Life has been busy. Here's a little roundup of things I wanted to share that have been occupying my time. I'm hoping to make somewhat of a dent in my list of "things to accomplish this summer" when some free time comes around!

The last two summers I worked with a summer program for kids with special needs in our district. This summer I was given the opportunity to come back. Every Friday we take the kids on a field trip. Two Fridays ago we went to Atlantis Marine World out east on Long Island. I enjoyed looking at the koi fish.

Last week, we took the students to Long Island's amusement park Adventureland. (Yes, the movie was based after this park.)

The last two Wishlist Wednesday posts, I listed items that I acquired; I splurged just a bit and purchased screenprinting paint, linoleum boards, a brayer, and the Kids In The Hall complete series. I plan on keeping myself very occupied the rest of the summer.

I also work part time at a beauty supply shop. This month we were given a few free promotional items. One was this Beyond The Zone dry shampoo. I have to say, it works well! I'm not a big fan of the Beyond The Zone semi permanent hair dye, but their other hair products work pretty darn good.

One last thing. I wanted to share this hilarious video from Buzzfeed on How To Be A Mysterious Girl. I hope you get a kick out of it as much as I did.

I'm a little disappointed with myself for not posting more this month. I've been working two jobs this summer, so all free time has been eaten away. With the little time I have for myself, I haven't been able to finish projects. And with no finished projects, I don't have much to blog about. I've been making good progress though, don't worry.

I've been wanting to post this flashback post for a while now but never got around to it.
Last summer we did some touch up painting around the house. One area we focused on was the staircase. We painted it a light tan, and my mom wanted a cherry blossom design going down the stairs. She was inspired by this cabinet of mine I painted.
I drew out the "pattern" and painted it with black wall paint.

I cut out some stencils for birds. All black paint carried all the way down stairs. For finishing touches I used gold paint to add some extra funkiness to the blossoms, branches, and birds.

At the bottom of the stairs, my dad built this shoe shelf years ago. I was told to paint the door as well with all cherry blossoms and birds. So once again, I continued to free hand the branches and cherry blossoms while using the stencil for the birds.

To this day, we haven't gotten around to it yet, but we plan on framing this print and hanging it up on the wall. We bought this print from our visit to Portland last summer. I loved it, wanted it, bought it, and plan on framing and hanging it.

Hopefully we'll get around to hanging up that print soon! #Goal

My wonderful friend Katie threw a graduation party last night. She graduated college last year but saved the party for the summer for when she knew she'd be in town. My friends and I scrambled last minute to give her a batch of wonderful gifts, preferably gifts we made with love.

We browsed Pinterest for inspiration and made a few things we saw and loved, and added our own twist. We had the craft party at my house!

My friend Jess found this old painting with knobs at Goodwill, in which we painted black with chalkboard paint; chalkboard paint is seriously the coolest thing ever.

We printed out photos of music sheet and maps of Long Island and decoupaged them onto tiles. Coasters!

We all had separate jobs and different projects to work on. I worked on this New York/Louisiana state painting in which I glued the states onto thin canvas.

I love me some mixed media, so I glued beaded string around the oval.

End result: Katie cried happy tears.
I have the best friends ever.