Now that the crazy winter weather seems to have calmed down, work has picked back up on the master bath remodel. Except for some touch-ups, the tile is almost done and the vanity was installed.

First, the "before" to help you remember just how bad it really was:

and now that scary bathtub:

Rob made a good call by suggesting more lighting, hence the transom window

 Lots of work yet to be done...including vanity hardware and lighting, a countertop, and selecting a paint color but it's coming along! I will say that going to a tile shop and attempting to select floor and shower tile that match is hard (or at least it was for me). I freaked a bit because the shower tile is a bit darker than the floor tile is and now I kind of wish that I had gotten the same tile for both the shower and the floor. Oh well, live and learn!

Friday Favorites

I cannot tell you all how happy I am that it is now March and that we can say goodbye to cold, dark January and February. I'm looking forward to longer days, sunshine and spring and for the weather to cooperate so we can finish our bathroom remodel. I missed linking up last week as we had a bunch of snow (for the south--around 6-8") and our power was out for 24 hours. I'll spare you the details...on to happier things and a VERY random list of favorites!

[ONE]

My cousin's wife owns Ruby and Oliver, a business which specializes in monogramming and appliques. She has done various holiday shirts for Katie and Lily over the years, including some birthday outfits for them in 2013 (they had a joint birthday party since they both have birthdays just a few weeks apart). She recently sent some monogrammed shirts for the girls and we love them. I hate when they outgrow their monogrammed clothes and wish I could think of something creative to do with them. If you're looking for high-quality monogramming I would highly recommend Ruby and Oliver.

glitter monogram appliques

Rainbow birthday party theme monogrammed shirts and matching skirts

[TWO]

So I was folding clean clothes to be put away, and I opened up one of Katie's drawers and lo and behold, I find this...she had helped herself to some Dove chocolates I had just bought earlier in the day and put up in the pantry. Guess she found some old Christmas candy as well. This just made me laugh. When I asked her about it later, she told me she wanted some candy of her own. I have to watch this one because as she gets older, she is becoming more and more sneaky.

[THREE]

I love reading and am always wishing that I had more time to read (without feeling like I should be doing something else). So with all of the recent snowy days and my yucky head cold, I decided to take advantage by trying out a new author. I kept seeing Liane Moriarty's books all over blogland so started with What Alice Forgot first and loved it. Next, I downloaded the Husband's Secret which was good although not quite as good as What Alice Forgot in my opinion. I was on a roll and also read Big Little Lies. I liked it (especially the ending) but my favorite was What Alice Forgot. These books are definitely great for a little escape and are quick reads. Have you all read any of these? Which one was your favorite?

[FOUR]

Look who else is reading for pleasure now?? Finally, my oldest daughter, Katie, has discovered that reading can actually be enjoyable. This is the first chapter book she's completed all by herself and she's quite pleased especially since she read it all in one day! I sure am hoping she continues and finds some other series that she likes.  There must be something in the air, because Lily, my 4-year-old, grabbed some of her sister's old BOB books and just started sounding the words out--I was shocked! She's been interested in sounding out simple CVC words (e.g. "mat", "sit", etc.) and even writing a few of the words when I call them out, but to put it all together and start reading just kind of shocked me. She really is growing up. My hubby and I love to read, so I truly hope the girls will be readers as well.

[FIVE]

I'm so glad my husband convinced me a (few years back) to try The Walking Dead. Once I actually watched it and realized it really is about more than just zombies, it quickly became my favorite show. (I had just finished Breaking Bad and was sad that it was over and felt like there'd never be another show that could be that good). You can't really compare the 2 shows though, because they are so different.  Anyway, in this past week's episode we said goodbye to Rick's beard! I love this show, but now that the group is in Alexandria, the whole dynamic has changed and things feel weird. I'm sure that's intentional but at least they all got a chance to clean up, right? I feel like with each new season of TWD, I have to re-adjust because it's almost like a new show each time they start back up.




Here's to a warmer weekend!
As always, linking up with  Andrea, Erika, and Narci

Decorating "Rules"

Happy Monday! I didn't mean to take so much time off from blogging, but last week was not a fun one with more snow, no school (Katie only went one day), and 24 hours without any power. Spring, please come soon!  On to happier topics. Today I'm just popping in to share a few resources on the more "how-to" side of decorating.

