Guest Bathroom Re-do

Builders beige, NO MORE :)

I had a very small budget and the Hubs was not interested in the least bit in partaking in this bathroom endeavor. . . So I had my work cut out for me!
I tried to take after my very talented expertise painter of a Brother, and not tape off the ceiling... Needless to say I am no where near close to a professional painter and after doing a very small corner in the bathroom and covering the ceiling in paint I decided taping off the ceiling was the best bet for me... After taping the entire room I painted all of the bathroom walls with the lighter color.

I painted horizontal stripes in another room in our house and I couldn't wait to transform another room with stripes and the guest bathroom was just the place! There is my handy dandy laser that sticks in the wall and helps me fulfill the perfectly straight lines I love of so much! I carefully taped as close as possible to the level laser rotating the tape from the bottom of the laser to the top of the laser depending on which stripe was going to be painted the darker color.

After about 4 hours all the tape was up and I was so excited to get the easy part over. It probably wouldn't take a normal person this long to tape off the room. But, I am no where near normal and if the tape wasn't perfect I removed it and started again! Notice the different size stripes above? That's what I was talking about previously when I said moving the tape above the laser or below the laser depending on which stripe was being painted. Once you remove the 2 pieces of tape that make up the small stripe, the two stripes are the exact same size... Hopefully, that makes sense :)

The colors are very similar, only one shade apart on the color wheel. Brother would be very proud of me for buying the best paint out there (Benjamin Moore - for those who are wondering), but honestly I'm not sure it was worth the $100 for 2 gallons!!! Since I only used very little of both colors, hopefully I can come up with another project or space I want to paint with these colors so I feel better about the money spent.

OK, the coolest part of this makeover were the countertop transformation!!!! Here are our ugly countertops before . . . Let me preface, I had a secret plan here... having already priced out granite for both our bathrooms I figured if I mess up completely and they look horribly, Babe will have no option but to replace them. Win/Win for me ;)

Months ago, I remember passing this little can in Home Depot and remembering one day I'd like to give that a try. I am all about some Rust-Oleum and this Rust-Oleum countertop coating is fantastic!!! For about $19, I'm glad I took the risk and glad they turned out! Unfortunately, no granite countertops yet, but I'm glad I have something else to look at other than the ugly tan countertops that were previously in there!!

I picked the Pewter color and it matched perfectly!I painted the countertops with a $1 very small foam sponge. The paint/stain went on super easy, although it smelled horrid and took quite a while to dry. I used very little out of the quart I bought, so I think one day I'll do our bathroom.

I primed and painted the cabinets and after about 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of white paint I had very white, crisp cabinets! :) Happy Girl

I also spray painted the mirror with Rust-Oleum's semi-gloss black paint

Slowly but surely we are transforming the rooms one by one to better match our taste! I love the bathroom and have already started planning my next room of attack!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week. For me, I'll take a 2 day work week anytime. . . We are headed on vacation Wednesday & I can't wait :) Take care!

Trip of a LIFETIME....

OR should I rephrase that and say 'MY' trip of a lifetime :) Yesterday, we booked our Western Mediterranean cruise and I'm elated with excitement!!! My husband on the other hand is less than thrilled to be joining me on this amazing journey... He begged yesterday for me to take someone else with me, but I'm forcing him to go with me and to "try" and enjoy himself! I mean seriously, who in the world dreads a trip all over the most beautiful places in Europe? Apparently, my husband... Lucky me. Hey, I'm just glad he agreed to go in the first place, I can handle dealing with him kicking and screaming about it!

I'm hoping the closer it gets, the more excited he becomes about it... But until then, I'm trying to win him over with yummy pictures of the awesome food he'll be able to eat! What can I say I know the way to my hubby's heart and that is straight through his stomach!!

I told him we could eat Gelato everyday & that it will shortly become his new favorite addiction :)

Tried explaining how AMAZING the French pastries are and that he could eat a chocolate crossaint EVERY morning for breakfast if his heart so disired ....

All the pizza and pasta he could ever want in Italy. . .
And still he begged and pleaded that we fly somewhere in the Caribbean and spend a week on the beach doing nothing... Apparently, I have my work cut out for me, but hopefully over the next 10 months I can somehow convince him that he will forever be changed by this amazing trip :)

I on the other hand have no problems envisioning how our 2 weeks will be spent . . .

A nice picnic under the Eiffel Tower . . . :)

Frolicking through the Lavender fields . . . :)

Going to the occasional vineyard and enjoying some of the countries best wine. . . :)
Whether he admits it or not, I know going to wineries will definitely be something he will enjoy!

Little stop at the tip of Italy. . .

