Avoiding my dining room redo with a bathroom tour

When I start a new project it goes one of two ways.... stay up for 48 hours working on it or leave it sit for a couple weeks... or five.  My latest project unfortunately is the latter.

"If" I had a vision for what I was doing on the dining room redo, I've lost it.

So in place of a dining room reveal, how about a tour of a bathroom.  I'm not cleaning it first so if you look hard you'll see dust.

Brawn's first attempt at poured concrete counters are in this guest bathroom.  Saved a bundle on his idea.

The floors are natural stone that match the pillars in our dining room as well as our family room fireplace.  The pottery is made by one of my kids, not sure which one, but I have narrowed it down to either #3 or #4.

Recall that little chest, I got it for I think $5.00 and gave it an up-doo - it had trains on it.  Now it holds my chalk paint and waxes, because isn't the bathroom where everyone keeps their paint supplies?   I use the little chair to sit and read to a certain 2 year old in training.  Last week she wanted to come in and read to me.  Cracked. Me. Up.

Our house has lots of rustic decor.  I love the white, crisp French look, I just don't have any of it.

This bathroom used to lead out to a deck that went to our pool.  When the kids were small they could access the bathroom without dripping water across the whole house, and all the pegs would hold the wet towels.  Now they hold tools.  You can still walk out on to a deck, but it no longer leads to the pool unless you jump over a railing and plunge 10 feet down.

The knobs went in the basket till I found something to do with them.  I may never move them.  We have a card playing friend who asks every time he uses that bathroom "what's the deal with the old door knobs?".  

He never asks about the vintage package of toilet paper.

I picked up this can last year at Junk Bonanza.  It would be great for so many things, but I parked it there for trash, and that's where it stayed.

 The legs on the vanity are from one of our Christmas trees that Brawn de-barked.

And while you are sitting and relaxing, this old original movie poster is directly in front of you.  The writing gives you something to read, unless a 2 year old insists on reading Walter the Farting Dog to you.

He held his knife at the frontiers throat....it's treasure in his arms!  Ah ha ha ha ha, old Hollywood is funny.

Linking up to a budget decorating party with Creative Cain Cabin
Open House Party @NoMinimalistHere

Guest Post at Kirb Appeal

The end of the weekend brings the last of my guest posts.  I'm over at Kirb Appeal holding down the fort at Brandywine while Kirby is in New York.   (Well actually I'm on my couch blowing my nose, but pretend would 'ya).

I was pretty mischievous at her place while she was gone, so you might want to make note of that in case you ever think of asking me to house sit for you.

And what does this old cash register have to do with my guest post over at Kirby's?  Absolutely nothing.

Some of the photos I used on her blog have swear words in them (shocking I know) and I didn't want to put that profanity on my own blog, so I'm using my antique candy store cash register as something to look at while you're here.

As I continue to wallow in self pity because I have a head of snot, pop over to KirbAppeal and smart off at Kirby, or me, or both. 

Guest Post at My Life As A Thrifter

Yesterday I had a guest post on a file cabinet makeover with Gail at MyRepurposedLife, and my guesting duties are not over yet, which is timely considering I have a head of alien snot and don't feel like moving off my couch.

Libation Station after a stain wash to tone down the purple

This weekend I'm getting around - on the internet only - and today I have a guest post with Holly at LifeAsAThrifter.  Holly just welcomed a new baby boy, so stop over and pinch his cute cheeks.

While you are there you can see the - up until now, never before seen, BACK side of my dresser bar.

Back when it was purple, yuck

That's right, 7 months later, you can finally see the reveal of the graphic that I painted on the back.  I used the logo from a local beer made at the Schells Brewery here in Minnesota.

And just in case you think I'm getting up off the couch any time soon, I'll have you know I have another guest post for tomorrow.  They just all happened to post within a day of each other.

If my cold ever goes away I'll come back to my own blog.

Guesting At MyRepurposedLife

How do you say it in the blogging world, 'taking a bloggy break'?  Yeah, that's it, I'm taking a bloggy break, because that sounds much nicer than the truth ... which is that the past week I've been tending to a head full of snot and sleeping every chance I get.

I live a glamorous life.

So, if you want to pretend I'm in tip top shape and not blowing my nose and hacking,  head over and say hello to Gail at MyRepurposedLife where you will see what I did to that rusty old file cabinet while I was healthy.

 Hint - I turned it into simple storage for my daughters cake tester supplies.

Cake Tester by daughter #2

The Dining Room Gets Painted

Coming soon to a dining room near ME........  

"The Transformation Begins".

You probably don't know, (but I'm about to tell 'ya) that I started blogging a year ago with the intention of redoing my dining room.  Lots of pine was really in need of an update.

It took a year but the dining room is now sporting some new paint, two shades to be exact.

Sherwin Williams Perfect Greige and the darker Spalding Grey.

Around these parts I'm pretty well known for not being able to pick paint colors. I suppose when you end up repainting a room three colors in the course of two days, the reputation is deserved.

So what did I do this time to get it right on the first roll?  I gave Brawn a handful of several variations and let him pick.   Of course I had someone else narrow those variations down for me, {thanks Kimberly}, so really I didn't pick any of the color, and that's why we only had to paint once.

I wanted something warm that complimented all the stones in our house.  I would love to pull together more of a cottage look, but I don't see that happening.  Depending on the lighting, the Spalding Grey can be more of a grey tone or brown - same with the greige.

We (Brawn) also painted the trim white.  He sacrificed his back for mine.

He is also a master paint tray craftsman.......

No  paint tray?  No problem!  Just cut an antifreeze jug in half and dip in your roller.

The paint's really been hitting the walls around here.  While this was going down, daughter #2 was painting her room, and son #3 was painting the boys bathroom.

