Jumping on the Bandwagon

Thanks to Pinterest and online shopping (the only kind for an introverted homebody like me), it's hard to be oblivious to the trending summer motifs. Palm leaves, flamingos and pineapple prints have left their trails far wider than the usual track of summer's tropical storms. 

Next Level Shit

As you may have guessed from the title, this is another post about the bathroom.

Its just a few updates, you know, to take it to the next level.

Instead of running around the house looking for discarded-in-random-places jewelry, I can now procrastinate a few extra minutes knowing its all hanging out on the bathroom wall:

 I followed this tutorial, although my attempt with picture hangers was a fail and instead I used 3M Command Strips.

So did y'all know that all the photography from the Hubble Space Telescope was public domain? I slapped a line from a favorite hymn on one photo and ordered a large print from Shutterfly.

The motivation for this was a large black frame with mat that was gathering dust in my closet. Now my closet is completely empty of random frames (insert sarcastic tone). I'm a maximalist and the smallish Clare Elsaesser print wasn't cutting it.

In case you run out of reading material, there is always this poster.

Clare is catching sun over near the jewelry blocks.

Also, I never shared what I used for our towel hooks. I picked up some copper fittings from the hardware store and drilled some cut dowel rods into the studs. The fittings slipped over the dowel rods where they now happily hold our towels between showers and baths.

And then last but not least, I wanna shout out to my homeboy, Pete. We may not always see eye to eye on interior design, but at least he contributes:

Pillow Talk

Back in my middle school days, I had a friend who was obsessed with all things cheetah. What was impressive to my 13 year old self was that this friend could identify the difference between all the spotted cats and with snobbish disdain declare, "That's not a cheetah print, that's leopard."

Even now, in the age of Google and Go Diego Go!, I'm too lazy to care.

But I do love a good animal print, be it cheetah, leopard, tiger, or my latest weakness, a fawn print. A bad animal print would be the cow costume I wore for Halloween in sixth grade.

Its unfortunate that I don't have an actual picture of me in the costume. Use your imagination.

 For a long time I've wanted some leopard print pillows like the ones all the cool kids on the internet have, and I've really wanted a velvet fabric. I also really didn't want to spend any money; the pillows needed to arrive on my doorstep from a secret admirer/mind reader.

AND THEN, during one of my frequent perusals of the local Hospice thrift store, the heavens parted and there was a velvet leopard (cheetah? jaguar?) fabric remnant. I bought it, procrastinated for two weeks, and then boom!, I made my pillow. In a perfect world that $2 fabric remnant would have resulted in a pair of pillows, but such is reality that I had just enough for one lonely little leopard pillow.

Don't you worry, someday I will work up the courage to saw off my arm and leg. Then I will trade my mutilated limbs for a newly reupholstered sofa. That will be the day. Maybe I'll even cut off a toe for another velvet leopard print pillow...

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Trash and Treasures

You never know when motivation will strike. Personally it seems to happen when I've spent too much time doing the mundane. Work, dishes, laundry...

I get all, "Forget this!" and start doing something completely irrelevant and counterproductive to a clean house. I revel in the irony of beautifying something to stand in contrast to the dump that is our home. That's right, mother in laws everywhere, I revel in it. 

Long story short:

A utility cart I swiped off the side of the road...

Even being near the biggest window, the lighting sucked. Forgive me.

Look whose bathroom is fancy and shit...

A pastor once told me shit is not necessarily a bad word in the proper context, and what context is more proper than a description of this bathroom?

Behold:

Throw in primer, three shades of paint, and a few accessories, and 9 times out of 10 you'll get this:

These guys think the camera exists only to take pictures of them. Which is 99% true.

The list belonging to Craig:

"There is nothing new under the sun" Ecc. 1:9

I admit, without shame, that there is nothing new under my roof (I'm looking at you, expired-sour-cream-that-I-wanted-to-eat).

Living an hour away from any Craigslist hub is tough, but every now and then, I see something I can't resist and (it feels like) I move heaven and earth to seal the deal.

Case in point: this $25 green velvet tufted couch that I found at 1am on Austin's Craigslist. Sure I had to call up an ex to pick it up and hold it till I could make the 3 hour round trip, but use what you got, right?

Or there's this mid century table with the brass details on the legs that I NEEDED in my life. My sister-in-law happened to be in San Antone with her truck and a few phone calls later, it was headed for my place. 

RIP All the plants I've ever owned...

 Occasionally I can find a treasure locally:

Looking at this picture, I realized that all the furniture shown was equally expensive: $10. Garage sales are hit and miss but these diamonds in the rough were worth all the sifted junk.

After fantasizing of spending hundreds of dollars on a beautiful mid century credenza, this thing showed up on my local Facebook garage sale group for $25. @#$%!!!