Bathroom = DONE

So, one of the reasons we bought our house was because there was not much we had to do to it.  New carpet, fresh neutral paint, ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.  We're both super busy and did not want our first house to be a fixer-upper.  However, after one of my husband's infamous Rock Band nights I came home to a giant hole in the plaster of our downstairs bathroom and a towel rack on the floor.

Six months and Dave's first drywall job later, we had new fixtures (towel rack, toilet paper holder etc.) but still no fresh paint.  We were hosting a get together for Dave's sister and her friends (because she lives out of state) on the Monday of a long weekend, and on Friday night we decided it DEFINITELY had to be painted by the time they all came over.

We hurriedly went to Lowes, got all the painting supplies we needed and picked out a color we thought would be just a BIT brighter than the very neutral yellow it was currently.  Were we ever wrong.  It turned out to be crayon/mustard/AWFUL yellow - and with the harsh lights in there, it was blinding.  See below.

YIKES.  Also, for reference, this quick paint job took place in the summer of 2010.  We swore to each other we would re-paint the room as soon as we could, and apparently that was not until October of 2011.  Whatev.

Once my Pinterest obsession began, one of the first things I looked for was color palettes for the bathroom that would go with our bronze fixtures (see above) so we didn't need to replace those...again.  I found my inspiration a few weeks ago (image below from here)

And so the process began.  This time, I went to Lowe's for color swatches to put up on the wall BEFORE making a color selection.  I was NOT going to make the same mistake and have to paint the bathroom yet AGAIN.

So, I made a fun swatch wall and Dave and I picked out our faves.  Out of all of those, I ended up getting 4 small color samples, two were blue-ish shades and two were more grey.  Then we painted those on the wall to see what we thought.

I liked the two that were more grey, Dave liked the light blue.  Go figure.  But then, we thought, is this really even close to what these colors are going to look like??? Clearly the base color they were painted on MAY have had an effect on their final color.  

So we went ahead and primed the walls before making our final color choice.  Just so we could make SURE we were not making a color mistake (we were a little scarred from the first time).  Also, after I primed, I changed the light bulbs to a "soft white" version so that any remaining blinding effect would be gone and we could see the colors under the new, final light.

We went with the top left option - the darker of the grey shades we tried.  I thought it would go great with the bronze fixtures (below) and still allow us to use our light blue towels/rug.

However, like I said before, nothing ever comes out exactly like I think it's going to.  Once the room was painted and dry, the paint was much lighter and bluer than expected (even after ALL the testing we did), and the towels we were too close to the wall shade.

Oh well, we like it, and it's MUCH better than the yellow.   

So, here is everything, all painted.  This is before I took the tape off (obviously) which was a whole other fiasco.  Let me add in here that I am the MOST impatient person in the entire world and doing the touch-up painting (after the tape removal) just about killed me.

After the painting came the decorations (my fave part of the project).  My mom is "de-cluttering" to try and put her house on the market, so I came into a few wood shelves, one of which I thought work perfectly over the toilet.  We needed something to fill the space of the huge painting we had in there before.  

It was a light wood color, so to make is usable in the bathroom I just sanded and primed the shelf, and then sanded it again to give it a nice used look.  I LOVE the whole antique white wood thing and I think it came out pretty well. I had Dave help me anchor it into the drywall and then set it up with some mirrors I got at Goodwill ($3...YES) and some frames from T.J. Maxx.  I LOVE how it came out.

I also replaced the candles on the sink with some white roses I had in another room of the house.

I'm not quite happy with the candle side yet, but I'll keep working on that.  

Since our blue towels ended up being too close to the wall color we used a tan rug and towel we had from one of Dave's old apartments (for the time being) but those will be replaced eventually with something a bit nicer, and a bit lighter.

So there you have it!  Much better downstairs bathroom.  My first true completed Pinterest inspired project.  Next projects are closet organization (on my side - Dave happens to be very organized) and built-ins around the fireplace.  

Get excited!  Dexter tried, but he just can't handle it.  All the work on the bathroom really wore him out.

Puppy Love

There is nothing better than a sweet, loving little puppy to make you feel better after a rough day.  Or even a good day for that matter (except maybe a baby, but clearly I don't have one of those).  Although our loveable Dexter-bub (as we like to call him) is no longer really a puppy, he is still the BEST guy to come home to every day.

He is so loving, laid back and wonderful.  No matter how long he's been home alone, he is still unbelievably excited to see us when we get back.  Every time.  It's awesome. 

Sorry for the puppy schmoopiness.  Just feeling a little Dexter love today.  Have a great Thursday!

101 Things In 1001 Days. Part II.

I removed a couple of numbers in this section (don't worry, I do know how to count to 50).  Not to cheat and make my list shorter; they just didn’t really make much sense and are really not worth your time reading about.  Again, side effect of the wine when writing these.

26. Visit wine country.  Visited Santa Barbara for a wedding, but no wine country yet!

27. Dress up/do my hair every day for a week.  Clearly not.

28. Buy a "Y" for my entry way.  I looked for an appropriate sized Y that would look good in our large entry space for MONTHS.  I gave up and framed an 11 x 14 print from our wedding day in that space.  Looks great!

