What you see before you is my kitchen. While it's still in the near-end stages of its renovation, it has loved living through summer. Rather, I have loved living through summer with a nearly complete kitchen renovation. There are still a few things to straighten out, touch up, and add, but it really is almost done.

I am in that 'cozy' stage of late summer. While it's truly only mid-summer, mentally, summer starts for my family as soon as school ends (right before Memorial Day). Once August sets in, I am 100% done with heat waves, beach trips, lazy schedules, dying grass and gardens, and ready to add cozy warmth back to my home and life.

The garden has done a wonderful job of producing loads of tomatoes. We have so many ripening in our kitchen windows right now, that we are going to have to make a tomato pie, and will have tons of tomatoes left for making homemade passata. Yum!

It has been very rainy this week, and has been cooler, too. We've had high temps in the 60's (not normal for August in NC), and I have enjoyed wearing pants or jeans and sweaters all week! It's only natural that this tease of fall makes me want to bring out my fall decor. My husband told me it's too early to break that stuff out just yet, and he's right... the pumpkins should wait a while, yet. I do, however, have apple and sunflower decor, and it seems fitting to bring those out for August and early September.

I added twinkle lights back to my media cabinet, placed new batteries in the flameless candles, and bought a brand new apple cinnamon scented candle for my kitchen. I'll be looking for cute little apple cider touches for the coffee bar, and bringing out the Moscow Mule mugs, too. We're so close to my absolute favorite time of the year. I decorate early so I can enjoy my hard work and the cozy vibes for even longer.

Oh, and I just asked my hubby if we could squeeze in an apple picking trip in a couple of weeks.

Be sure to tell me in the comment section- or jump over to the MBP Facebook page and tell me there.