Not quite wordless Wednesday

Does anyone else have a cat who is obsessed with grocery bags?

And often gets stuck in them?

Or does your cat eat dog food? Pancake sure does. And Wrigley just lets him do it.

Easy as 1, 2, 3

A few weeks ago I came across a great deal on Group Dealz.....1,2,3 vinyl decals from one of my favorite bloggers, The House of Smiths' vinyl shop, Wonderfully Wordy. And considering my love of all things number related, I hate to jump on the deal!

I was so excited when they arrived in the mail.

I stuck them on my Ikea canisters and love how great they look. And it was super easy.

Looks like we need to stock up on more brown sugar.

Those red polka dot bowls are part of a vintage Fire King set. My mom has the three larger ones in California...she usually brings me one at a time when she visits. They are one of my most favorite things.

And in case you think I have it all together...here is what I cropped out of the photo. A sink full of dishes waiting to be put it away. Just keeping it real.

This and that on a Monday

Happy Monday! It's time for a random post for sure. It seems like Monday always comes to quickly....I have all of the projects I want to work on over the weekend but I blink and it's over. This weekend the husband participated in a 26 mile bike race...and shaved 6 minutes off of his time from last year! It was really cold on race day, so I chickened out and stayed home partially to keep warm and partially so that I could go look at counter tops for our bathroom.

And what did I do instead? Cleaned the house and went shopping. Oops.

And thanks to Molly and her quick work in photoshop, I now have an idea of what our bathroom will look like when it's finished. Thanks Molly! And thank you to everyone who offered advice and opinions about our redo. My husband now realizes that a black/dark counter top would be awful...and I owe it all to you guys!

In other news, the husband and I were lured into buying some cookies from some pretty sweet little Girl Scouts. How can you resist yummy cookies and the adorable little girls selling them? It's a trap. We haven't opened either box because we know once we do, they'll be gone.

We also went out to dinner for date night. It was so yummy. The husband got all romantic and made me a flower/heart out of his muscle shells (is that what they're called?). It was a flower of all the things I hate: seafood, onions, and croutons. Thanks hunny.

How was your weekend?

Bathroom Design....I need your help!

Okay, so as you know the husband and I are in the process of remodeling our bathroom. We finally made it out to the tile shop yesterday. Most of these places close at 5:00 and are only open a few hours on Saturday....which has made things take a little longer.

Here is my design inspiration. I love this bathroom! The floor is gorgeous, but crazy expensive.

And here is the tile I selected! I'm so excited about it. The piece on the left is marble for the floor (but will be 12x12) and the white subway tile is for the shower (actual size is shown). It was so awesome to be able to walk into the shop and actually see the two tiles together. And of course it also helped that the design guy working with us loved my ideas!

Next we have to go to a glass shop to pick out an all glass European enclosure for the shower. We also have to pick out a counter top....and here is where I need your help!

Here is our current bathroom. The big ugly mirror is coming down and will be replaced by two smaller mirrors. Now, what should I do with the counter top? Would it look to weird/matchy matchy to do a marble similar to the tile floor? The husband thinks we should do something black on the counter...but I think it would be a pain to keep clean. Between the dog and cat hair we have everywhere and little drips of water from the sink I am afraid every little thing will show. So I would prefer something lighter. If we did do a white/light counter top would it be too much white if we paint the cabinets white too? Should they be black? I just can't decide!

I think we are going to paint the walls some shade of blue....haven't decided yet! I also wanted to do beadboard in here but I think we are going to pass on that for now...we can always add it later.

So I need your help....any ideas/recommendations?

Go to the mattresses....and other random happenings

I guess "go to the mattresses" means I'm ready for a war. But really I'm not. Unless it's a war against these mattresses because I would be so all over that.

A few months ago my mom was up here visiting and we stumbled upon a great deal on queen sized mattresses at Costco. So she snatched two of them up for her new lake house. They've been living in our basement ever since. And they were starting to bug me. Mom is coming to visit next week and really wanted the mattresses taken up to her lake house. She was fretting about it.

So the husband and I rented a trailer and loaded those bad boys up. Man, they were heavy! But I was so glad to see them go.

The snow had finally melted at the lake so we ventured out into the back yard. We can't wait to fix it up and spend some long weekends out there!

In other news we finally ventured out to the Apple store to use a gift card we had from recycling our old macbook. We each got a new iPod shuffle to replace our two slowly dying iPod nanos. These are perfect for the gym because they are so lightweight. Guess which one is mine!

As a side note, why is the Apple store always so busy? We arrived right when it opened and there was a line to get in! Everyone chose that day to buy their iPad I guess?

How was your weekend?

Easter Candy....It Gets Me Every Time....

I love Easter candy. Big time. I have a huge sweet tooth can't control myself. I really must be stopped.  

I know some people hate peeps but I love them. They are my favorite. My husband even got me some for Valentine's day. But I only really like the yellow ones.

Bunny Basket Eggs are another favorite. I've learned I can only eat 2 or 3 of these and then need to stop or I'll make myself  sick. Healthy right? I haven't been able to find these in the store yet. Whatever will I do????

Cadbury creme egg...a classic I like but find that it's a little too chocolaty for me (I know! I'm not the biggest chocolate fan. Please don't hate me!)

Already consumed a bag of these bad boys. An Easter must.

 

I do love chocolate if it's mixed with peanut butter. I could eat these year round...if only they were good for you.

Cadbury Mini Eggs. My husband's favorite. And I sort of  like them too.

What's your favorite Easter candy?

Sweet Surprises

In the last few days I've received some sweet surprises from friends and family. What would I do without such great people in my life?

