforts to replace a water heater. Not every post here is about housecleaning – you also get a glimpse into this woman’s lovely life.

http://bklynwebgrrl.livejournal.com/

LOVELY BOOKS: The Great Food Series

Check out the absolutely gorgeous old-fashioned, retro covers on these important cookbooks and food reference books! I am tempted to give away my regular versions of these books and slowly replace them with these lovely ones – they’d look fantastic on my kitchen cookbook shelves. I’d want to face them all out though!

The titles in the series include Elizabeth Acton’s The Elegant Economist, The Well Kept Kitchen, The Joys of Excess, The Chef at War, and M.F.K. Fisher’s Love in a Dish. Fabulous!

The Great Food Series, at Penguin Books

LOVELY SHOPS: Studio Patro

This shop sells lovely cloth tea towels, aprons and market bags. Their textiles are hand printed, with ink on cloth. Their tea towels have leaf patterns, or stripes and dots, or cake+pie sayings, or a rustic look. Clean, simple and quite lovely.

http://www.studiopatro.com/

LOVELY LINKS FOR TODAY:

Apple Oat Muffins (Good Housekeeping)

Back-to-School Bake Sale (CHOW)

Cooking With Eggplant (Cooking Light)

5 Lunchbox-Friendly Back-to-School Cookies (Baking Bites)

25 Double Duty Tips for Common Household Items (Good Housekeeping)