I follow several decor blogs and there's just so much helpful information out there. First is a great post from Kris at Driven by Decor on the dimensions of furniture pieces, rugs and how high to hang your artwork. This is great advice for someone like me who tends to get overwhelmed by all the options. One of my goals this year is to actually put artwork and family photos on the walls and not have anxiety about it!

I've recently been thinking more about making our master bedroom more of a cozy space especially since we are currently redoing the bathroom in there. We have carpet in all of our bedrooms so there's no true need for a rug, but it could really warm up the space. I found this post by thedecorologist.com with some great recommendations on what size rug to use depending on what type of bed you have. Courtney, over at her blog A Thoughtful Place, has a gorgeous bedroom in which she layered a rug over carpet very successfully.

Alas, Rob just walked by and said for me not to even think of spending any more money at this point since we're doing the bathroom now. Oh well, maybe later on in the future...

"Friday" Favorites

I'm so late to the game this week with Friday Favorites and I wasn't going to do this post, but....
we started our master bath remodel FINALLY! We are so excited to tear out the ugliness and make some progress in there.

Our contractors were great and have been working in some really cold temperatures. One day the "high" was 17. So ready for spring! Obviously, there is still a lot of work to do but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

As we were "iced" in for an entire week, I wanted to make the kids some cookies and I decided to make some that I could eat as well. I ended up making these from Juli's site, PaleOMG. I'm trying not to eat a lot of sugar, but sometimes you've GOT to. I needed these this week. We've had people in and out working on the bathroom and haven't really been able to get out. School was cancelled from Tuesday through Friday so needless to say, it was a long week.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. The recipe calls for a specific kind of almond butter, which I didn't have; I just used what I had and the dough was really oily but I still think they turned out pretty good.

I ordered this book on my kindle this week and read it pretty quickly. It's not my usual genre, but it got a lot of good reviews so I thought why not? We were stuck in the house and I have a nasty headcold and so haven't felt like doing much of anything.

This was so good and a really fast read. I won't say too much in case you haven't read it, but it really made me think. The main character hits her head and loses the last 10 years of her life--she doesn't even remember her children.  I've already ordered The Husband's Secret and I hope it's just as good. Not sure when I think I'll have time to read it though.


This made me laugh because it's so true!

Although I'm so not a fan of winter and this time of the year, it is fun to get a little bit of snow especially when you have children. They spent most of Tuesday sledding on the inch of ice we got.

Monday night when the snow first started

Here's to a return to our normal routine next week!
As always, linking up to Andrea, Erika, and Narci

Frozen

Almost as soon as we started the bathroom remodel, we had to put the brakes on. When you live in the south, everything stops when winter weather appears. Our contractors came out Monday and did a lot of demo. The bathroom went from this

to this, which is a vast improvement already!!

But we had some ice/sleet/snow that hit Monday night and left about an inch or so of frozen mess so we didn't accomplish anything Tuesday except for this

this 

and this

Today is another snow day and so there's no school and I'm more like this


But, hopefully today's the last day of being cooped up. The plows have been out on our street and there may be some progress made on the master bath as we just got word the electrician is supposed to come out later today.

I've had some time to look around online at bathroom lighting and so far I like these sconces from Shades of Light the best, but I'm not going to order just yet til we figure out if it will work with the medicine cabinets we've ordered.

The high temp for tomorrow is 17....I don't remember the last time it was that cold here! How do you northerners do it? Praying for spring!!

Randomness

I was so pumped because we were supposed to start demo on the master bath at the end of last week, but then this happened:

At 4 a.m. Thursday morning, poor Lily got sick and it went all the way through lunchtime. I felt so bad for her as she was really sick. I kept waiting for the rest of us to fall, but so far so good. We told the contractors to just wait til today (Monday) because we knew we truly thought we'd need both bathrooms this past weekend. Luckily, Lily was much better after 24 hrs. Also, can anyone explain why most kids start puking in the middle of the night? It's so strange that when my kids get sick, it's typically in the dark of night.

