Before/After

You know when you first move into a new place and have tons of ideas for ways to update/personalize/change things? And how after living in it for awhile, you kind of learn not to see it? I have fallen victim to blindness of the everyday blah.

We started off to such a great start in March '09 when we moved in. The bathrooms were the worst part of the house, and we vowed to modernize them--particularly the guest bath that everyone uses. Bye-bye peeling wallpaper (that took over 50 hours to remove). So long ugly linoleum flooring. Adios lifeless doorknob. But most importantly--we ripped out the plastic 1960s light fixture in our bathroom with high hopes of installing a modern light fixture.


What we then found out the ugly truth to makeovers. The lovely door knob from Anthropologie wasn't quite long enough to mount on our doorway, but since I threw out the other, we've been dutifully ignoring its obvious faults & making our guests suffer with the occasional "help--I'm trapped in the bathroom!" Not a good plan.

We also discovered that there are NO outlets in either bathroom. How is that even possible? To add insult to injury, we learned that the ugly, 60s, plastic bathroom light fixture in the guest bath I was sooooo excited to trash had a single outlet on it. But that piece of garbage was long gone. We spoke with an electrician, who informed us that we cannot add any more outlets to our house. Then we spoke with lighting specialists in town, who laughed and said that light/outlet combos don't meet current code, so we're SOL. Great.

Frustrated after nearly a year of wiring hanging from the walls, gilded cabinetry (think 20s gold glam meets 50 years of hard drinking), and a doorknob that holds guests hostage, I finally decided to do something about it.

The bathrooms now have painted cabinets in a lovely espresso brown and updated door handles. I may go back & spray-paint the hinges... We'll see. Josh threatened death to the doorknob, and after an hour of sweat, it officially operates as it should. We also installed a simple light fixture--definitely beating out the hazardous wires that threatened to attack. My cousin, Ben, deserves a special shout-out for helping with the lighting.




Speaking of lighting, my hubby went on a "dude's snowboarding trip" with some extra money we came into. Trust me, this ties in... Since I am unwilling to hurl myself down a mountain at 100 miles an hour, I instead got the lovely parting gift of this beautiful capize shell pendant from West Elm that I have lusted after for the better part of 2 years.

Ben, the handy man he is, helped us remove the outdated chandelier and install this piece of heaven in our dining room. Though we were originally missing parts, West Elm finally got everything in order, and I'm super happy with the end result (sorry for the not-so-great photo!)



My next project options: 8" baseboard molding, landscaping, pergola, some new paint.... what to choose. I'd really (really) like to tackle the fireplace. I was inspired by the architecture at a hospital I recently visited:










Until next time,

Ashley.


"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." --Christina Baldwin

quickies.

So remember my excitement about completing a painting in 2 hours? Well at long last, here it is. (30" x 60", acrylic) I still need to do some work on the top parts to keep it from looking cartoonish, but I'm very, very pleased with the movement and flow of the bottom.


In the spirit of quick paintings, two weeks ago I decided to redo the painting above our couch in the fireplace room. It's 6o" x 30" mixed media:



Ashley.


"I've been doing a lot of abstract painting lately, extremely abstract. No brush, no paint, no canvas, I just think about it." -Stephen Wright

artarama, holidays style

Yesterday afternoon a thin blanket of snow/ice covered our roads and ended all hopes of venturing out for a productive day today. Between today's balmy high of 21 and last night's episode of sliding backwards down the driveway coming home from work, I decided to stay put. My hubby however, fearless in his Outback, is out playing poker with the boys. Thank you snow; I've been hoping for a chance to cozy up & catch up on my blog.

Christmas was a hurried, wonderful blur of family, food, and homemade goodies.

Julia, my niece, came to the annual Gingerbread Competition at my parents', and we had a wonderful time with her. Our pontoon boat design was inspired by our 4th of July trip to Norris a few years back, but I don't recall the boat ever being as decadent (or tasty) as ours.


As I blogged in an earlier post, I tried to make most of our gifts this year. I forgot to take photos of several of the projects I worked on, so I'll have to include those photos at a later date. For our friends who've gotten a head start on babymaking, I had a blast glazing plates at a Paint Your Pottery shop, surrounded by curious 6 and 7 year old girls there to put their handprints on mugs. Here are the ceramic plates:

The Big-Ass Book of Crafts book also had some wonderful recipes for making bath scrubs and exfoliators. I purchased some containers at World Market and designed/printed the labels on big sheets of sticker-paper from a local office-supply store. A word of caution, though--the Bath Crystal Body Scrub does call for a 1/2 bar of soap shavings in the ingredients. That may not sound like a big deal, but 20 minutes of vigorous grating will reveal your arm muscle strength! I put these scrubs to the test when I had to remove the paint and goo from my hands, and they worked beautifully (and smelled good, too).


Perhaps the funniest part of the holidays this year was that my husband and I both unknowingly made wedding-themed wall art for each other this year. He collaborated with a graphic designer at his work to create a collage of our wedding photos stretched onto canvas. I was overwhelmed. The photo I took for you doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.

While he was being sneaky at work, I was busy transporting 3 canvases back and forth from my house to my sister's place to my parents' and ultimately back home. The scene is from our wedding ceremony at the L&N Station & World's Fair Park. I loved getting to pair up with them (both are superior painters) and learn techniques as we painted. It's now at home on our den wall....
I find it incredibly sweet that we were so in-sync with each other and had such similar ideas for our gifts. Oddly enough, my sister and I also made plates for each other. I'll wait to upload the plate exchange until next time. Also to come, a new project that I may try to develop into a side business... Stay tuned.

Ashley.


"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving." -Mother Teresa