29. Buy a fabulous way too expensive pair of shoes.  Nope.

30. Take another trip to a beach with my husband.  Santa Barbara could count for this! 

31. Have a great girl’s weekend get away.  Not yet…

32. Write thank you notes to my family for their help with our wedding - and the 24.5 years before.  I did this for my family last Christmas, but need to make sure Dave’s family gets theirs as well.

33. Buy a real Christmas tree for our living room.  THIS year.  For sure.

34. Send out family Christmas cards to our family and friends.  Did it.  It was so much fun taking the picture for it and writing notes for everyone.  Doing it again this year for sure.

35. Buy a REALLY nice bra - if you saw mine you would understand.  Bought one.  Loved it.  Wore it out.  Need another new one.

38. Be a role model to my little brothers - in some small way.  Always trying.

39. Complete a creative project around my house (i.e. paint the kitchen chairs)  AHH thank you Pinterest for so many new ideas!  Bathroom will be finished tonight.  Pictures to come!

40. Go skydiving.  Not yet!

41. Finish the YarMac :)  Blah.  No way.

42. Pass a Rockband song on hard.  Totally did it.  Singing Mr. Brightside.  Drunk Kara has a much better voice than sober Kara.

43. Go to Vegas and enjoy it now that I am well over 21.  Planned and cancelled for this fall.  Long story.  We’ll keep trying!

45. Get on the board of a charitable organization.  At this point, I at least volunteer for one!  Getting closer.

46. Take some sort of college class (marketing, photography, whatever).  I have taken six college classes.  All my nursing school pre-reqs.  AND a photography class. 

47. Make a smoothie at home.  Yes!  With our new blender.  Very delish.  Need to make more of them.

48. Go to a metal concert with Dave, and enjoy it :)  Went to one, drank a little too much.  I’ll have to have a redo on that one.

49. Donate to my mom's nonprofit.  Yes!

50. Go to a black tie event.  Not quite.  Been to some very fabulous weddings over the past few years though.

Fall = Favorite

So, fall is my FAVORITE time of the year. I love everything about it. I love the gorgeous light...all day. I love the colors of the leaves, and the cooler (but not cold) weather. I love sweatshirts, scarves, bonfires, and chili. I also love anything pumpkin. Pumpkin cookies, seeds, candles, the list goes on.

Once fall rolls around every year, I start to feel all festive and cozy. When I feel festive and cozy I love to decorate and bake (same phenomenon happens at Christmas). And clearly, for fall, pumpkin recipes are king. A few days ago, I tried a new to me recipe, cream cheese stuffed spiced pumpkin muffins (grab the recipe here).

HELLO. So delish. We got the recipe from Annie's Eats, a blog that Dave of all people introduced me to. She is amazing, has great recipes and easy to follow directions with each of them (key for me)! Also, she is a Doctor, mom and blogger extrodinare. I'm sorry - that's amazing. Who has time for all of that? I'm majorly impressed.

 She has great photos of her food too, makes you want to try the recipe...immediately.

 Here is a pic of Dave and I's first muffin attempt. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Happy Fall everyone!

 

101 Things in 1001 Days: Not Totally Forgotten. Part I.

So this great list of ambitious things I set out to do by the spring of 2013 has been sorely neglected for much too long.  Here is a partial update and explanation of everything I have done to date.  Since this blog is public now, some of them deserve an explanation, really for self-preservation reasons, so I don’t seem like a huge creep/bitch/etc.  I’m going to post updates on 25 at a time, because let’s be honest, no one wants to read about 101 things I’m doing all at once.

1. Get better at photography. Have some work worthy to post on this blog.  This is a good one.  I am loving taking pics and learning about my camera but I have a LONG way to go.  I really want to keep working with some of the manual settings and master those.  On auto though, I like to think I’m pretty good. However, with the onset of fall classes, my spare time has seriously dwindled.  So it’s a goal of mine to pick up the camera more often this fall.

2. Buy a Coach purse.  Have not done this yet, and honestly, probably won’t.  Ha.  How’s that for commitment?  With our financial situation right now, I really would just spend my money on other things.  But we’ll see.

3. Take my husband out for a fabulous date.  Hmmm.  Well he’s taken me out for lots of fabulous dates.  Does that count?  Probably not.  I’ll work on that.

4. Learn how to grill.  Totally rocked this one.  Due to Dave’s foot injury this summer, if we wanted to enjoy grilled food – it was up to me.  Now, I’m not going to lie and say that there were not a few pieces of charred chicken in there, but I did find some great marinades and cook pork, burgers and chicken.

5. Cook paella - the full recipe. Including crazy seafood like mussels.  I have not done this one yet – maybe over my Christmas break.  Paella takes FOREVER to create, but would be fun on a day off!

