The Good, the Plaid, and the Ugly

There's actually nothing good about this bathroom. But there is a whole lot of plaid and whole lot of ugly.

This is what the spare bathroom looked like when I moved in. Holy Moly. I don't know what part is my favorite. Perhaps the plaid shower curtain with the matching curtain hangers? Or the knotty pine wood thing on the wall that's displaying a beautiful collection of NOTHING. Or maybe the bleached towel.. So hard to choose! Sadly this is the only picture I have to remember how awesomely bad this bathroom was.

Here's what it looked like up until today:

Much better. I painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Cape May Cobblestone. Added the Andy Warhol picture and put up the gray shower curtain. But it was still a little bare. So I started perusing the blog world and found this bathroom:

Source: Abby from http://www.talesandtrials.com/

And I went on the hunt for some glass shelves. Originally I thought of some plain wood floating shelves but I really liked the glass look. I especially liked these babies from Pottery Barn:

Buut they are $39 each and I wanted two. I don't think J would have been very happy with me if I bought them. So I figured target would have something similar to these. And oh boy did they.

That's pretty close! They were only $20 each!  And I like the brushed-nickel finish better anyways.

So where did the Andy Warhol picture go? Why here, of course.

Next up: Framing the mirror. So stay tuned for the next installment of The Good, the Plaid, and the Ugly.

It's 5 O' Clock Somewhere

When I posed the question about what to put on the blank wall (which is still blank) I said that shelves wouldn't work because we have them on the opposite wall. Well I realized you would have no idea what the heck I was talking about. So here is the unveiling of another room.. Voila!

 

Here's a close up of the shelves:

  

We're slowly collecting different beers. It's taking awhile but each time we have a party we make sure to snag a bottle people bring if it is different. See if you can spot the Natty-- that one's for my dad! Nattaboy!

TV over Mantle?

I know this isn't exactly a new thing here, but am I alone in severely disliking when people hang their tv's over the mantle? How uncomfortable is that? You have to crane your neck to look at it! That's not exactly how I want to watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey..

Or how about this option:

(apartmenttherapy)

Yeahh, not so much. That is so impractical. I can picture now Harley sitting directly in front of it during my precious shows! haha. I'll stick with my ginormous tv in the corner, thanks!

Living Room

So last week I showed you guys our sweet score of a coffee table. When we banished the coffee table to the attic, we also decided to ditch the side table too. We really didn't use it for anything. It just looked nice having stuff there. So with it being gone it really makes the wall look empty.

(I was watching Finding Nemo for the first time when I took this. I know, I'm about 7 years behind. So cute though!)

See how bare that wall is? Well at first I was thinking of making an asymmetrical grouping of picture frames and boxes. I laid them all out and then I realized it would look too cluttered on the wall. Then I thought of three simple shelves. But that would look funny because we already have three shelves over our bar area directly across from this wall. So here is what I came up with..

In real life they are square, I just have no skills and made this in paint.

Close up of the pictures:

It's two different pictures from art.com. The third one is the first picture rotated to look different. I think the dark brown leaves, the ivory colored background and the faint light blue stripe goes perfectly with our living room. So what do you think? Should I take the plunge and buy these bad boys?? Or is there another option I am missing? Suggestions please!!

Party Time! Excellent!

Wizard of Odds

While I was back in Ohio, the gals in my family hit up some antique stores/flea markets. One being named the "Wizard of Odds." It was half flea market, half antique store. My favorite find? A Steve Urkel doll. Ahh I miss TGIF. Anyways. I think I found the most expensive vase in the whole store when we first walked in. It was $100. for a banana vase. psh! Apparently I'm just drawn to expensive things.. even at antique stores.

I really was hoping to find a nice vase or a unique mirror but had no such luck at the Wizard's palace. But I did score a new glass coffee table for only 40 buckaroos!

There she is in all her glory.  Here's a shot of the coffee table we had before:

In our defense those were leftover from my college apartment days. One word: HUGE. The glass table really makes the room feel much bigger because it opens the floor up.

So have any of you scored any sweet flea market finds lately?

First Flowers

Look what I grew!

Remember these little guys?

Yeah, those things that look like weeds in front of the azaleas. Well those teeny tiny little guys actually grew! I'm as surprised as Lindsay Lohan was yesterday when she got sentenced to jail! Burnnn.

(I know I do not have a future career in making flower arrangements)

My black thumb isn't totally black i guess.. mostly black with splotch of green. SIKE. One of those azaleas died on me.

What's the Skinny?

Confession: I'm obsessed with HGTV. My favorite shows are Design Star, Designed to Sell and House Hunters, just to name a few. I'm sure many of you have noticed... but what's the skinny with the skinny paint rollers? I would assume they would be for getting in the tight spaces, but they use them on any sized wall. I'm thinking of painting our bedroom and am wondering if I should purchase some of these skinny-minis. So, is there a secret trick that I'm missing out on? Have any of you used the skinny rollers? Or do you stick with the big guys?

Everyone's a wiener on the fourth of July!

 Happy Independence Day!

It's not the fourth of July without the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest! Gooo Joey Chesnut!

And please remember the troops-past, present, and future.

God Bless the U.S.A.!



And this video is for my country-lovin' lover, J: