House Tour: Blue Bathroom

Continuing our house tour (the living room and the kitchen have already been showcased) we will continue with the flow of the house. Flowing right into our guest bathroom. Convenient, eh? Let me just say, I love this bathroom. Our bathrooms have definitely gone through quite a tremendous transformation, although I am a bad blogger and do not have before and afters. I didn't really take pictures of the house until I started the blog. To give you an idea, the bathroom was covered in an ugly yellow tan color (including trim, ceiling and walls). Also, a little before my time in the house there was a pink toilet and pink sink. Eric changed those out before I moved in. The shower however was pink when I moved in. That didn't last too long with the amazing Rebath product that will come and cover up your ugly, old bathroom. With that done I was left to painting and accessorizing.

Entering the bathroom. I apologize for the awkward pictures. Our bathrooms are...efficient (aka smallish) which makes it a little challenging to get good overview pictures.

A closer view of the bathroom. You can see the transformation a little paint will make. This bathroom seems so light and airy (although devoid of windows) with the light blue paint on the walls. A white ceiling and white trim work helped as well. The blue vase was a thrift store find that I love.

A shot of the shower. I credit Eric for the shower curtain. I am usually a fabric shower curtain kind of girl, but he got this one to with its little clear blocks mixed in with the blue to allow as much light as possible in the bathroom. Good job hubby! You can also see the white (fake...shhhh) marble peeking up outside of the curtain.

Ahh, my favorite part of the bathroom. A piece of Ikea artwork (which we are acquiring quite a collection of. Not valuable but so fun!). I saw this piece and it was one of those"Squeal!", run up to the piece, grab it possessively, and say "We are getting this. It is perfect for the bathroom." Then in it goes into the cart. I loved the colors: the blue matched the bathroom but also subtly suggested other colors to bring in as accents. Think peach towels. That is my plan! It also have little squares that mimic the shower curtain. It is also a very large size that fits perfectly on the big wall leading into the bathroom to the left of the sink (look at the very first picture to see how it fits in relation with everything else).

Another shot of artwork in the bathroom. I am a huge lover of Van Gogh and do not mind having prints in the house. This one actually came in a horizontal poster with the three in a row. I cut the three pictures into individual ones and put them in their own frames to make it look more like a collection. The colors work well in the bathroom, but I am not in love. I like the spacial usage, but they seem a little dark in the bathroom. My goal was to get white frames but I could not find the size I needed. I did find black. I thought I would put them up black and give it a try. I have been giving it a try for a few months now. Still not working exactly. I think they will soon meet a friendly spray paint can and become white. Any thoughts?

This picture gives you a sense of where the pictures are in relation to the bathroom.

Well that is the bathroom tour. How fascinating, right? We still have plans to change out the mirror and light fixtures to something more modern. I also need to find the perfect decorative touch to go over the toilet. There is just a blank wall screaming "Put something on me!" Any thoughts on good bathroom decorations that mix storage, usefulness, and appeal?

A weekend recap and SNOW!

Whew, what a weekend I had with my best girl friends from high school. Who knew I could have gotten three such great friends from four years of not so fun times. They are definitely the BEST things that come out of high school. This weekend we had a reunion and boy did the good times roll. I actually think I will let my awesome friend Caitlin explain it, as I feature her blog for a second time (remember this post about weight struggles). So I thought she should explain it being the word smith and photographer she is. Thanks friend! So without further ado, read on to the Cait Strides blog to see and hear about all the good times.

Unfortunately the weekend was cut a little short with the impending storm. Yes, that is right SNOW. Might sound crazy with the balmy weather that Virginia has been having (hello 70 degrees today) but it was a delightful winter wonderful that I couldn't help oogle at both when it was snowing and in its sparkling aftermath. So I thought I would share some photos with you of it.

The snow has begun!

Baby it's cold outside but it's warm and snuggly inside!

Night-time snow all thanks to our flame thrower (aka our outside light that is very powerful!)

A very snowy garden!

The next day. Don't you love the bulb blooms in the snow?

The Cube looking even a little taller. Who thought that was possible?