Everyone must have Winter fever, that's the kind that makes you delusional from being cooped up and you pretend it's Spring.

I just hope I'm not posting a year from now telling you that we finally finished the dining room transformation!  Just shoot me if we are still working on it in June.

Some Honey's From Hey Girl

It's time for the Hey Girl Valentine link party features.  The party will come to a close on Sunday.  Participation has been so wonderful we wanted to give people a few more days to link.  Believe me, we'll be reading them!  I have to say I'm sad to see it end.  Each morning with coffee in hand,  I start the day with a smile reading all the links.  Next week will be so boring.

 They were all good.  They all made me smile.  

Babies, husbands, pets, and celebrities.
Sweet ones, touching ones, funny ones.
A few bare chests.

Each one Hey Girl'd with love.

I had a hard time picking, so I went with what spoke to me at the moment.

Wills Casa

 I stayed in my jammies and read blogs.  Because just like the photo says, those blogs weren't gonna read themselves!

Brawn would come home at night and I would want to tell him all about my day in blog land. 

Redoux Interiors

I knew I couldn't feature all 166 and counting links, so I wrote some of them down.

The Charming Zebra

 First I had the top 32.

"32 is still too many Bliss".

I had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the computer trying to pick.

Grasping for Objectivity

Even a cute baby can't deliver the truth any less harsh.

I got those 32 down to 10. 

The Backyard Bungalow

And the more I read, the more I wanted to add more.  And more.  And more.

It All Started With Paint

And I made an observation......... all the hey girl men have the most excellent smiles.  Young or not as young, they really all looked like the nicest guys! 

Debbie Doos Hey Girl'd By Me, Myself & I - Bliss Ranch
I should add Miss Doos did not endorse this photo,
nope I think Mike framed it instead. HA!

Some were so true they were absolutely profound......

Renew, Create, Restore

And clever, oh so many of you were clever.

I'm Sharon With You

Speaking of paints, I mean pants... just what is that coming out of those jeans?

Gemini Vintage

That one just made me laugh, and it wasn't the saying.  Gemini Vintage didn't notice the wayward "thing".  Leave it to me to point it out.

But at the end of each day I kept coming back to one.
One that made me giggle each time.

Only a dog could upstage all those handsome men and cute babies.......

Decor and the Dog

Thanks to everyone who linked up at one of the host blogs

 Ashley @ Domestic Imperfection

Bliss at Bliss Ranch
Chelsea at Two Twenty One

Kelly at The View Along The Way

Michelle at Decor and the Dog

I hope you all had as much fun reading as I did.  

Hands down one of the funnest link parties ever!

Happy Valentines Day to My own Hunk-of-burning-love

And how about a great shout out for Bliss Ranch from iVillage.... they have a whole Valentine thing going on for all the pregnant mama's out there and included a link to our Hey Girl party.  If you need some more laughs check it out, some pretty hunky model guys Hey girl'n expectant women.

Debbie Doos Get's Hey Girl'd

Just last night I posted about my wonderful lemon bars, and here I am doing another post less than 24 hours later.  What-up with that Bliss?

What on earth could posses me to do something so out of character?  Well you see, Miss Doos , as in DebbieDoos did a little teasing on me when she posted her Copy Cat Challenge features, and I can't let that go by now can I? 

So in keeping with the spirit of the Hey Girl link party (still going on by the way), I pirated without permission, these photos of Debbie and her handsome husband Mike - right off her very own blog.

Debbie must go through a gallon of mod podge a month, so it's only fitting Mike noticed this about her from the very beginning.

I'm willing to bet he knows if he stands still too long, he might get mod podged right in place.

And I am also certain he knows that nothing is off limits from her mod podge brush.

Of COURSE I'm linking this up to the Hey Girl party, I only wish I would of thought of it sooner!

No Recipe Lemon Bars

I tell 'ya all, the response to the 'Hey Girl' party was awesome for myself and cohosts, and I don't know how I can go back to posting ho hum projects after all that fun!  Come back on Valentines Day to see some Hey Girl features.  They were all good but some were just down right hysterical.
If you haven't linked up yet, it's open till the 13th.

I've been contemplating doing a weekly Bliss Bakes, or Baking at Bliss Ranch of some food type thing.  Certainly NOT because I like photographing food, or that I love cooking all that much, but everyone here likes dinner and I find that I try anywhere from 1 to 3 new recipes from my Pinterest board every week. 

I make some pretty darn good vittles. 

My thighs don't lie.

So to recap;
I don't like to take food photos.
I don't get some great high from cooking.
I DO like to eat.
I do use my Pinterest board for main meals and desserts.

But just like Tongue in Cheek Tuesday that hasn't happened yet on a Tuesday for me, Baking with Bliss would probably not happen regularly due to more times than not I just go right to the eating part before I even consider taking a food picture. 

And forget that the vittles often look like barf on our white corel dinner plates.  In my real life dinner adventures I rarely care what it looks like, as long as it tastes gooo-ood.

Every once in a while I make up my own recipe and it's edible.  Usually I am very content to follow the recipes all of you make.  Less waste that way.

These lemon bars..... well they were my own concoction.  Sort of.  I took several recipes and combined them then added my own twist, to get the most lemon flavor out of the combined lemon bar recipes that I could.

We love lemon here.  Most recipes are not sweetly-puckerific enough for me.

Plus I had a bag of fresh lemons I didn't want to go bad.

It took a lot of will power not to eat this piece - the last one by the time I got around to photos.  But after I set it on that dirty scrub brush, it wasn't near as tempting.

And now that a week has gone by since I created it, here lies the problem with doing posts of Bliss Bakes;  even if I happen to remember to take photos of a creation or awesome meal ....... I might not remember the exact way I made it or the ingredients I used so you could make it too.

Like these lemon bars.

But they were gooo-ood.