Where all the book learnin' takes place...

It has been a sad, tragic, lonely, boring summer, and I've never been happier to see the end of a season in sight. I'm anxious to begin a new school year, but because we have several things going on next week, I have declared First Day of School to be August 20.

As I anticipate that day, I have had fun planning and setting up the schoolroom. Let me show it to you.

My schoolroom is in the basement. The room also doubles as a guest room. See the bed to the left?

What's nice is that it is a daybed, so throw a few cushions on it, and it's the perfect reading spot. Other important features: my huge whiteboard which I love, the table, the bookcase (always a favorite thing in any room), and oh yes - that blasted treadmill which mocks me everytime I go down there (but I usually just ignore it).

That bookcase there that I love? That's just a small number of my books. I won't tell you how the movers complained about the number of boxes of books they had to drag down to the basement. Here are the rest:

And there is also the game closet, though it is not quite as jam-packed as the bookcases are:

It's been fun organizing.

I bet I'm the only person in the world who is excitedly counting down the days 'til school starts.

Welcome to Our New Dining Room

I've skipped a lot of details on Treasured Chapters...including the fact that we just built and moved into a new house. We signed the contract back in December and broke ground not long after that. In comparison with the last two houses we built, this one was the easiest.

My family keeps asking for the grand tour. I'm the biggest perfectionist, so I want the house to be perfectly clean and perfectly decorated before posting photos. I'm also the biggest procrastinator, so let's be honest in saying that won't happen anytime soon.

So let me take you on a tour of the dining room to begin with. I love the arches that look into the dining room from the kitchen.

And I love the big slider that leads out to the backyard and also provides lots of natural light for the room.

While this room is the closest to being finished of all of the rooms, there is one thing that still needs to be done:

Paint. It will eventually have a coat of Grasshopper Wing on its walls (that's the third color on this swatch).