Embracing summer...or trying to, at least!

It is no secret that I am not a big fan of summer. I wasn't always this way. I used to absolutely love it. I even loved the heat. Of course, I pretty much lived at the beach day in and day out. I unabashedly baked in the sun for hours on end wearing very little, if any......

sunscreen!!!

(you thought I was going to say clothes, didn't you?!)

Yeah, it is true. I loved summer....the beach, both day (sunning and swimming) and night (cruising around and meeting boys!), the outdoor concerts, camping in the mountains. I just loved all of it. I still love the beach, though I don't go anymore because I am not happy with where I am physically. I love concerts, but one in an indoor air conditioned arena sounds infinitely more enticing than outdoors on a muggy, buggy night. I would still go camping, but middle age has made me a bit soft and the thought of camping the way my friends and I used to (minimal supplies, sleeping on the ground, not showering for days) doesn't really sound all that appealing any more.

Summers here in New England have always been ridiculously hot and disgustingly humid. More than it seems it should reasonably be for someplace in the Northeast.  I have just found in recent years that I can't stand it! I absolutely loathe the heat and humidity. Once the thermostat inches past 80 and the heat index starts rising I am a miserable bitch. Funny, though, I never minded it when I could spend every day at the beach, not a care in the world.

Growing up is a bitch.

The ridiculously frigid, bone-chilling New England winters are not my favorite either. It is nice at this time of year to not have to be bundled up in multiple layers of heavy clothes. I love not having to fear the ice that builds up everywhere I walk. I love the longer hours of daylight and getting the garden going.

But, still, we have already been blasted with some nasty humid days and there are for sure many more just lurking around the corner. It is, after all, almost July.

So I am trying something new this year. I am going to attempt to embrace summer....at least I am going to make a real good effort to. Despite my complaining and whining about the humidity there really is much to love about New England in the summer. Well, let's face it, there is much to love about New England year round, and summer is no different. I actually wrote a post a couple years ago about all the great things about summer in New England (ironically, I wrote it on a rainy Sunday in June and I writing this post on a rainy Sunday in June!). This year, in order to try an embrace summer, I did what I do best: I got crafty!

If you have read my blog for any length of time then you know that every year in late August I make a fall journal/scrapbook that encompasses September, October, Halloween, November, and Thanksgiving. The idea is I put the book together in advance then add to it throughout the season and by the time December 1st rolls around I have a handmade, funky, overflowing, crafty keepsake of my most favorite time of year.

So I am trying that for summer, just on a much smaller scale. I am going to try to embrace summer more, but I harbor no illusions that I will ever love it like I love fall, so I am thinking I will not need quite as much space in this journal.

I didn't take any pictures of the process of putting it together but it was really very simple, and everything I used on it is stuff I already had in my stash. The covers are two pieces of bookboard that are roughly 4.5" x 6.5". They are covered in canvas front and back.  I misted two sheets of Strathmore Linen Canvas with Maya Road mists in summery colors. Then I just cut pieces to size and used a glue stick to cover the book board. I freehand wrote "Summer 2011" using a white Elmer's paint pen. I inked a random chipboard flower that I had in my stash with Ranger Distress Inks in colors to blend with the mists I used and stuck it on with the glue stick. I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes thru the bookboard and bound the book with generic office supply store binder rings (I always keep a bunch on hand in several sizes). There are three sections: June, July, and August. I made the page dividers by cutting down generic manila tabbed folders and misting them. Each section has a page pre-printed with the month (they were cut from a larger 12 x 12 piece of scrapbooking paper I had. I can't remember the brand but if I can figure it out among the mess in my craft room I will come back here and update. And other than that, each section just has random pages cut from scraps of patterned paper, Bazzill cardstock, and Hambly transparencies.

If you are not a big fan of summer, what do you do to make the most of it?!