Master Bath Retreat

Now that we are settling into the New Year, I have been looking around and seeing what I enjoy about my home and things I'd like to change. I don't think I have ever posted about my master bath, so I thought this would be a great place to start to share. Please give your opinions and ideas!

This is the room that sold me the house! It is huge and I love that about it, but sadly it usually does not look like this. The large carpet area (not pictures, where I am standing to take the picture) is surrounded by our closets and usually houses the monstrous mountain of clean clothes. Why is it so easy to wash and dry, but not fold?

Carpet in a bathroom is NEVER a good idea. I would love to have small mosaic white and black tiles instead. However, it is nice to have warm feet in the winter.

Please excuse the turtle in the tub. D was "growing" a plastic turtle. I was never a bath person until I had a large tub.


When our house was built we had very little money for upgrades. I knew white grout was a killer and choosing grout color was FREE so I chose "ice blue" grout instead of white. It really looks gray, but at least it does not look dirty. I totally recommend colored grout!

I have never found the right window treatment for this window, please excuse the exposed hardware. This built in is right next to our shower. The middle drawer we use as a hamper for dirty colors while the bottom drawer is for dirty white clothes. I love utilitarian items in glass jars like these spare soaps.
**wall art made by Natasha Burns**

In a previous post I mentioned my "real" shabby chic duvet, long before Rachel was at Target. I never had spent so much money on bedding until then so I thought it would last me a long, long time. The duvet only lasted a couple of years before shredding in the washer. The above skirt is made from that duvet. I made a matching one for the adjacent niche that houses my tv. Having a tv in the bathroom is a complete luxury. It is the tv I usually use the most while I am listening to music or news while I get ready, watching "The Bachelor" from a hot bath or when I am folding the aforementioned mountain of clean clothes.

Some of the things I'd like to do with this bathroom:

• tile floor (like soon!)
• repaint cabinets (all of our cabinets in our house were painted poorly)
• replace cabinet hardware with a more vintage look
• panel the ceiling
• beadboard the tub surround
• install built ins in one of my closets for all of my craft and sewing stuff

Hope you enjoyed this little tour. Please give me any and all suggestions!

Happy Weekend!

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. "

- President Obama, January 20, 2009

A Happy Ending ☺

January 20- 1:15 AM "CRASH!" no brick or rock, looks like baseball bat.
caught on neighborhood surveillance camera! (great house location!)
8 cars in the neighborhood smashed, 20 in the city, ours is the only house. (?)
January 21- Do we want to press charges?...uh, yeah!
Window estimates and ordering glass.
Track down suspect due to clear license plate reading on surveillance tapes.
Confession and felony charges due to amount of damage.
January 23- Glass ready and installation.

** Moral of the story...

don't do it in our neighborhood, you will get caught!**

♪These Are A Few of My Favorite Things♪

I have recently been enjoying some new things that I thought I would share. I love passing on things that I love! If you have something that you have recently found (and loved) please pass it on to me too!

Everyone who knows me knows I love to give my opinion AND I love to read! Here is a site where you register and have "friends". You show all the books you've read, are reading and plan to read. Then you rate them and give your review and look at others reviews too. Soooo fun and I spent a good hour writing about all the books I've been reading. Got a good book? Looking for a good book? Check it out!

My next love is my 2009 budget. I know it is crazy but what I really love is the feeling of empowerment, the feeling of control, the feeling of minimalizing. Ever since I quit my full time teaching job we have been waiting for a time where we can actually smile at the Excel spreadsheet. Trust me, there is never ENOUGH money...but in this scary time I feel very blessed. I know this is why!

I have recently found solace in Herbal Tea. At night when I am chilled it comforts. When I need a little sweet it satisfies. Surprisingly, it is thrist quenching and in the afternoon when I think I need a soda "pick-me-up" I have found that decaffinated herbal tea still does the trick. I like all flavors, is there a flavor you like the best?


Hubby asked for Apple TV for Christmas and honestly, even apple.com could not convince me why we needed this. BUT Santa delivered and I really like it! If hubby or apple.com can't convince you, let me try. It "streams" all of my itunes (music, movies, pictures) to our bedroom tv. So instead of moving my Ipod around the house I can just turn on the tv. We always do family scripture study in my bedroom. Since my scriptures are all uploaded we read along with the narrator and it has been much more intersting for the kids. We pause and discuss and have "guest" readers where they practice reading some of the verses. discalimer:I am not saying you NEED apple tv for scripture study. :)

I even thought my Twilight obsession was softening...but I just uploaded the Twilight Score from itunes (thanks itunes gift cards). It is NOT THE SOUNDTRACK, which I still love too. The score is all of the background music. It is fun to work out to and really, really takes you through the emotion of the flick!

Lastly, and sorry no picture...E and I stayed up until 1 AM watching The Notebook this weekend. I have now decided that it is my very favorite chick flick of all time. There is something that makes my heart actually burn for that love story!

Let me know your thoughts and if you have any "new discoveries"!

