Nightstand Refresh

So, as we have discussed, my current living situation is with Ma and Pa.  It really isn't that bad.  But I do spend lots of time in my room at the end of the night.  After putting Logan to bed, I just need a time-out.  Unless it is Dancing with the Stars night, in which case I gladly sit on the couch and watch it with them.  Don't judge; it's our thing.  I have been using an old table (I think it is a plant stand) as my night table.

Here is the wide shot:

I got this throw pillow and decided I wanted to liven things up by painting it a brighter, more fun color:

I started by scrubbing it down then used something my dad had to take the varnish off to help the paint stick:

Final product:

                                   

Sorry for the crappy phone photos...I hardly take out the big camera anymore.  I need to change that.

Need to figure something out about the lamp...maybe gold?  Not sure.

Painted Ornaments

A few years ago, I had the girls craft lightbulb reindeer ornaments to give to all of their aunts and uncles for Christmas.  Since Jamie was not with us on Christmas and Lexy was in Florida visiting their mom, I decided not to have them do anything last year.  This year, since everyone is home again (yay!) and we have the girls for Christmas, I wanted them to make gifts again, and I saw this idea on Pinterest.

You need:
Glass Christmas bulbs (I got mine at Michael's)
Acrylic paint
Ribbon
Egg cartons/styrofoam cups so the paint can drip out

Alexys, crafting away!

Directions:
-Remove the hanger caps
-Put drops of paint on the inside of the ornaments and swirl around
-Watch as the colors blend together
-Place the ornaments upside down so the excess paint drips off
-When completely dry, reattach the hanger caps and then add a ribbon so the ornaments can be hung on a tree

Jamie, hard at work

Here they are, drying!

This is the one I did to show the girls what to do, hanging on our tree.

Main Bath: Where are we now?

So. Our bathrooms. I pretty much hate them. Actually, I hate the tile. Its the same ugly harvest gold as the outside of the house. Here is where we started.

Pretty hideous, right?

Then it became this:

I hated the color on the wall because it looked too pink and I felt my upstairs was too beige and I am not a beige person. Plus, the cabintry needed to be painted. So it became this, which was a little better:

At that point, I was ignoring the yellow instead of working with it.  Before Logan's baptism last year, OF COURSE I needed to take on some sort of project (duh) so I decided that I would try to become friends with the yellow.

Thus, this bathroom was born:

This print picked up the blue and yellow really well, so I was super excited with I found it at Michael's:

I still hate the tile, but at least I can live with it now, until I get the bathroom of my dreams (which will be never, in this house :) ).  And although the vanity is ginormous, I hate the brown.  But, like I said, livable.

Wall Color: Behr Smokey Blue

The Girls' Room: Phase One Reno

When we moved in to our house, one of my favorite finished rooms was Jamie and Lexy's room.  I loved the colors, the brightness, the cute-ness of it...I just felt I did a great job putting it all together.  I never blogged about it, but here is what it looked like before:

I know SOMEWHERE I have pictures of their names above their beds (they were in white) and please note their nightstands became white shortly after, and we also got rid of their debunked bunk beds for just normal bedframes. It all came together wonderfully and I was super proud of it. 

Before Jamie decided to move home, Alexys and I had discussed redecorating their room.  When we moved in, I was able to incorporate their favorite colors.  Well, times have changed and I was certainly not going to 1) paint the walls lime green (even more limey than this), orange or black OR 2) paint the entire thing pink. 

We compromised.  I had a vision and I ran with it. And this is what it became:

 PLEASE NOTE THE PURPLE CHANDELIER!!!

 Zebra.  Sequined pillows.  Amazeballs.

 Their nightstands are painted with the same black metallic Rust-o-leum spray paint that their names are in:

 They each have one of these above their beds:

 Their chandelier lit up.  I will be attaching black beads/crystals eventually.

I worked my ass off to get it done before Jamie came home last Sunday.  I was working around all my end of the year stuff and in-between naptimes (Logan's, not mine).  I repainted the trim and everything.

