Guest Bathroom

After

I finally decided to work on the guest bathroom.  The burgundy shower curtain was a wedding registry gift but is no longer our style and it is too short and so dark.  I also wanted to replace the small clearance flower print above the toilet with a larger piece.  The cheap builder-grade vinyl flooring, laminate countertop and cabinets will not be going anywhere since this isn’t our forever home.

Before

I found a 2-in-1 shower curtain/liner at Tuesday Morning in a pretty light blue damask pattern.  It is extra long, so I was able to raise the rod close to the ceiling.  By using a 2-in-1 curtain, the window above the tub can still provide light to the room even when the curtain is closed.   I like how the blue curtain ties the room to the guest bedroom.  Everything feels lighter and brighter with the new color scheme.

I also brought in an ivy plant to give a little life to the room.  They are supposed to be a good air purifier!  I am not in love with my artwork (I was trying to replicate this art piece from Z Gallerie):

I found a canvas at Goodwill and used drywall spackling and a comb to create the strié.  I topped it with Folk Art’s acrylic paint in Metallic Pearl White to try and give it that pearlescent sheen.  It fills the wall better than the other print and it was a lot less than the $400 inspiration, so for now it will stay put.

Side-by-side comparison (thanks to Bradley’s new camera/lens, I can get so much more of the room in the shot!):

 

California

We have been back from our California visit for a couple of weeks and I should post some pictures from the trip.  We,  along with six other family members including my parents, visited my sister and her husband.  We also met up with my cousin and her family on the second half of our trip at Yosemite!

During our San Francisco visit, we spent a little time at Pier 39 (still not a lot of sea lions this time either).  One day was spent strolling around the San Francisco botanical gardens – lots of interesting plants I have never seen and a fun hummingbird encounter!  We also spent a day in Napa since we toured Sonoma on our last visit.  We were able to get into the tour at the Hendry Vineyard, which is a 2.5 hour tour and tasting.  It was very interesting and more involved than any of the other wineries we have been to.

Pier 39

Botanical Gardens

Napa

Cakebread Winery

Hendry Ranch Wines

 

There were fourteen of us at Yosemite.  I really enjoyed having other people to explore with, but we could also do our own thing if we wanted.  We stayed in Curry Village, which has permanent tents on wooden floors with beds and screen doors.  That is my limit when it comes to ‘camping’.  The waterfalls were SO beautiful.  Evidently, there is record snowmelt this year, so what was a trickle the last time my parents visited is now this:
Lower Yosemite Falls

 Half Dome

 Yosemite Falls

 Curry Village

On the way to Tuolumne Meadow

Master Bedroom Lighting

As I mentioned here, I changed out the lighting in the corner of our master bedroom.  I actually bought the new light online from Tuesday Morning for the guest bedroom, but decided it was too small to carry the whole room.  I love it though – evidently it is part of a line designed by Candice Olsen for AF Lighting in 2005.  It has some serious bling, but it isn’t your typical old school crystal chandelier.  It has chrome waterfall tiers of teardrop crystals that together give it a more modern edge.

Once we had hung the new light, it became apparent that my low-slung, mid century makeover chair was not going to fit in anymore.  For now, I just have the large mirror and two plants accompanying the light.

I also decided to add a small lamp (found at Goodwill of course!) to the top of the dresser.  I feel like it balances the lamp light in the room, since we don’t use the overhead light.  The new print on top of the dresser is from an Italian artist on Etsy.

Ottoman Coffee Table

Over the past few weeks, I have been making use of a Tae Bo workout video in our living room.  And every day as I struggled to move the coffee table we received as a wedding gift, I have gained motivation to find something new to take it’s place.  Being a piece from Target, it isn’t too surprising that the legs separate from the lower shelf slightly every time I moved it.  But it is surprising how heavy the piece is.  It also seemed a little on the small side with the hand-me-down couches, not to mention it is really tall for a coffee table!

I used an RSS feed to search for ottomans on Craigslist daily.  It seemed like a good idea to go ahead and combine the coffee table and Bradley’s love of putting his feet up into one piece.  I finally found a large square chocolate ottoman and we brought it home for a measly $45.

I love the scale of the new ottoman in the room, and I love how easy it is to move!  It works great for us, since we weren’t using all the drawer space in our coffee/end tables anyway, and I didn’t like to keep much on the coffee table anyway.  The green tray is living it up on the new ottoman, so I still have a little space to keep the remotes and my bird book out.

On a side note, you may notice that I moved the paper floor lamp to the corner behind the peace lily.  That is because I added the floor lamp from our master bedroom to this room.  I will share what I did in the master bedroom corner to not only still have light, but also add a little bling really soon.