WHAT WAS EWWWW......IS NOW AHHHH

Remember this?







Well after days of intense labor, it is now this:
















Actually I already had everything that was used in this room except for the paint. I will be updating the light fixture, the toilet seat, and the door knob in the days to come. I know that you're probably wondering what's the deal with the shower curtain and bath accessories so let me explain: I purchased these items early last year when Target was having a clearance sale on a lot of stuff at 75% off! At the time I thought it would be cute in the boys bath since I'm going for a nautical 'Concept' in their bedroom. Now that I'm a little more in touch with my creative side, I know better than to be so matchy matchy and themey! So yes I will be finding a new shower curtain and and accessories later, but the boys really do enjoy this little set (especially the boat that goes "BONK BONK" when you press it down for the soap). I mean really can you tell a 4 and 3 year old no?!


So what do you think? And I feel as if there is something that should go above the toilet. I was thinking the word FLUSH in red because boy O' boy! And where can I find a good light fixture that's not too expensive?

To catch up on what took place to get to this CLEAN bathroom start here, here, and here


***Edited to add: I'm linking this up to Thrifty Decor Chick's before and after party and the shaby chic cottage transformation thursdays and Funky Junk Interiors and BNOTHP

Thanks for stopping by!

HOW TO BLOW YOUR BUDGET IN 5 MINUTES

It all started with a color. I chose to paint the bathroom in another shade of blue that is similar to that of Sherwin Williams 'Rain washed 6211' (for those of you who are familiar with SW paints), but since I was on a budget, I purchased Olympic brand paint from Lowe's in 'Babbling Brook'. First let me tell you that I will never ever ever ever do that again! It took three coats to get that paint looking like the paint chip. I wanted to throw the gallon of paint out of the window after the second coat! After that, I went searching for the right shower curtain that will give me the feeling I'm going for in the room, which is clean, crisp, and fresh! Given that I'm on a budget, I started my search inside of Homegoods and I had no luck! Soooo I went over to my home away from home (Target) and there it was, the budget breaker!



This picture really doesn't do it justice. Imagine a creamy background with very light green and blue stripes (that are the exact color blue as my walls). I can't do this shower curtain any justice either! You just have to see it! The price is $39.99 which is $10 less than my budget for the entire room. What is a girl to do? Well for starter's I am going to try one more target in my area to see if they have it and if not, I'm going to do a simple click of the mouse and after about 5 minutes I will have one on the way to my house! So that's basically how you blow a budget!

Before I forget, here is a SNEAK PEEK of the bathroom wall color!





Next up, a mirror that I knew would work somewhere in my house!

THE TAKE DOWN...

You guys know how dated these mirrors are right? I would rather move into a house that had no mirror's than to move in one that has these mirrors stuck to the wall. Well, I don't have it anymore! I had a talk with it and the conclusion was it had to leave my house. As much as I tried to be easy with it and let it leave in one piece, it just had to put up a fight!! So I got upset and let it have it!





Yeah I took a hammer to it. But don't worry I'm okay, I got it before it got me!! First I taped it all over. Then, I got some plastic film from the garage (that we used to wrap our furniture when we moved) and covered the entire mirror. The reason for this is because once I attacked it, I didn't want pieces to fly all over the place. Even though it shattered in hundreds of pieces, my bathroom wasn't covered with them. After I got rid of the glass, I patched the damaged drywall and then sanded the area so that the wall will be smooth. I don't have any pictures of it so you'll just have to trust me! I also removed the wallpaper which caused the paint to peel and bubble so that was more time spent sanding and smoothing out the wall





I guess after seeing these pictures, you know what came down first. And for those of you that are late catching on it was the wallpaper border!



Next up....Paint! Now you know I'm doing this on a budget but I'll never skimp on paint again!

MY DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

When we purchased this house, it was a lot of things that needed and still needs to be done to it. I can go on and on about all of that, or I can just show you my next project which is my hall/boys bathroom.





I just realized that these picture's don't show the wall paper border. It was a mess!! I guess the "theme" in this bath was a fish or underwater adventure because the toilet seat has fish on it, the walls had fish decals on them and it had a border with fish on it. The color is baby blue and boy I mean BABY BLUE!!

I didn't do anything to this room when we moved in other than remove those fish off of the wall and put up the bath accessories. On September 5th I will be hosting an end of summer party for my boys and family and I refuse to let anyone see this bathroom like this again!

HERE'S THE RUN DOWN:

*Remove wall paper border (you can't see it in the pictures, but it is there!)
*paint the vanity/cabinet white
*do a little caulking
*prime the walls (because not only are they BABY BLUE but semigloss paint was used)
*paint the walls a sea glass blue
*remove the builder's grade mirror
*replace builder's grade mirror with one that is more up to date
*add new hardware to vanity doors
*Find a shower curtain and accessories that work better with the new wall color
*DO IT ALL FOR $50!!!