~ Fresh Start 2009~

It's no secret that I ♥ Mondays...and I look at the New Year as just one BIG MONDAY!

I ♥ a start fresh on anything (books, haircuts, projects, etc.) Then I have this anxiety thing to finish anything I start, not just finish... BUT FINISH IT NOW!

You can read more about that here.

Another thing I ♥ are lists! So one of the first things I did on New Year's day was to make list of all the things I wanted to do in January. Since my kids are off track (year round school) in January it is normally a very productive month for me. Plus, I am not always motivated so I have to strike while the iron is hot!

~BED BEFORE~
Here is my bed. I really love my bedframe but have always struggled with just the right bedding. I am really lucky to have a husband that does not mind "girly" beds! This is a comforter I found here that I have used ever since my real ($$$) Shabby Chic Duvet shredded itself. The details are hard to see but I loved the vintage print on this comforter and was kinda done with duvets for a while. Notice no dust ruffle. With dual adjustable beds it took me two whole years to have the nerve to cut a dust ruffle down the middle.

~BED AFTER~

I have been eyeing this Rachel Ashwell bedding at Target for a while now because it was the perfect mix of robin egg blue and pink. Thanks to some generous students I was able to buy the Duvet Set that came with two shams with Christmas gift cards! Good deal! I simply velcroed the old comforter inside this duvet and voila! The pink ticking dust ruffle was a hand-me-down that sat in my closet for two years. I really love the new look...and on a budget!

Besides fresh bedding, here are a few other things I have checked off my January list (maybe you can get some ideas too)~

• organized our medicine cabinets and discarded any expired meds.
• sorted through the linen closet and moved the "worn" towels to the garage as rags.
• sifted through every toy, trinket and treasure in the 7 year old's room. (filled 3 garbage bags and 3 donation bins AND found his missing IPOD)
• reorganized my craft closet.
• finished my 2008 Shutterfly "year"book and began my 2009 one.
• saved all of my advertisement emails (not SPAM) and unsubscribed myself to each of them.
• sorted through the kids art cabinet.
• went through my "inspiration" box (extra special cards, letters, etc) and scanned them into the computer for safe keeping.
• in our church we serve in callings, I tend to keep things that I may need. I finally recycled all out of date church supplies and got rid of items that were not applicable anymore.

Do you have any organization or renewing rituals that you do at the beginning of the year?

Next week = rose pruning!

Mail Call!

**I cannot claim creative rights to this, I was the recipient, not the creator**

So last night we got a very odd shaped box in the mail. I did not recognize the return address and I began to be very nervous. I opened it up and it was the coolest surprise I think I have ever seen come fro USPS. It was a baby shower invitation inside a plastic bottle. The bottle also had a little plastic sword, some sand and a shell. I just sat and looked at it for a good ten minutes marveling at the genius quality of the sender (I still had no idea what it was or who it was from). But I was excited that someone thought we were so important to go to all of this trouble.
The bottle had a nifty way to unscrew the bottom and get out the paper. Here is what was inside.
The first paper was the actual invite. This is a couple baby shower for a fun and adorable and unique set of friends. But the third paper was the most creative, sorry the picture is so blurry.
Here is what this paper says: "Ye clues to the "booty" for baby- When searching for booty for baby don't fuss. they be registered for loot at Baies R' Us. In staying true to the pirate theme, the colors are red, black and white (not green!). If crib sheets or blankets be what ye found, Beware...the crib is not rectangular, but round. "Be boy or girl?" ye say. Barnables! We won't know 'til delivery day. Arrgh..."

Is that not the most creative paragraph ever! You can tell how excited about this I am! Have you ever heard of a round crib? Have you ever seen these bottle invites? I will try to do some research and find out where to find them...stay tuned...

Happy New Year & Book Review ~ The Goose Girl

Ahhhh, it has taken me this long to sit down and blog a little bit.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

Our tradition is to go to Southern California for New Years. This year I am so glad we did...my father-in-law ended up in emergency heart surgery for a double bypass. Hubby spent most of his time with his mom at the hospital. It was so good for him to support her. It was a miracle that this was found and that he is alive. We are all so grateful! I was able to spend time with family and three of my very best friends. Now I am home and I love the new year! Remember I am the one who loves Mondays because of the fresh start? I am not one to make resolutions, but I definitely take time to clear out and renew. Right now I am going through closets. I am the opposite of a pack rat, I love to throw things away and often regret it when I need it.

Onto the book review...The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. Tried to upload picture but it was giving me troubles, I hate posting without a picture!

Like "that vampire book" it took me a long time to read this book despite many of my friends recommendations. I am so glad I did! The story is based on the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale, but is completely different. It takes place in a beautiful kingdom where the princess cannot find her place. You think you have heard this story before, but 'tis not so. :) The authors writing is a visual style that is so wonderfully descriptive. This book is an easy read that kept me turning page after page wanting and needing to find out what happens next. It transformed to a different time and place, and a beautiful one at that. Please let me know what you thought, if you have already read it. If not, and you want a sweet book that reminded me of childlike dreams, pick it up and give it a go!