Ahh how quickly the sun melt the snow gloriousness!

Our cute little tree all decked out.

Our pretty little house encased in its glittering crystals of precipitation!

Did you have a snow day? What did you do to enjoy our one taste of winter this year?



House Tour: Hello 1960s Kitchen!

We are back in business to continue the house tour! Remember when I began it in the living room since it is the first room when you enter the house? It also gave me the opportunity to show off my newest organization project with the entry closet. The living room and the kitchen are partially open to each other, so it is the natural next step in the house tour. It is also the room that most dates the house!

Here we go...walking into the kitchen from the living room. Behold the yellow tones galore!

Welcome! You have arrived! Although it is outdated, we don't have the heart to paint over the real  (meaning not particle board), quality wood cabinets. Well not yet. The years are starting to show wear in some places.

One of my favorite things about the kitchen? Our trash compactor (minus its pea green color). Although I do have a black can of appliance spray painting waiting for spring months to make it less 60s and match our other appliances.

We are definitely people who like to decorate with pictures and items that mean a lot to us. We try not to be generic. This red board from Ikea was a perfect fit in this nook to put some fun things on.

How have a lived without a wall oven my entire life before this house? I LOVE a wall oven and never want to be without one. I actually love the older look of this stove. We will keep it until it completely dies. As for the stove top, I am itching to switch that out for a flat top.

Ahh, the best view of the kitchen. I love how HUGE and mostly OPEN our kitchen is. There is no lack of counter space and prep room. It is awesome! I love our kitchen so much. As I am a girl of the 21st century I freely admit that I like to watch TV as a prepare food. Our TV actually swivels and you can see it in the kitchen and living room. This space also provides an amazing place for entertaining. It allows flow between the kitchen and living room but enough division if people want to do entirely two different activities (Think Super Bowl parties. Ladies in the kitchen who can watch it they want to but mostly gabbing instead, while the fellows are in the living room watching the game. Perfection!)

Nothing beats an eat-in kitchen. This is also Eric's grandmother's dining set passed down to him. Yes, that is a small evergreen tree with lights on it that we keep up all year round. It's NOT a Christmas tree.

The divider between the more open part of the kitchen. The previous owners painted it with accents of yellow like the wall. How terrible. More yellow. This is going to be my guinea pig for painting cabinets and the hardware. It is also just a holding ground for some random decorations.



A fun refurbishing project I did with an old rubber stamp holder used for printing things many years ago. It was a dingy wood that I spray painted white (except for the handle to keep it a little old time-y) and then used different colors to make it pop with color. I mostly like it. I love the concept but the colors may be changed out later. This is a tribute to my mom. She did this (although keeping it antique looking) and had an amazing miniature collection that I would stare at for hours in my childhood. It was so special to her and to me that I had to start my own. It is lacking her amazing small finds. I am working on getting more, well worthwhile things in this. Although Eric did buy me a miniature Cube shipping straight from Japan. The idea is to provide a place for small collectibles from our travels. Hence the boomerang from Australia. Also notice to amazing Ocoo drink bottle from Alyson's boyfriend Martin who started this amazing drink!

A final view of the kitchen! 

So what do you think if we ever get to do a full gut (in my dreams) or more realistically paint the cabinets and maybe even the counters. Light cabinets and dark counters? Or dark cabinets with light counter tops? Or maybe two tone with a different color on some of the cabinets?

From Drab to Fab: Curtain Re-do!

Ew. That was my first reaction to the...well...shall we call them window coverings in the basement. They mostly just covered the window but not completely. Enter the terrible slatted window coverings...with leftover scraps from the ratty couch next to the dumpster?!

So while Eric was away I grabbed my power tools and a new set of curtains and curtain rods and got to work to begin the beautification process of the basement.

I can't tell you how satisfying it was to pull down that ratty fabric covered curtain rod and ugly slatted blinds. Just taking down the curtain rods made a huge difference.

Then it was time to take down the blinds. Tip: Make sure to draw the blinds together (duh Megan!) so you don't end up having to dispose of this mess.