GIVE HER YOUR HONEST OPINION...

Okay girls (and guys!) who read this blog, I need your honest opinion for a kitchen makeover for my sister-in-law. She has recently painted her kitchen and she wanted to display some items above her cabinets. Her first move was putting IVY around plates that have little sayings such as FAITH, GRACE, etc... I told her that (in my opinion) IVY is DATED. And her kitchen is painted almost the same color as the picture below.





These pictures SCREAM early 1990's and my grandmother's house. Now I'm not trying to be insensitive, I just want to show her that there are other things out there. So not only do I need your opinion, but I need suggestions for her

PLEASE HELP!!!

***No offense to those of you who may have ivy on your cabinets!!***

Oops she's doing it again.....!!

Okay I'm beginning to think that Janell (Issabella and Max Rooms) is having a blast with these giveaways! But this giveaway is probably my all time favorite. Have you heard of Stella & Dot? Well if you are anything like me, you might wanna know something about them!

Take for instance this (make me wanna pull out the credit card) necklace

Gorgeous right?

Or, what about this bracelet

with these charms:


Or, this bracelet




And don't forget the earrings!



Janell is giving away $150 worth of Jewelry on her blog (to ONE lucky person) just for leaving a message! How cool is that?! You can find out all of the details by clicking here to go directly to the post on her blog.

***I WISH EVERYONE LUCK, BUT I HOPE I WIN!!***

A SIMPLE PLAY ROOM ON A SIMPLE BUDGET

After realizing that cleaning my house EVERY SINGLE DAY was not working for me, I was given the idea (from my SIL) to start a play room for my boys. I knew I didn't have a big budget so I worked with what I already had and a few goodwill finds.



The rug was a find by my mother. It was at the Goodwill for $7.80. After a professional cleaning, my boys love it and the colors work well with the wall color (SW Dynamic Blue 6958). The paint was around $32 for the matte finish. I try to catch my Sherwin Williams paint on sale when they have the 25-30% off sales!


The two chairs was part of a 3pc table set purchased on Walmart.com four years ago for my 4 year old for his "Big Boy Room" it was $30. Yes the table is missing because my 3 year old has anger management problems!! The Ottoman was on clearance last year at Target for $9.98 (part of their college line).


These Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles and box were a great find at a yard sale for $3 for the set of nine. You can find them at Home Goods if you like them!


The shelf and the imitation UGLY dolls were found at Target last year. The shelf was on clearance for $3.98 and the dolls were in the dollar spot for $1 each.


This is the Itso storage that's found at Target. The white cubes were on sale for $9.99 for a total of $60. The red bins (L)-$4.98 each on clearance and (s)-$3.98 each on clearance for a total of $27.



This little thing (well it's really big!), was at the same yard sale as the puzzles and it was only $2. My boys LOVE IT!



The T.V was a yard sale find for $10 and the VCR was free because my mom was tossing it out! I found the night stand at a thrift store for .80! Yes 80 cents! and it's by Basset furniture. It's really not suppose to be in this room but I needed something to hold the TV and the boys VHS



These movies were found at various Goodwill's for about $2.00 each ( I have 20 so far)


So let's see that brings my total to.....about$227.60 (give or take!)

I'm sharing this with the Nester over at her PRICE MY SPACE PARTY! Make sure you go over and check out the spaces.

Question......Open Shelving?

While I'm finishing up with my kitchen, it's almost time for me to figure out if my idea of open shelving is a good one. My only draw back is having to clean whatever I display on them constantly.








What's your take on open shelves in the kitchen? Have you had them before? Do you have them now? Or is it a been there done that and never going back type of thing?!

***And when I say finish up my kitchen, I mean all that I can do right now. Have your husband ever said the words "Babe can't you WAIT on your granite and hardwood floors?"***

SIMPLY LEMONADE....

I've never been a fan of yellow. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I never thought about using it in any type of design as far as my home. When I asked my oldest son who is 4, what color he wants his room to be he said yellow! Now the only reason he wants a yellow room is because he loves Bumble Bee from Transformers! How on earth am I going to incorporate yellow into not only his room, but a room he shares with his two brothers? And no, its not going to have a Transformers theme! While searching for yellow I ran across some really nice room designs that incorporates yellow into the color scheme. I know these are not children rooms, but they gave me a new look on yellow. So when life hands you lemons, decorate with yellow!









images courtesy of: google search (yellow interior design), and Patricia Gray


So what's your take on this vibrant color? Have you decorated with yellow lately? Is yellow your favorite color? Or, is this not your cup of tea?!