Tour through ancient Pompeii

Beautiful sunsets in Florence . . .
So clearly, I have no problem dreaming up how incredible this trip is going to be. Now if only Todd could be as creative!

Anyways, enough with the daydreaming for the time being. Let's get down to the facts! Todd and I will be arriving in to Paris almost a week before our cruise departs out of Barcelona. We are going to spend 4 days exploring everything Paris has to offer. Although I've already been to Paris once, I never imagined I would be able to enjoy the most romantic city in the WORLD with the LOVE OF MY LIFE! Our 3 year anniversary happens to fall while we are in Paris, and we're (I'M) thinking about having our 3rd anniversary dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower! Heavenly :)

I think I could spend days inside the Louvre, unfortunately I'm sure Todd will allow us to spend a couple hours there. You know, after his chocolate croissant and before his elaborate lunch of course! We'll make sure to mark off all the must sees in the museum and anything else I can manage to get away with ;)

Take a stroll down Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe . . . Of course making the occasional stop to look at the elaborate shops that line this beautiful street.

Yes that is a 7 story Louis Vuitton store. Could be a great stop for an anniversary gift! (hint hint)

In my ideal world, I would like to end every night we spend in Paris looking at the twinkling of the lights on the Eiffel Tower. Good news is, there are all sorts of vendors surrounding the tower and I'm sure we can find something super sweet to suffice the Hubs :)

After we leave Paris we are going to spend 2 days pre-cruise in Barcelona. This is where my parents will be joining us for the remainder of the trip.

Sunday we leave out of Barcelona and spend 7 nights out on the Mediterranean!
Day1 & 2 are spent crossing the open seas.
Day 3 we wake up in Naples (Almalfi Coast, Pompeii, Capri, Sorrento), Italy
Day 4 we'll be in Rome, Italy
Day 5 we'll be in Florence/Pisa, Italy
Day 6 we'll be in Nice, France
Day 7 Provence, France (also referred to as the French Rivieria)
Day 8 we arrive back to Barcelona where we will spend another day before flying back to the states :(
I'm hoping at this point I'm homesick and miss my baby girl and am eager to get back to my home... Unfortunately, I don't think that will be the case . . .

First stop -

The Almalfi Coast

Naples, Italy

Pompeii

Second stop - Rome, Italy

Trevi Fountain

Sistine Chapel

The Vatican

The Colosseum

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Next stop - Florence, Italy

Ponte Vecchio

Last stop - Provence, France

The lavender fields are abundant in Provence. Just hoping that they are in full bloom come the end of May!

Needless to say, I've got my work cut out for me. Not only convincing my husband that we are going to have a great time. But, also planning our daily activities. Get ready to see the OCD come out in me. I'm 100% sure that come a couple of months I will have managed to plan our activities for everyday down to the hour! What can I say, I'm a planner not a fly-by-the-edge-of-my-seat kind of gal! And trust me going to huge cities like Paris, Rome, Florence and Barcelona you need to know what you're getting yourself in to. So I'll continue the planning and I promise to keep everyone up to date on some of our exciting activities we'll have planned. Ahhhhhhhh I'm so excited and I'm hoping the fact that we have a trip booked every month till the end of the year will help 2012 get here in the blink of an eye!!

I guess I need to get my French to English for Dummies CD out of storage and start listening to them in the car :)

A la prochaine

Still kickin'

What can I say, from time to time the whole blog thing becomes more of a chore than a relaxing exercise. I get stuck in the Monday-Friday work rut and after a dreaded stop at the gym and fixing the Hubs dinner, the last thing on my mind is creatively stringing together sentences to describe the more exciting happenings in my life.... Well, I've missed it and I'm back... That is until I need another couple months off :)

We received these rocking chairs from some of Todd's parents friends. They weren't in the best of shape when we got them. But since they were free we were both willing to put in some time and effort to restore them.

The chairs were covered in mildew. We agreed that Todd would sand the chairs with his handy electrical hand sander and that I would prime and paint the chairs. I'd say it was a pretty fair trade. I was just excited to get any help that he was willing to give me!

The chairs after their paint job on the front porch :)

Here's a close up. The chairs are still a little wet but you get the idea. Just goes to show you what a little afternoon work can get you, just-like-new rocking chairs that were free!! :)

We also celebrated a very special little girl's doggy birthday in May!!

She was super excited that day when we came home from work and had all sorts of treats and toys for her...

She needed to try them all out, decide which one would become her new FAV!

Isn't she sweet ;)

I have some major back blogging to get to and I promise in the near future I will be posting on some of our more exciting times over the last little while. Feels good to be back and I've enjoyed catching up on everyone else's blog posts, keep up the good work :)