Beautiful lengths

Five years.

That is how long it took for me to grow my hair from this:

Spring 2006

To this.

Which means it was just long enough to finally do this:

It took a lot of patience (I like to change my hairstyle every other month) but I was really happy to finally meet my donation goal.
Plus, I have a super cute new haircut. Total bonus!

And the adventure continues

If you Google "priming with Kilz" you will find many many many warnings to, well, not prime with Kilz. Know why?

I don't really think I need to explain much about that photo. Kilz is a lousy primer. Now you know.

So scrape, sand, prime, paint again aaaaaand...

Yeah, I ended up with three cave-ins. At this point I am pretty sure the bathroom is just taunting me.

By now you all know the words so feel free to sing along - spackle, sand, prime, paint, paint, paint.

 

The walls are painted!

I love this gray.  It is such a calm color. I am, however, disappointed to find that instead of bringing out the gray in the tiles the paint seems to have made them look more mocha in hue.  I had selected this paint shade as opposed to a sparkling white to avoid making the tiles look dingy.  Now it just sort of looks like I'm fighting against the original color scheme. Whatever. The walls are painted.

There is still  much to be done: ceiling, cabinet, towel racks, towels...But my friend Tiffany is here this week so I had to sort of put the bathroom back together. Even though it slows progress, I like having to return the bathroom to a functioning state each week because it gives me a chance to evaluate the effect of each step on the space.  Even if that step reveals mocha-colored tile.

It's a jungle in here!

You may remember back in November when I made Emily some pretty jazzy pajama pants thanks to a lesson from a woman who is pretty jazzy herself. Well, last month I e-mailed her to set up a second lesson only to discover she doesn't know how to sew clothes! (Okay, this is sort of a lie.  Susan is a fantastic seamstress so she could very well sew clothes, she just hasn't ever done it). I was soooo sad. But, because she is such a doll, Susan referred me to the undeniably fabulous Allison of Sew Be It Clothier.

Allison is a lifestyle ninja (I just coined that phrase). Seven years ago she had a bilateral mastectomy and kicked breast cancer soundly in the rear.   To celebrate she hangs a pink bra - the only one she owns - on her front door for the month of February.  How fab is that?  She works at Costco, teaches sewing, has an Etsy shop, gives her husband a hard time, has a hoppin' social life, and never turns off her coffee pot. This woman seriously knows how to get everything she wants out of life.  I think I love her.

Well, we started talking the second she greeted me at my car door and did not shut up for the next four hours.  It was awesome. And when all was said and done she had shown me how to take this:

Simplicity Pattern 3902

...and turn it into this:

When Emily selected that material I was dubious.  I should have known she'd pick something totally wild based on her past fashion record. But once I started seeing the dress come together, Oh my gosh!

 It came out so well. Just look at that sweetheart neckline! Yeah, I did that!

 It is just perfect for the prowling, posturing, posing, pouncing wildcat that is my Emily!

Stupid Cupid, What does he know?

I have been told I will receive my Valentine's gift tonight. I haven't a clue what it is and I almost don't care. (I said "almost." I have no intention of turning down a present. Ever.) But you see, I already got the best gift ever -

Five Hours To Myself.

Once was when Ben took Emily on a mysterious shopping trip for nearly three hours on Saturday. Then last night I got to snap this handsome couple as they dashed off to the ball.

I had a whole Sunday evening to do things like call my mom, chit chat with my neighbors, and watch a 45 minute interview online. All guilt-free. It was glorious.

But, and I'm going to get disgustingly cute here, the best part was seeing these two excited about their father-daughter dance.

Cupid can keep his stupid heart-o-chocolates and mass marketed roses. I'll take the two pairs of sparkling blue eyes instead. That's love.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Adventures in Decorating: Sloooow progress on Emily's Bathroom

I'm sorry blog updates have been so inconsistent lately.  Trying to do one thing at a time has not done too much to cure me of taking too much on. Guess we know next year's resolution...

Last weekend I spent some time spackling Em's bathroom.

Then I went back and spackled some more. Because of the fun. I also taped (until I ran out of tape).

I realize these pictures are of two different walls, but you can trust me - they both looked like a study in abstract art and white clay.

On to priming! Because we suspected mildew was starting to stake a claim in the un-vented bathroom, I used Kilz as a primer.
*On a side note, who doesn't put a vent in the bathroom? I swear this is a house of oddities.  Adding insult to injury, the downstairs bathroom -the one WITHOUT a shower- has a vent fan.   Seriously, people?)
Back to the actual priming. My husband is awesome.  He bought me a low odor Kilz product for small spaces. Kilz is less awesome.  I "primed" the wall and in return the wall started peeling:

This is the wall across from the window and mirror - the one with the toilet paper dispenser mounted directly under the towel bar

Ooooookay. Well, that sucks. So I scraped and spackled some more before priming again, this time with a stinky latex-based Kilz.Stay tuned to find out the train-wreck that resulted directly from that decision.

How to charm me

Pick up my daughter so you are eye to eye and say "Emily, will you go with me to the Father-Daughter Sweatheart Dance next Sunday?"

Going Green Fail

If you decide to start making your own cleaning products. I recommend going here for some great non-toxic recipes. I do not recommend uneducated mixing. Double check your recipes, always! And one more thing, do not pour your hot water directly into the spray bottle you plan to use.

The bottle started shriveling so fast boiling water overflowed onto my hand. Yeah. I'm pretty awesome.