Loo Redo

Jeff and I repainted our hall bathroom and added some coordinating accessories. Though Jeff despises painting, he was extremely helpful. First the accessories. You already saw my love birds on the tree canvas thingy. Here's something I bought from Kmart about a month ago. I wanted to paint it white so while I was in the bathroom painting Jeff was applying a few coats of white spray paint (with primer). Here's the bathroom before the redo.

Here's the bathroom after.



I'm sorry about the poor quality of the pictures. My camera is very old but you get the idea. I love the blue and white contrast and it's a very happy blue. This wasn't a super cheap redo but for a little over $100 (wall paint, new shower curtain, new shower curtain rod, new shower rod rings/hooks, wall art, hand towel hoop, caulk, nail hole filler) the changes make a huge impact. Jeff already had paintbrushes, rollers, and trim paint so that saved us some money. Plus, we did all the work ourselves which took about 2 days.

Faking It

I know that's a horrible post title but it will all make sense in just a moment. So, my obsession with the Young House Love blog continues and most days I'm reading about their latest projects or checking out links to other projects. They did some Pinterest stuff recently and I decided to see what the site was all about. I don't understand it at all but there are dozens of craft ideas with pictures and I came upon this one.
So cute! Then I tried to figure out how I could do something similar and change the initials in the tree (duh). I enlarged the picture to fill a regular sheet of paper (8 1/2 x 11) and printed it on thick paper. Then I cut out the tree using an x-acto knife. I taped my "stencil" onto a 9 x 12 canvas from Hobby Lobby and traced it with a pencil.


Then I removed the stencil and painted inside the lines with some wall paint (more on that later). I purchased another color for the birds, which is supposed to be dark grey but looks black. Ta da!
It looks like I hand painted it (sort of) but I just filled in the lines, thus faking it. This whole process did take some time and it's not as detailed as the original image but I love, love, love it and it's personalized in a subtle way.
I will do another post so you can see where this little guy will be staying but that project is not complete yet. Stay tuned...

New Favorite

I have a new favorite author (not to replace another favorite but to add to the list), Leslie Carroll. I've read two of her books and I'm halfway through a third. They are all non-fiction books about various royal persons throughout history. I just love them. The first one I read was Notorious Royal Marriages: A juicy journey through nine centuries of dynasty, destiny, and desire and it's probably my favorite of the three. The second Carroll book I read, Royal Pains: A rouges' gallery of brats, brutes, and bad seeds, was full of unbelievable stuff, gross stuff.

Now I'm reading Royal Affairs: A lusty romp through the extramarital adventures that rocked the British Monarchy. I love the subtitles. The writing is wonderful and I've learned so much like Catherine the Great invented the onesie and King James the I (of which the King James edition of the bible is named for) was gay. I know these are things I could learn from a history book or the dreaded Wikipedia but these are almost like reading a story. I like them so much I've purchased my own personal copies. She does write some fiction and I may be willing to give them a try.

This Weekend...

Did some shopping, saw some movies, visited some friends, and had a pastry (or two). On Friday I went to visit my friend Barbara. We ran by Hobby Lobby and I picked up some woodland creatures (more on that later). We also stopped by Bed, Bath and Beyond for shower hooks (more on that later too), DSW for shoes, Homegoods, TJ Maxx and Marshalls for whatever deals we could find. Then we saw Crazy Stupid Love.

It was different than I expected but funny and heartfelt. On Saturday I went to Warner Robins to visit my folks and my friend Kelly. I met Kelly for lunch at the new Panera Bread and bought an orange and blueberry scone (so delish). Then mom and I stopped by Hobby Lobby and Bed, Bath and Beyond (seeing a pattern here?). After that we saw The Help.
I read the book last year and thought it was fantastic and eye-opening. The movie was really good with a lot of humor and sorrow and it was close to the book. It was an Emma Stone weekend for me. Oh, and Jeff got Remy a life jacket so he can swim with abandon.

Sandi has one also that she loves. Remy looks so adorable in clothes but he really doesn't like them. Jeff will throw a tennis ball in the water and Sandi and Remy love to jump off the boat to fetch it. I have not been in the lake at all this year. Shame on me.

