Linen's Tomb

"What?! A plain linen bag?! No way you made that!"

To quote Albert from The Birdcage, "Well, one must want a hint of color..."

Ahh! There it is!

I had this bag all cut out and waiting for interfacing. I finally went out to get some, ironed it on and it sort of destroyed the integrity of the bag. Like, some of it ironed on and some of it didn't. So, I peeled it off and put it aside for a better idea. Which happened right before the house happened. And bathroom and knitting.

Since I'm most likely heading to Phoenix next week, I thought I'd better finish it. Although it would be funny to hand her the cut out pieces and say, "Isn't it the thought that counts?"

Detail of bird pocket:

Now I'm onto another project. For a high school graduate. It's gonna be Aunt Bootsi great.

A place for towels and every towel in its place.

We went to Ikea (Hartwell: It's my favorite secret place!) yesterday to get a few things to finish the bathroom. Did you know some places sell towel bars for $150?! That seemed absolutely insane to me. So I found a bunch at Ikea and brought John along, cause I always need a design wing man. (Miss you, Angela!) He immediately went for the wood, and I had been thinking of chrome.

This little pine number seems unlikely, which is sort of the design thesis for my house. (Linen closet as entertainment center? Gorm shelving for a dresser? Hall closet as refrigerator spot?) I think the yellow wood looks gorgeous with the gray walls, and the towels add a bit of color. The boys have green stripes like dragons!

The bathroom is already starting to look too full. And I still want to add a few more object de arte. Is that a words?

I also want to get some knobs for the cabinets. Deborah? When are you free for Anthropologie?

Creamsicle

I originally called this "satan's scarf," because the rows were knit 6, purl 6, knit 6. Making it a 666 scarf. So I just added the orange to make it something new. Something more delicious.

Someone's gonna be happy at Christmas. I hope.

Finally happy to pee.

We've finished phases one and two of our bathroom redo. Phase three is a new tub and tile. That's gonna be awhile. We did so much little stuff that pretty much goes unnoticed. Baseboards, caulk, tiling...and it looks like I just painted and added a new sink.

Also? Not the shower curtain we're gonna go with. I had an awesome/ugly one from big lots, saw that gypsy-esque one and just bought it. Now it's been 6 months and I need a new one.

It came down to a contest between these two:

Cabbage Rose from Urban Outfitters, which no one save my sister and I liked. It had the same awesome/ugly thing I adore. John said it looked like someone threw up on my shower curtain.

Or:

Blooma from Garnet Hill. Two things sway my decision, 1. I magically received a 20% off coupon to Garnet Hill. 2. My mom offered to buy it for me. Done and done.


Here's a reminder of the pit of despair it used to be:

I need a new kitchen floor.

We hung out at a friend's house today. Low key happiness. The boys ran around the backyard and after about an hour, were completely naked and filling a pool with water. It's so hard to keep them clothed.

We got home and Bee threw a tantrum. Everything was wrong. I found his pacifier, (sue me), and gave it to him. Then I found this.

Spatula City..ity...ity...ity!

I walked into my bedroom and almost stepped on this. The Blair Kitsch Project? I guess Bee was playing spatula family. Right after he played Cayenne Ophthalmologist and had to be thrown in the tub. "I burn my-yelf!"

Right back on.

My little Hartwell twisted his ankle this weekend. We went to his school's Apple Blossom Festival featuring pony rides! and a bounce house! While being helped off the pony, the lady misunderestimated his weight and kind of dropped him on his ankle. He didn't cry, but was a limp-ie crank. He wanted to go into the bounce house but once inside sat and cried about how no one should be bouncing.

When we got home we decided to take him to the urgent care to make sure it wasn't broken. And get it wrapped and stuff. Plus, I was sick of carrying the big lug. He weighs 60 pounds!

Because of his size, the doctors and nurses kept saying things like, "Bring him some books to read or homework," and "what grade are you in, buddy?" Whenever I said, "He's only 4, " I was met with, "I know." You know? Really?

