life and puppies

Archive Page 20

Why did this take me so long?! The bathroom edition

Published July 5, 2016 bling blog , home decorating , home improvements 4 Comments

Our master bathroom is short on storage and long on annoyances. For example, the heated tile floors that seemed like a real selling point have never worked. Not once. And to make up for the lack of storage, some sharp tack installed the vanity so that its drawers can’t be opened more than halfway before running into the room’s door frame. And there was no medicine cabinet – just a mirror – because why add storage when you don’t need to. I mean, the house has a closet somewhere.

Anyway, one thing the room did have was a couple of those nice looking “floating” shelves and they were hung above the toilet. But as soon as we tried to use them, we discovered that they weren’t hung well and wouldn’t really hold anything up. You know, which isn’t that cool if that’s what you’re interested in having a shelf do. So AO took them down and that’s when things made sense. The shelves weren’t there to hold things, but to cover up what may have been the scene of a murder. Someone had done a lot of damage to that wall; there were holes everywhere. But a lot of patching and sanding and painting later (all by AO), we had a clean, storage-less wall. Now what? We didn’t want to spend a lot of money because the dream was that we’d someday expand the room (and maybe get those floors to warm up) so after a trip to Ikea to solve all of our other problems, we came up with this beauty.

Um, I know it’s not bad bad, but some on, Kate. That is not ideal from a cleaning perspective and you can just tell by how it’s arranged that I gave up even pretending it could look nice. Still, at $60 I thought we could deal with it and I hoped the bamboo-look would give us a spa vibe. {Spoiler alert: it did not.}

But lately AO and I have been on kinda a tear about all-things-wrong-with-our-house and this one was on my list. I also thought it might be contributing to my hostility to showering. So, for the greater good of those around me during this humid summer, I was determined to fix it and by “fix it,” I mean I was determined to order something for AO to install. But preferably not without me messing it up at least once so that he could get sufficiently annoyed with me before saving the day. It’s just not fun otherwise. And guess what?! Missions accomplished! I found some seriously marked-down shelves from Pottery Barn, ordered them, tried to install them myself, put a nasty hole in the wall and it was almost like we were right back to where we started two years ago! Only now I’m in my 40s with epilepsy! #goodtimes Anyway, AO rescued the operation (swoon!) and I think we can all agree we have a cleaner (if still imperfect) looking bathroom.

Done?!

Published June 17, 2016 bling blog 4 Comments

With the addition of a new {on sale} curtain that I just love, the last of the icksville miniblinds have come down and I think the sewing room is done.

And I’m aware buying a curtain for a sewing room may be odd. But blah.

It’s not done yet, but it’s getting there

Published June 9, 2016 bling blog , home decorating 3 Comments
Tags: diy, fabric, painting, stencils

The guest room has been a work in progress since we moved in in April 2014. And it still is. But, I made significant progress yesterday!

Here’s a before picture.

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This duvet comforter is many moons old, but I don’t hate it. Still, I wanted to go dramatically different. I was inspired by an Instagram pic I saw and then I added a few tricks of my own. And so far, we have this.

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The deer are stenciled on the wall in this stencil and using this gold paint. The lampshades aren’t photographing well, but they are gold sequined fabric that is glued on to an earlier version of these, which had seen better days. A few weeks ago, I had seen a beautiful bronze sequined lampshade at HomeGoods that I almost fell over myself to buy, but they had only one so I went home empty-handed that day. Instead, I bought fabric and spent a lot of time with some old glue and binder clips. Hence, this:

Now, next up is to install the second Roman shade, paint the {new} bookshelves – courtesy of T&S! – and get to work on the board and batten. And then when we hang some pics, I think we can call this room finished!

Next up …

Published May 15, 2016 bling blog Leave a Comment

GOLD!!

(A perk of lawyering – binder clips. Usually they’re used as chip clips. This week they’re used to hold the fabric to the lamp shade while the glue does its thing.)

I think I’m going to take some of these deer out by going back over them with the charcoal paint, but I’m going to do the whole pattern before deciding on that.

Just wait. I think (read: hope) it’s going to work.

Is it May 22nd yet?!

Published May 12, 2016 bling blog 3 Comments

On a semi-arbitrary day in April – April 24 if you must know – I set about to do the undoable, the unthinkable, the unimaginable. I set out to do something NO ONE has ever done before. And when I say no one, I mean NO ONE. Except, of course, I don’t. Not at all. Not even a little bit. People do it all the time. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that I did it myself. “When was that?” you might be asking yourself. I actually had to ask myself that, too, but then – while I was scratching my head and remembering high school someone politely reminded me that I was pregnant just over four years ago. Oh right. 2011-12. See? I can handle this. I’ve even handled this during this very same decade. Ok, so are you on to me yet, Dear Reader?

That’s right. This is that AO and I have been shunning alcohol since April 24. Or April 25, I guess. April 24 was the day of our last drop. Today is our 18th day without imbibing. My goal is 28 days, but we’ll see. I might go crazy and try 30. But I might not. One day at a time, right? Or 28 days at a time as it were. Or is. Anyway, here are a few of the things that I have noticed that are different in the days that I have had Not. A. Drop.

Not as many things are really that different. I was sort of expecting to become a brilliant, sage, well-coiffed, radiant person with a halo around me during at least my waking hours. None of these things have happened.
Sugar cravings are real. Turns out alcohol might have some sugar in it so that when it’s gone, the body kinda misses the sugar fix. Who knew? Weird.
After 9 p.m., without a glass of wine or a vodka soda and nothing great on Lifetime and having exhausted the Longform app and Slate, I usually say, “I guess I may as well turn out the light” and I’m asleep about two seconds later.
^^^ That was after the first couple of nights. The first couple of nights without the alcohol to put me into the sleepy slumber were a little hard. But since then? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I’m sorry, did you say som– zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
It’s easier than I thought it’d be, but I do miss it. Especially the social aspect. And the relaxing aspect. But, I’m still really grateful for this time to kinda reset. And happy AO and I are in this together.

Now then, do you think I should have a martini or red wine on May 22?