Custom Coasters

I found another cute blog with craft ideas. I tried one out this weekend based on this Tile Coaster Tutorial. On Saturday I dropped by Lowe's and purchased 10 white tiles. They were 16 cents each! They were way cheap but I have to admit that I went overboard on the cost of the scrapbook paper (all of which were on clearance, but still). Instead of using felt fabric on the bottom of the tile a co-worker suggested I use cork so they wouldn't slide right off a table. I agreed and this amounted to another cost splurge but I didn't have to buy fabric glue because the cork has some strong adhesive on the back. It's actually shelf liner.
Anyway, my supplies were purchased from Lowe's (tiles, cork), Hobby Lobby (mod podge, sponge brush, acrylic sealer) , Michael's (big book of scrapbook paper) and Jo-Ann's (3 smaller books of matte paper). I followed the tutorial instructions closely and after several hours, this was the result.

I made 6 for the living room, 2 for my nightstand, 1 for Jeff's and 1 for my mom's reading chair.

I have cork left and plenty of scrapbook paper so don't be surprised if you get one or several coasters as a birthday or Christmas present. You've been warned. And just for fun here's a picture of my sweet Remy.

Better Than Expected

I bought some fabric at half price several weeks ago. I planned to cover some plastic (and dull) magazine holders that were no longer being used at work.
I finally decided to get the project done and bought some spray glue at Walmart. With the help of Jeff's mom, we covered 4 holders. I must say they are super cute and turned out better than I expected.

I'd like to offer a few tips if you plan to do the same or a similar project. First, trace your item onto the fabric with a pencil and cut at least 1 inch outside the line. Second, follow the exact instructions on the spray glue. Third, use the spray glue (or probably spray anything) outside. The glue, though awesomely strong, had a bad odor and is possibly toxic. Lastly, have a helper. Virginia believes I could have done it on my own but it really felt like I needed an extra set of hands. It was my plan to complete it by myself but she was interested in helping and I was all too happy to humor her.

I may swipe some more magazine holders from work and just hang onto them. You never know when a beautiful piece of fabric will go on sale and I have a few bookcases.

Dining In Myrtle Beach

Another fun week in Myrtle Beach has come and gone. It was the same old same old: going for a run first thing in the morning followed by a leisurely walk on the beach, a few hours sunning, reading and swimming at the beach, lunch, nap/shopping, dinner and then mini golf. That was pretty much my schedule everyday. The dining this year was spectacular. Some years I'll have so so seafood for a high price. This year was a smorgasbord of foodie delight. On my first day I arrived mid-afternoon and it was raining. Since we couldn't enjoy the beach we decided to head out for an early dinner at Sara Js. They have pretty good seafood and yummy hush puppies. I had shrimp and grits with tomatoes and peppers. Very yummy and by far the best shrimp and grits I've ever had. The next day, Wednesday, Mom and I were walking on the beach in the morning and it started to rain. It rained off an on pretty much the rest of the day.


Ralph wasn't feeling well so mom and I went to dinner on our own to Gilligan's. I had some raw oysters (yes, I love oysters), and mahi mahi in a clam sauce with grilled asparagus. The oysters were great but the big one was too much for me but the mahi mahi was cooked to perfection. Their hush puppies with jalapenos and corn put Sara Js' to shame.


The next day was sun all day and my sister was there to join in the festivities. That night we ate at Ruth's Chris. This was a fantastic dining experience and one of the best meals I've ever had. If you've never been then make a plan to do so, just save up your money. I had grilled salmon with potatoes au gratin and Michanne and I split a chocolate mousse cheesecake. We didn't even finish half of it between the two of us. That's me smiling in the background. I was tempted to get the mahi mahi again and my mom told me to go ahead. I said I didn't want it again and she shouldn't have ordered it at Gilligan's also (this way we can try each other's food and experience more of the menu). Mom said she ordered mahi mahi because that's what she wanted and it's not My My. We were all laughing about that one the rest of the vacation.

Friday night, my last night in Myrtle Beach, we went to the Market Commons and ate at Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. I had a chicken and avocado sandwich (I'm a sucker for anything with avocado) and garlic french fries. The fries were super delicious--I'm serious, best fries ever. Saturday was my last morning there so I took a longer walk on the beach and continued collecting shells. I'll post a picture of my stash later. This was the sunrise shot I got around 6:35am.

I got all my stuff packed up and ready to go and we had breakfast at IHOP, by far the worst meal of the week and maybe ever. Good times.