He's feeling a lot better. Until someone stops by to see if he's okay. Then he starts to milk the attention like crazy. And Bee joins right in.

Baby Steps.

Gray walls! Pine baseboards! Vintage floor! It's coming together.

I have to fill the baseboards, paint that white dot and caulk the wood. That sounded dirty.

Waiting for mud to dry.

It's called a bathroom floor, and here's what it's for...

Previously on Bathroom Nightmares: I discovered this beautiful floor under five layers of linoleum/vinyl. I felt like an archaeologist! Upon the advice of my neighbor, we used lacquer thinner to wipe up the nasty black stuff. And SURPRISE! A near perfect hex tile floor.There's one missing tile right next to the toilet, you can see it in the photo, but otherwise, it's completely intact!

There are some slight issues, but for an eighty three year old floor, she's lookin' pretty good. Some of the tiles had some chips in them before they black-stuffed it so the black stuff settled into the cracks. My amazing neighbor, happier than I was about my discovery, offered to come over and help me dig out the cracks.

There's still a ton to do. We took out that nasty vanity which will be replaced by a pedestal sink my boys bought me for mother's day.

I have to seal the baseboards I bought, gorgeous yellow pine, sand and prime that wall, and paint the wall Silver Spoon gray.

And since I only bleached the perimeter of the floor in preparation for the baseboards, I still have to bleach the rest of it. I used comet and a sanding sponge to get all the dirt/black haze up. You can see the edge of the tile is much whiter than the rest of the floor.

I'm pretty sure my lack of cable will benefit my life more than I thought. I would've never torn up my floor if The People's Court was on.

Confessions on a Bathroom Floor

No cable + Diet Coke + two Excedrins (R).

Five layers of tile. Vinyl? Linoleum? Black stuff? Sunny-D? And underneath, perfectly fine hex tiles. I'm only 25% finished. So that could change.

It smells like the '30's in my bathroom. Like old. And chemicals. I really hope that black stuff isn't poison.

Flutter-by

Our butterfly finally came out of the closet! And stayed awhile. I had no idea they had to hang out for a bit before they could leave. He's been there all day. I finally got the shot and my stupid flash was on. At least butterflies can't get red-eye.

Cut the Cord

We finally gave up cable. Not television. But cable. It's probably television, too, since we need to buy an antenna to get network tv. Which we have yet to do. But we canceled cable, canceled our landline, and increased our internet speed.

If you're wondering what we sit around and stare at, it's still tv We just bought a tivo, which gives us Netflix access (and blockbuster and amazon) and can, eventually, talk to our antenna. Then, in my bedroom, we have a VCR. And I just buy new/old movies at the thrift store for $1, and donate back the ones the kids no longer want to watch.

Our initial investment, so far about $560*, will be paid back after 5 months of not paying for cable and home phone. And eventually I'd like a wifi bluray player for the bedroom so we can watch the dvds from netflix and also access the instant queue.

Today was the first day with just Netflix instant viewing for entertainment. Before, I put it on Nick, Jr. for the boys and sit in my room and watch Regis and Kelly, Will & Grace, The People's Court, Martha, Oprah, Ellen and The People's Court again. Then John comes home. (I do other things. Obviously. I just like the background noise. Geez).

The boys were excited to get to watch Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Twice. And then I returned some movies to the library and got them a couple more.

Hartwell and Beckett played together a lot today. With a little less fighting. I'm hoping that's the norm and not the exception. It made me realize I need a few more things for them to do. They love to put together the train set, until they don't. I think I need something like that, no little pieces, but building or something. Maybe like a car race track? I don't know.

I'll keep you posted about our cablelessness. Although we're not exactly groundbreaking, it seems that way for us. I think John actually watches more tv now because he can add what he wants and watch it after dinner. Because I'm not sitting there knitting and yelling the questions at Alex.



*tivo, cell phone tower, tivo subscription for 1 year, (we plan to pay it off so we don't have the bill), and network switch.

If you want to know how to do it or how to figure out antennas, I'm full of knowledge.