A tip on Tuesday!

My friend Tammy (http://tam-sense.blogspot.com/) says I have lots of awesome ideas and tips on how to make life easier/more efficient. I thought I would share some of them here. I did not come up with any of these, they have been picked up along the way from my family, friends, magazines, blogs, etc.

Tip on Tuesday: Sort all your mail, magazines, flyers, random paper as soon as you walk in the door. Throw all the stuff you don't need, including junk mail and the envelopes, inserts, etc for real mail into the recycle bin, put credit card offers in the shredder (or make a pile on top until you have time to shred) and save just the important pieces to deal with. AND if the 'deal with' part will take 2 minutes or less, try to complete that task right then. Write the check, fill out the wedding RSVP card, send the baby shower RSVP email, put all dates on your calendar right then and there. You won't have to think about it or touch that piece of paper again. Maybe it can even go in the recycle bin! But don't recycle it if you need the address to the baby shower. Just sayin'.

I bought bathroom mirrors today!

I bought 2 mirrors for the bathroom today. I sure hope they look pretty when they get here!

A tip on Tuesday!

My friend Tammy (http://tam-sense.blogspot.com/) says I have lots of awesome ideas and tips on how to make life easier/more efficient. I thought I would share some of them here. I did not come up with any of these, they have been picked up along the way from my family, friends, magazines, blogs, etc.

Tip on Tuesday: save the wrappers from sticks of butter. Stick them in the freezer and use them to grease baking pans instead of cooking spray.

Here is a photo of my stash.

Bathroom Faucets?

Kevin has decided we are doing polished nickel faucets with cross handles. I get to pick the faucet (as long as I stay within his parameters).

Do you like the low arc?

Or the high arc?

Beadboard: Fancy or simple?

We are planning to do a beadboard wainscoting in the bathroom. I am debating if it should be fancy and framed out like this:

Or simple, just beadboard, a baseboard and a top edge, like this:

Which one do you like better?

Floor Tile Options

Here are some of the options I am considering for floor tile in the bathroom. We haven't done any real shopping yet, I found all of these online.

 Basketweave

 Lantern

 Octagon

 Spiral

Penny

I am torn between the basketweave and the spiral. Although I do love penny tile!

Bathroom Inspiration

I will be swiping ideas for new upstairs bathroom from these pretty, pretty pictures.

The navy grasscloth and the chevron beadboard (need help convincing Kevin on these). And the toilet.

whiteandgolddesign.blogspot.com

Love the beadboard wainscoting, the basketweave floor, the sconces and the mirror.

houzz.com

Love the dark upper wall, white lower wall. If you get tired of pink, you could swap out the towels and rug for another fun color!

marthastewart.com

Our shower will be similar to this one and I like the double vanity and 2 separate mirrors, although I am planning to do a white vanity.

hookedonhouses.net

Again with the contrast between the upper and lower wall and the bright accent!

www.decorno.com

Any thoughts?

Attic Addition

We are getting ready to start work on our attic addition. We are adding a second bathroom, a bedroom, a closet and a lounge space. Well, technically the bedroom and the closet already exist, but they are a little scary right now. Check out the before photos.

Here are the current plans. We have a few minor tweaks to make but it's pretty close! I am getting excited about this project!

New Kitchen Table

My dad made us a new kitchen table. The beautiful butcher block top was donated by a family friend. It was part of a display at a retailer where he works. They were throwing it away, but my dad trashed picked it. So classy!

We were inspired by this table from Crate and Barrel.


 
Our table is regular height, for chairs, not bar stools. The base is painted BM Black Satin and the top has a coat of Danish oil in natural on it. We love it, wings up or wings down!

Living Room Update

Since I got married and my husband lives here now, we needed to do some furniture rearranging in the living room so both of us could watch TV comfortably. Priorities!

As a reminder, this is what the room looked like before:

That turquoise pillow you see on the couch is now in the guest room. We moved the couch to face the TV, booted the tree to the dining room, shifted one of the red chairs to the corner where the tree was and added some new tables.