Seriously folks, draw the blinds or they will cut you. Literally. They cut at my leg as I drug them up the basement stairs.

Now comes the fun part. Hanging the curtain. First came the curtain rod. I am notorious for having a struggle with the power tools at time and calling for Eric for help in the middle of a project. Sorry girl power. I just announced on the WWW that I am not that experienced with the power tools. But my brain can help with that. See, the past rods were hung with hardware. So I go to thinking, well maybe I can use the hardware already in the wall. Oh yeah. That's thinking and that is less work.



I ended up only using one of the anchors to hold up the new brackets, but since I was installing three and the curtains weren't that heavy I took the chance. A little patch work when we end up painting the walls and it will be like the old blinds were never there!

Now with the curtain rod. Hard part done!

Now the easy and gratifying part. Curtain time!

Yay! The first step in actually decorating our basement, which is a modge podge of old furniture, lots of little cars, and just other...stuff. Which is why I tried not to show you anything else of the basement. I will reveal that at another date as we slowly take the house tour. 

Do you have a space in your residence that becomes the throw all room? What do you do to try and make it pretty?

When the boy is away a girl will play!

My kind of play though. This weekend Eric took a boys weekend to North Carolina to visit his friends. This left me all alone this weekend to fill it with all sorts of girly things. Although I missed him, a girls weekend was just what I needed!

It started off with a huge bang with this:

That's right. Amazement Square's Gathering of Goddesses event. Yup. My former job. I used to run that event. This year I was just attending. SUCH a better way to do it. I actually enjoyed it. Whew! What a night it was. So many people to catch up with! It was definitely the best part. Not to take away the great event that was put on. It was definitely a job well done. Go Susan!

I also got to spend the evening with one of my besties doing crazy things like this:

I also got to check out a jewelry seller that I may actually throw a party with: Stella and Dot.

Gorgeous jewelry but a little pricey. Still fun though. Would you come to my party? Would you support me in making this my part time job? I would LOVE to sell this on the side...

I also got a super awesome TEAL gel manicure. Let's see if it lasts the promised three weeks. I also scored a free pedicure too because my nail technician was having difficulty with the color I picked. Sweet!

This is me showing off my nails while playing with my camera on Saturday - another thing I did while Eric was away!

 

I also did a little shopping on Saturday. Mainly chores but I also brought home some things for me.

Black skinny pants that I have been dying to have! Now after my girly adventures I then picked up some power tools. Oh yeah. I said power tools. While the husband was away.

Ooops. That is a teaser! The power tool project will be revealed later this week. It needs it own post!

The weekend was also full of delightfully cheesy romantic comedies (thank you V-Day weekend!) and some junk food of course. It was also full of painting - yup painting. That is for another post as well!

So what is your definition of the perfect girl's weekend?

What I Love...

I'm back folks! Sorry about the hiatus. I was having some thoughts about the blog. My blog. With no real direction. Based on some feedback I thought perhaps I should just stop the blog for a while until I have more direction. Instead, I thought "No, I am going to go forward with my blog about whatever I want and whenever I want". So to kick it back off, I thought I would begin with a list of things (although they may be silly) that I love and/or grateful for. Just in time for the month of love!

My family...

Especially this guy, my wonderful (crazy) husband!

Everything cozy, snuggly, and warm for winter (fireplaces, candles, and Christmas lights fit the bill).

My Kindle. I LOVE MY KINDLE.

Couponing. Got to love saving the cents.

The complete set of Ally McBeal I got for Christmas. She is wack-o. It makes me love her more. Don't forget the Biscuit. Bygones.

Zumba! Dance-like workout. Lovin' it!

American Idol. I can't help it. Avid fan since Season 1. Love these judges. Sorry Simon. You are too mean.

My job and the creativity and freedom it allows me. Oh yes, and those challenges that make me grow. Thank you water and sewer.

www.bcpsa.com

Friends coming into town! I couldn't help but throw up an old school picture for laughs.

Funny moments, like finding a great type-o in the newspaper this morning. :) I laugh at immature jokes. It's too fun not to.

What are you loving this month of love?