My cousin Jamie sent me season 4 of Dexter since she knows I'm obsessed! Thanks Jamie! I've already finished the first disc. I heart me some Dexter.

Just last night my Aunt Linda in Missouri sent me a mason jar in the mail! It was such a surprise. I need to ask her if it belonged to my Grandma...because then it is extra special.

For a few weeks  Erin and I were on the hunt for this Katy Perry nail polish called Black Shatter and we couldn't find it anywhere. Then out of the blue her husband ran across it at a store and picked up a bottle for her and one for me! He even mailed it to me himself....so incredibly cute. Thanks Mike!

And of course I have to mention my blog friend Leah. I can't remember how I found her blog but I am so glad I did! Leah has become a friend through blog comments and our little e-mails to each other. I've also become friends with Leah's co-workers Lacey and Jen. They are such sweet girls and I hope I get a chance to meet them all in person some day! I have met some amazing people through blogging and it has been such a blessing.

Leah and her husband Kyle just welcomed their baby girl Emery into the world last week! I had these stuffed blocks made for them using Emery's nursery colors and they turned out so cute! I forgot to take a picture of them before I sent them to Leah, but she was kind enough to post them on her blog. I had them made through Lovin' Ewe on Etsy. I think they are my new go-to baby gift!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I hope you are wearing your green and don't get pinched!

Simple curtain switch up

When we moved into our house we had zero window treatments. No blinds, no shades, and no curtains. So we needed a quick solution and these simple white curtains seemed to work fine. (and yes, that is snow outside...winter is still hanging around our house).

But something about them always bugged me. They were never quite right.

And then one day it dawned on me what I needed to do to fix them. Enter ring clips. For only $5, these clips transformed our curtains and made them fit in better with the style of the room. I just folded down the tabs of the curtain and clipped them. I'll probably end up cutting the white tabs off, but for now it works.

Here's a shot of both the windows. The curtains hang a lot better now too.

Apparently everyone had to be in the picture. Wrigley is wondering why I'm taking pictures instead of taking him on a walk like I promised.

Oh and before I forget, I've been meaning to post about this cute "R" my mom gave us the last time she visited. I adore it. Thanks mom!

View from the other side of the room. Dog bed and all.

Twisted Roosters and Dog Toys....Or the most random post ever.

Why is it that the one hour time change gets me every time? It felt like Sunday flew by and my whole day was thrown out of whack. The only good thing about springing forward is that I was able to walk Wrigley at 7:00 last night and it wasn't pitch black.

This weekend was pretty low key at our house. We are still waiting on a few bids to come in before we decide who is going to help us remodel our bathroom. And I still need to pick out tile and a counter top. And a paint color. And new fixtures. I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it!

In other news, on Saturday we went to Costco and scored the "deal of the week" according to the Costco check out lady. A three pack of "amigos" dog toys for $1.97! Yes! Regardless of how Wrigley looks in this photo, he was excited. Trust me.

Wrigley also got two walks, a trip to the dog park, and a bath on Sunday. He was a busy boy.

The husband and I went for a date night to a new restaurant in town called the Twisted Rooster. It was delicious! And they try to use mostly local food....win.

The food portions were huge, so we shared a wedge salad and this amazing "twisted" macaroni. It had asparagus, peas, roma tomatoes, and chicken in it. Yum. And then we shared an ice cream stuffed brownie for dessert.

On Sunday the husband had some friends over for their fantasy baseball draft. And I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture! Just imagine six guys crammed into our family room each with a laptop chatting about baseball. It was sort of hilarious. I mostly avoided the draft by going to the gym and doing laundry, but according to the husband it was a successful night.

So, how was your weekend???

Bathroom Design Inspiration

As I mentioned before, we are updating our master bathroom. The plan is to put in a new floor, new counter, new mirror, beadboard/wainscoting, and tile the shower. In my mind I can picture just what I want, but am having a little trouble describing it! Below are some of my design inspirations.

Love love love the clean look of this bathroom. It's slightly too modern for our house though. This bathroom is very similar in size to ours, except our toilet is on the right behind the shower.

Here is another view of the same bathroom. I love the white subway tile and plan to use it in our shower. I like the vanity too.

I like the look of this shower and love the glass door and fixtures.

I love the counter and the white cabinets. Right now ours are a brown stain....I want to paint them white but the husband thinks it's too much white. So maybe black? I can't decide!

Can this be my bathroom please?

Love the beadboard!

Any remodeling tips for me? We need to keeps things light because we have zero windows in our bathroom. I swear a man designed our house.

Home, Garden, and Elephants

Happy Monday everyone! I have no idea how the weekend went by so fast. 

We didn't do too much this weekend. The husband went out with friends on Saturday so I just hung out with Wrigley and rented the movie The Kids Are Alright. It was really good, but what I really loved was the interior of their house. It was amazing. I had to keep rewinding parts just to see more of the house!

We are on a home improvement kick and have decided to update our master bathroom. I'm so overwhelmed with all of the different options available! We shopped around on Sunday but felt even more confused afterwards. The husband called me while I was at the gym and said that there was a Home and Garden show going on downtown and if we hurried, we could attend the last hour. So I rushed home, grabbed a coat, and headed out the door. 

It wasn't as fun as the Boat Show, but I think we got a few ideas and some good names of remodelers/contractors.

And I'll leave you with the one and only photo we took this weekend.

These elephants were displayed downtown during an art show and I was obsessed with them. I was so excited they were at the home and garden show! (thank you in advance for ignoring my messy hair and no make-up face...remember I just came from the gym!)