Both girls are in high school now (9th and 10th grade...help.), so we are lofting their beds and building desks under each one so they have their own space.  They also need a zebra rug in between the beds, don't you think?

Overall?  I am IN LOVE with how it turned out.  Could not be happier and the girls were THRILLED.  I made Lexy sleep on the couch in the family room for a week so they could both see it for the first time together :)

Colors:
Top of chair rail: SW Grey Matters
Bottom of chair rail: Behr Victorian Iris
Trim/Chair Rail: Strait off the shelf Olympus in semi-gloss

Easter Centerpieces

I thought I had pinned an inspiration for these on Pinterest but can not for the life of me find that inspiration. So if I stole this idea from you, thank you for the wonderful idea and thank you for making my table look beautiful. These are not pictures from my actual Easter table (more on that tomorrow), but I have them on my buffet in my dining room. I think they are ADORABLE and will definitely be using the idea again.

I have a ton of mason jars from my mother-in-law, who cans during the summer months. She gives us all sorts of yummy things and I always find a way to reuse the jars. I live pairing the different sizes and styles. For this project, I bought a package of burlap, a spool of pretty yellow ribbon, and put my hot glue gun to work!

My original plan was to use daffodils, but my florist said that they looked terrible because of the early warm-up, and the daisies were so fresh and pretty and CHEAPER that I went with this!

Small Bath Renovation: Phase 1

Back in 2009, when we bought our house, our small bathroom looked like this:

Yes my friends, that is shiny wall paper. It was amazing beyond words.

We did a rushed renovation right before we through out housewarming party and it looked like this:

Sorry for the terrible picture...I have no idea what happened.

I have never been 100% happy with it (oak? WTF were we thinking) so when our toilet sprung a leak, it only gave us more reason to get the renovation under way.  We REALLY want to renovate our big bathroom, but need a working shower to do that.  Which meant we had to renovate the small bath before the big one because the shower stall in the small bathroom is teeny and creepy.

Thus began the demolition of the small bathroom.

We began by removing the crappy yellowish gold tile (one of THREE rooms with it) in the shower stall (which we kept hidden by a shower curtain).  Since we are installing a corner stall, we also needed to remove the wall next to the toilet.  Then we had to take out the old shower stall base.

Crappy yellow tile:

OMG.  I hate this tile.

I definitely wanted in on power tool usage.

No more wall!

And no more shower stall base!

The plan is to reroute the plumbing, install a new vanity or paint the old one an espresso color, replace the medicine cabinet with a pretty mirror and install a new light fixture.  We are also going to retile the floor and install a baseboard (finally).  Oh, and because we are removing the vast majority of the drywall in the bathroom, I get to repaint.  Again.

Utility Tub Skirt

Our utility tub is awful.  But honestly, I have looked at it and how well it is secured to the wall and it is just not worth the trouble to remove it (especially now that we think we have a link in our bathroom.  Awesomesauce).

Anyway, I keep a bucket, trash can (overflowing at this point...awesome).  and the extra cat little usually under the tub and I wanted a way to disguise it.  I googled around for some ideas and pieced together a way to create a skirt for the utility tub.

First, I bought some clearance brown and blue vine-y fabric from JoAnn's on Friday,  I bought 3 yards, knowing I was going to create a front and only one side, because the second side butts up to the washer and I didn't feel it necessary to cover it.  Oh, and I bought all the fabric they had :)

Second, I measured the sides and added on one inch per hem so I could fold it over.  And for this project, I decided to use hem tape and NOT bust out my mom's ancient sewing machine.

So, I cut 3 panels, the front, the side and one for the corner to give it some room and so we could easily access what is stored under it.

Then, I folded over the hems, allowing approximately one-inch per hem fold.

Accuracy is overrate.

After ironing all the hems, I did a quick stitch to hold the corner panel to the two large panels. 

I lined the top of the tub with adhesive velcro and secured the panels.

I am so excited about how it looks!!  What a difference!!