Valentine's Day was really low-key around here. Rob typically works on Saturdays so the girls and I took it easy Saturday morning and then went to the mall at the girls' request and they played for a bit at the play area. I hate those places because of all the kids in one small area, but they really wanted to get out of the house.

excited about their Snack ees or whatever those cups are called

sweet Lily asked me to be her Valentine, even though later she told me she didn't love me and only loves Katie

These three are all obsessed with the video game Little Big Planet lately.

Today is absolutely freezing and we are awaiting some sleet/snow/ice/mix of it all but it's DEMO DAY!

Trying to stay out of their way, but I did run in to snap a couple of pics. Goodbye 80's pink wallpaper and Andre the Giant bathtub, you will not be missed.

Rug Obsessed

I'm not sure why, but I love area rugs. I guess you can think of them as jewelry for your home. A rug can really set the tone of the room by the size, color, and texture of it. Since we've been in the little ranch house (almost 6 years now), I've gone through several rugs. I have had a hard time figuring out the look (neutral or bold?) and exactly what size to buy.
When we moved in, we had an 8'10" rug that we bought new from Pottery Barn soon after we got married. That was my first experience shopping for a "grown-up" rug. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that a pinkish-salmon color rug would severely limit my ability to coordinate a room. It worked well in our first home, but once we moved into our current home, it was blending into the floor too much and really wasn't big enough.

too dark for the space, as were my walls!

So then I found a rug on Craigslist that was lighter and I really loved it. However, it was an 8'10" so why did I buy it? Because a good rug on Craigslist goes fast. Stupid, stupid. Affordable large area rugs are really expensive and I convinced myself the reason I didn't like our previous rug was largely due to it not being a neutral. So, I bought the rug.

neutral, good quality but still not the right size

You might be able to see in the above photo that we had recently bought two leather chairs and an ottoman (another Craigslist find) but all of our furniture wouldn't fit on that rug. Some people are okay with floating a rug in the middle of furniture but it's not my preference. So after awhile, I resigned myself to the fact that we needed a bigger rug. I always turn to Craigslist first, but rugs larger than 8'10" are few and far between. Rugs USA and Overstock.com are great options in that can't beat their selection and prices, especially if you wait for Rugs USA to run one of their sales. Anyway, I can't remember where I ordered the next rug from but it was either Overstock or Rugs USA.

I'm almost too embarrassed to show you what I ordered after contemplating for a long time. There really weren't a ton of "big" rug options. Not sure how I thought this was a neutral. I think I thought it would break up all the dark furniture. This is a pitfall of buying something like this online.

Needless to say, this bold rug didn't last long enough for me to even take a better picture. While the size worked, it gave everyone motion sickness. Also, it was hand-hooked which is not the best idea with children and a dog. I promptly sent this one back. My husband is a saint. He just shakes his head at me and I help him roll them up to be shipped back.

On to the next rug...I've lost count at this point. I vowed I was not giving up, so back to one of the online sites. Again, it's hard to find a large area rug that is reasonable.  I finally settled on  Moroccan Trellis Rug which is really pretty, but it does make a big statement. I think the reason I felt safe going with this rug is that I had seen this style of rug on several bloggers' sites.

not the best pic, but all I could find that didn't have children running around

Rob liked this one and I did too for the most part. It was a little bigger than a 9'x12" and felt cozy.  I will say that it was hard to vaccuum as the white lines were actually raised and it shed a lot.  In the back of my mind, I was still wishing I could have just found a neutral rug (like the second one in this post) in a bigger size. I never planned to sell this one (well, maybe if the right one showed up); after about 8 months I saw one on Craigslist and bought it. Yes, I'm crazy.

Although this rug is a 9'x12", it's not as big as the previous one but it works and all of our furniture fits on it. I'm sure I'm crazy for having a light-colored rug with kids and a dog but I just love it.


So, what about you all? Do you have commitment issues with anything decor-related? I think it's all just a process about finding what feels right and fits your home the best and that can be tricky on a budget. Guess what? I got an email from Rugs USA and they are having a 75% sale right now. Somebody buy a rug and then send me a picture of it when you get it. I'm not even going to "just look"!