6. Do something unexpectedly nice for each of my fabulous friends.  Uh.  Need to work on this one too.  All I know is when I get a card out of the blue, or a nice phone call from a friend, it totally makes my day.  And I want to do that for my fab friends.  So I’ll get on that.

7. Blog - about everything and nothing. Clearly I have done this one, not to the extent that I would have liked, but hopefully my Pinterest inspired revival will take it where I want it to go.

8. Print out and frame my wedding pictures.  Definitely done.  Dave makes fun of me when I say we don’t have very many wedding pictures up in our house, but I always feel like I could have more.  We got two canvases done in for above our bed as well, LOVE those.

9. Read 5 books that enhance my knowledge of meaningful subjects. Hmm.  Well I would say over the past year or so, there are a couple of good (aka not beach read) books that I have read.  I LOVED The Help, such a great book.  I’m also reading Obama’s book – Dreams from My Father which is a good one as well.  I think that’s it.  Any recommendations are welcome!

10. Run a full marathon.  Does a 5k count?  No?  Ok I’ll get on that.  I think I’d need a training partner for that one. Any volunteers?

11. Go skiing. Not yet.

12. Make a cool martini recipe for friends.  Also not yet – have a very cool recipe book though. 

13. Do everything I can so Dave can buy a new car. Well, not sure how much I have done on that one, but it looks like with all of his new job stuff panning out that he will get one!

14. Get a new king bedroom suite. Done and done. It's amazing.

15. Plant a garden in my back yard.  No garden yet.  We did organize our firewood though.  I know it’s not really related, but it also is in our backyard.

16. Buy nice running clothes to run my marathon in.  See above.

17. Set definite career/life goals for the next 5 years. I thought this would be my hardest one, but once I took the plunge, it was not too bad.  Don’t get me wrong it’s been a lot of work and struggle and time and money spent, but I totally think going back to nursing school will be a great thing for me and my family.

 
18. Print out and frame the rest of Robby's pictures on our living room wall. 2 more down (Yosemite and Grand Canyon).  We have one more pano of LA, but I’m not sure where to put the frame, so I haven’t done it yet.

19. Finish our travel wall in the dining room.  I’m making progress on this!! But, I really nee d to start adding in more interesting frames, with some dimension to really make it look the way I want.  A full wall of $3 Walmart frames just isn’t going to cut it.

20. Start and finish the following scrapbooks: high school, college, europe in 2005, europe with the fam/dave, wedding and honeymoon.  Not sure how this is ever going to get done.  I did start my most recent Europe trip book as Dave’s Birthday gift, so that now leaves me at 4 half done books.  Awesome.

21. Go camping. Legit camping. We went in the summer of 2010 to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee with Marcus and Julie. SO much fun.  We definitely want to go again now that we have Dexter though.  He would LOVE it.

22. Get patio furniture.  Thank you Jan Yar for moving!

23. Send 10 random cards to family and friends.  Nope.

24. Go snowmobiling.  Nope.

25. Label the wine/campagne corks we have saved. YES.  We’ve also continued to add many more to the collection. And, I just found a fun idea to spice up the container I have them in.  I’ll try and do it and post a photo soon!

So this ended up being much longer than I thought.  Props to you if you made it all the way though.  Parts II – IV  and a photo post to come soon!

INSPIRED

HOLY COW.

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am very aware that “holy cow” is a 1990’s, grade-school teacher saying, Full House style phrase, but TOTALLY what popped into my head when I joined Pinterest today.

WHY has it taken me so long to do this? WHERE was this when I was planning my wedding? HOW can I make pinning my full time job!!?? Needless to say, I am in love.

What a great idea. Whoever started Pinterest is a genius.

So, enough with the gushing. I’ll move on to the inspired portion of this post, which requires a little bit of backstory. So here goes. Lately I have been a blog reading fool. I have a few blogs I read regularly, and then I link from those blogs to all sorts of other blogs. I love food blogs, family blogs, my husband’s music blog (of course), photography blogs and the list goes on. I always read those blogs and wish that I could be interesting enough for people to read, at least while they’re bored at work.

Well get ready people. I’m going to be interesting. Pinterest pushed me over the edge today. I have all sorts of renewed motivation to make this blog a fun place to spend some time during the middle of your 8 - 5 grind (or 7 to 7 if you're one of my nurse friends). Random for sure, but fun. If you know me, you know my life is all over the place. I work full-time, I go to school part-time, I go to a wedding like every 4 days, I play with my pup, I take pictures, I go to church, I pretend that I am a fabulous chef/baker and try all sorts of recipes that I have no business cooking, I hang out with my super fun husband, I clean, I try to make my house cute on a limited budget, I run (LOVE to run, but, not going to lie, it’s generally the first thing to go with all of the above going on) , I drink lots of wine and volunteer with little kiddos (not at the same time of course).

So don’t expect a totally clear mission from this revival of my blog, it will inevitably be just like my life, busy, slightly disorganized, and totally random. I’ll talk about puppies, and God, my new favorite cocktail, and everything in between. But I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the craziness that is my life, as much as I enjoy writing about it.