Toilette

toi·lette  (twah-lett)

n.

1. The act or process of dressing or grooming oneself.

 ...Just wanted to make that clear, even though yes, there is a picture of an actual toilet to follow. Anyway.

Along with the soap dispensers and toothbrush holder in the last post, we also picked up a few more goodies for our master bathroom at Target. This over-the-toilet shelf, for one.

And yes, let it be known: I was not super excited about it in-store, but (deep breath) Nate was right, and I'm so glad we brought it home.

Assembled by yours truly with a Phillips head and 20 minutes, it's fully stocked and has freed up some serious linen closet real estate with all the towels removed.

The two bathrooms upstairs have yet to have any changes whatsoever made to them, including paint. But now that some accessory upgrades are going in, it's inspiring me to get on the stick and start making some decisions. 

I feel a rainy fall weekend project coming on!

Random Round Up: In A Nutshell

A busy and productive lil' week! Ready, go:

Fantasy Football 2012 - I hope to defend my title as last year's champ!

Master Bath upgrade begins... at Target.

What's summer with out piles of fresh fruit!

Homemade nectarine galette. Good work, Mom!

Shiloh, wiped out.

My dad and Nate fix the roof inside and out.

Window Seat Update

Just a pop in to show a quick window seat update. My parents came up a day this weekend, and with them came the basic portions of the primed window seat. Woohoo!

Now it's up to us to get the paint on (Behr Premium in Sparrow to match the walls and make it look like a built-in), then will come all the many finishing portions: Painting and putting on the various trims, affixing the hinged top pieces to the body, trimming down portions specific to the walls it rests against, etc, etc, etc.

A ways to go, but how exciting to see it sitting in the place it will ultimately sit forever. Woohoo again!

P.S. Terrible lighting in the iPhone photos above, but I'm just going to say it only adds to the mystery and excitement... Right? Yes? Ha.

Nerd Alert

Tell me I'm not the only one that just gets a desperate itch to have my hands on a project sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my downtime as much as the next person, but every once in a while I just need something - anything - to DO.

That said, last night my eye fell on the family room bookshelf. Poor guy, he was about to get organized.

Before...

...After.

I'm not usually an OCD-type, but I do like the way color-grouped books look on shelves in well designed rooms. Ours is hardly one of those, but never the less, I think the shelf looks a little less chaotic now.

Before...

...After.

Nerd alert. Especially since it may be only me who can even see a difference.

And I KNOW it's only me who would think that despite setting out to organize by color, I just couldn't ever split up the Harry Potter series, and they had to stay together on the lower left. How's that for a little brain insight? It's a strange place in there.

P.S. Let's go for geek-broke here: That white box on the left is filled with crossword puzzle and sudoku books. Yeah. We're awesome.

Fan-demonium

Remember me mentioning that I broke the ceiling fan in the master bedroom a while back? I gave the chain a tug to change the speed, and out it came. A little research told me that we were either to take the fan apart to get it repaired, or just get a new one entirely.

Now, if you had told me six months ago that I would be spending money on a celing fan, I would have called you crazy. As a rule, I don't particularly find them attractive. But after living with one (albeit a very ugly one), man are they functional in a stuffy upstairs room on a summer's night.

So! We armed ourselves with some leftover Home Depot gift card goodness, and away we went. Nate and his dad took care of the install, and I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

The Big Ol' Ugly, complete with resin heralding angels pull.

Nate & Roger Removal Services

...While Tucker Supervised.

In!

Alive!

And just because it happened to come up in my Facebook news feed during the warm weather and it made me laugh:

Luckily this guy balanced easily and we've had a nice breeze and not a single freak ceiling fan accident to speak of.

And I gotta say, I didn't know how much of a difference having one of a more modern, "us" style would make to the room.

Ugh... a ceiling fan is "us"?? Who would have thought.

Random Round Up: Bites

I feel like we ate, and ate, and then ate some more this weekend. But lots of fun activity-type adventures were mixed in for good measure. All-in-all, delicious!

Found the 3rd book in the series!...And found out that there are 4 total...

A Costco churro. Such a perfect $1 treat.

Gifted amazing (6th row) Mariner's tix for Sat. night!

Peach crepes - A MacWilliam family summer tradition.

Puttin' in some time at the range.

Flower Power

Things are just pretty in the backyard right now, and I don't want to forget it once the months of rain set in this fall. Enjoy!

These Marie Curie roses start out with hot pink buds...

...then slowly turn a sherbet-y color of orange before a pale, nearly-white pink.

The hydrangea bush is in full force too:

These blooms are HUGE - Larger than any adult head in most cases.

I've loved having piles of fresh flowers all over the house this season without ever having to purchase them. Thank you, former homeowners, for stocking the backyard with so much pretty!

Random Round Up: Really, Really Random

A Random Round Up that is true to it's name. (P.S. Do you know you can click on any picture in this blog to see it larger? FYI.)

Morning Coffee on the Beach

Hilarious Facebook Find

Friday Night Lights, Soccer Style

Wedding Outfit... I totally wore something different however. Ha.

U-Pres Pipes

Pass this daily - No idea what it does, but I like it.

You're probably sick of seeing these. Can't get enough of 'em.

All Lit Up

Let it be known: I have a deep and abiding love for spray paint. It's transformative powers are seriously amazing, and I plan to prove it in this post. Get ready for a lamp-tastic makeover...

As in any marriage, both people bring stuff to the home that the other isn't exactly thrilled with. Case in point, Nate's ugly but very functional 80's style lamp.

I hate the way it looks, but love the ability to choose how bright the light will be by turning on one, two, or all three bulbs. Clearly a spray paint makeover was on the docket. Enter Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic spray paint.

A light sanding, a good wipe-down, and multiple very thin coats (plus some dry time)... presto!

Just make sure if you spray paint outside with bare feet... You know what? Just don't. Wear shoes or old socks or something. Because otherwise your shower will look like this, and even with multiple scrubbings of bleach you won't have it completely back. Whoops.

But... So worth it.

Goodbye 80's, hello sleek and modern.

Jean-etics: Finished Product (Finally.)

A while back - okay, months ago if I'm being honest - I showed you a couple of pictures of a pair of trouser-style jeans I had in the works. I made them, fitted them... and then folded them up and stashed them away lazily before FINALLY pulling them out to do the finishing.

Namely, throwing on some back pockets.

Yep, for some reason it took me weeks upon weeks to get up the gumption to cut out and sew on two patches of fabric. It's how I work, I don't know why.

Anyway. The following aren't the most flattering photos since it was a humid 82 degrees out and I was struggling with my camera's self timer, but I have to prove that they're finally finished!

Remember, we started with this:

And now, we have... da da daaa! This:

I'm pretty happy with 'em, overall. They're not properly finished on the inside (piping, serging, all of that good seam-finishing stuff the pros can do) so they won't be in heavy rotation, but it's nice to have another pair of trouser-style jeans in the mix. Mission accomplished!

Family Room Furnishings

Ages ago I promised updates on both our new couch and chair as well as the newest addition: The peacock rug. I guess procrastination has it's benefits, because thanks to our fish-eye lens I'm able to get you an all-in-one with this post.

That rickety Ikea table has been through it all (it even has packing tape around the corners in a sad attempt at stabilization), and we have plans to update it with another table currently in the formal living room. Once the window seat goes in we'll make the switch, but for now... Well, it's not pretty but it works. Piece by piece and bit by bit, right?

Gotta love the sleeping Puggle cameo.