I got the coffee table off Craiglist. It's a little too big for the space, but I haven't found anything that I like better, so it is sticking around for right now. The console table under the orchid painting, I built last winter. We needed something both skinny and not-that-long and I couldn't find any tables available that fit our space. I used plans from Ana White (http://ana-white.com/) and modified them to our dimensions.

I won the white and black pillows on a giveaway on From the Right Bank (http://www.fromtherightbank.com/) and the yellow ones are from Crate and Barrel.  The quilt on the red chair was a wedding gift, it's beautiful!

Once we finish the upstairs, this room will probably change again, so we didn't want to invest a lot of money in a temporary solution.

An Update!

It's been a while! For most of 2011, I was busy getting married. Planning the wedding was very time consuming because I did a lot of craft projects myself. But it was a lot of fun!

I finally paint the guest room nightstand. I went with grey to coordinate with the file cabinet that serves as the nightstand on the other side of the bed.

I made the shams out of the fabric I mentioned before. I definitely should have put interfacing in the edge, they are way too floppy. Oh well, I am not motivated to take them apart and start over. The turquoise pillow moved in here from the living room.

I got the lamps off Craigslist. I added a grey ribbon to the top and bottom edge of the shades to dress them up a bit. The knobs on the new nightstand are glass, from Target. I also added a design to the top of the nightstand for a little bit of interest.

Not too bad for a couple of bucks! Now my mom has somewhere to put her glasses when she comes to visit!

My first bathroom remodel!

Kevin and I helped our friends remodel their bathroom. It looks great (if I do say so myself) and we didn't kill each other!

http://smillers.blogspot.com/2011/02/our-new-basement-bath.html

Guest room night stand?

I bought this little nightstand for the guest room. It's been primed, but I can't decide how to finish it. What do you think?


I am planning on making new shams in this fabric, which picks up the pink and the aqua.

The rug (a better picture)!

I really like it!

The rug!

The rug finally arrived! I think I like it. It seems HUGE, I think the change in size is what is throwing me. The giraffe spots are a mix of brown and black, so it is definitely lighter than the living room rug. And the white sections are raised, so it has a real texture. Do you think it is too busy near the curtains?

The never ending rug discussion

Based on the excellent recommendation I got, I am thinking of purchasing this rug for the dining room. What do you think?

I'm famous!

Not really. But I sent my dining room rug dilemma into a designer with a blog that takes questions and she answered mine!

http://mollyloot.com/tuesday-morning-mailbag-10

So what do you think?

Living Room Wall

I finally added the gallery wall to my living room. I like how it balances out the big lamp but isn't one large piece of art. It is composed of various places that I have lived: ND, IU, Spain, Detroit, Minneapolis as well as a few vacation spots, Alaska, the Grand Hotel, Boblo Island.

The rug is not grey.

It's blue!


I don't think it works with the blue of the curtains. I couldn't take a picture because the sun was shining in the windows.

I pulled the trigger!

And bought this rug! We will see how it looks when it gets here. Thanks for the comments!

More Dining Room Rug Options

2 more rug options for the dining room. Thoughts? Do you like them better than the ones in this post?

http://habitatforkris.blogspot.com/2010/04/dining-rug-room-options.html



Why can't I make a decision?

Rug options for my room

With the new purple blanket, I am thinking of getting a new rug to go on either side of the bed.

Which one do you like better?

My room - an update

This is how my room has looked this summer. I couldn't find a night stand for the far side of the bed, apparently mine is abnormally tall. So Kevin and I built one. I found a lamp on Craigslist that matches the one I already had and bought fun new lampshades.



This is the winter version using the original bedding.


However, I wanted to mix things up, so I bought a purple blanket to be more 'wintery'. What do you think?

Guest Room

I got a old card catalog off Craigslist for the guest room. I painted the box, top and base white, but left the drawers stained wood. I also added a mirror at Barbie's assistance and built a trash can out of scrap wood.


I finally have a nice duvet in the guest room. Actually I've had it for quite some time, I just forgot to post pictures.



Night stands and new lamps are next!

New Mirror in the Dining Room

Big Dave built me a pretty new mirror for the dining room.

I like the way it balances out the curtains.




This is a crappy picture with the sunlight reflecting, but it gives you an idea of the size.