Our Guest Bathroom

I wrote this post two years ago and never added pictures... better late than never?!  Here it is! :)

For months, I have been trying to figure out what paint color I want to pick. This process takes me forever! And Brian is usually quick to agree (no pink, red or purple and I get no complaint). Maybe that is why we have only painted two rooms in our entire house and the rest of it is white? Dunno. Probably part of the reason!  (Note... since I wrote this, we've now got four painted rooms inside the house, not two, and the outside of the house!)

So I figured, one bathroom at a time right now. Someday we will most definitely replace the light fixtures in all three of our bathrooms as we hate them and (I hope) we might tile all of the bathroom floors (in lieu of the linoleum from the builder).... but for now, this will have to do. Hoping to get the paint on the walls of all three bathrooms and done with the painting by the end of this year. We'll see how that goes! :)

So for the Upstairs Hallway Bathroom (we refer to it as the Guest Bathroom), Brian had the decor picked when I met him. I can recall a trip to Target back in our dating days where we acquired a shower curtain, trash can and bath mat. Since then, we have slowly collected the bits and pieces of the bathroom.... and that is how we wound up with a starting point of rubber ducks in our all white bathroom. Not my first choice, but six years of living with the ducks, so to speak, the little guys have grown on me.... I have debated the color to paint the wall for the last year and have finally arrived at Swan Sea (Behr). First time I've picked a color out of the color deck and Brian hasn't said a word.... I hope that's not a bad thing! :)

So here it is before.....

This is the view looking down the hallway into the bathroom.  See... lots of white! :) 

I didn't take pics until Brian had already pulled down the mirror above the sink, but this works :)  And I have to point out that I hate the light fixture.  It's in every one of our 2.5 bathrooms!  At least it's something Brian and I definitely agree on -- we need to get rid of them! :)

And this is the view from standing in the tub looking back to the doorway:

There is also normally a mirror above the sink, but I didn't take pictures until after we had taken it down... oops!

And getting ready to paint....

And here's the color I chose (and Brian agreed to!):

Side Note:  For months I tried to pick a color.  It took forever, but I finally found (of all things) a bath towel in Target that I loved the color of!  

 So I color matched it and it was "Swan Sea."  And yes, I took the actual towel into Home Depot and put it on the little color scanner! :)

See, perfect match! :)

Continuing along... here is the bathroom mid-paint job....

Sorry the pic is blurry, it's the best one I have!

And finally... what it looks like today...

 

 

This entire bathroom was inspired by rubber duckies.  Just for the record, this decor choice is compliments of my husband Brian, long before we met! :)

Our collection of rubber duckies!

 

 

Notice the "reading" material?!  It's hilarious!

 

I think this is my favorite thing - the handmade candles from this etsy seller!

And now for the remaining items on the "punch list" for this room:

 

The sink faucet fixture....

 

This light fixture, which let's just say is not my favorite!

 

And the linoleum floor... not my favorite either!

Yep, I still want to replace the floors, the lighting fixture and the sink + shower fixtures, but those are little fixes that can be done someday down the road. :) What a difference a can of paint can make! I'm in love with the color and ready to continue working on different other projects in the house.

So if you come visit and stay in our house, this is the guest bathroom!  What do you think? :)

Quote: Kindness

Ran across this quote early last week - love it!

Baked Pasta (aka Mock Lasagna)

This recipe is a loose adaptation of this one for Baked Ziti and is what I served Friday night to the girls!

Photo credit.

I improvised.  I didn't want to grate provolone... Or use that much sour cream.  Or cook the meat with onions.  And there was not ONE box of Ziti in all of the grocery store.  Oh and I was starving, with company, so I didn't get a picture of how yummy mine looked!  So here's the recipe for my somewhat healthier version:


Ingredients:

2 boxes of penne regata pasta (about 1 pound of dry pasta, go for something round, big and with grooves so it will pick up the sauce!)
1 bunch green onions
1 pound lean ground beef (I used 97/3, only 3% fat!)
2 twenty-six ounce jars of spaghetti sauce
2 bags shredded cheese (I used a mozarella and provolone mix)
1/2 cup sour cream (approximate)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Boil water and chop green onions, then set aside.  When water boils, add pasta and cook according to instructions (mine had a cook time of 12 minutes).  When pasta is added to water, start cooking ground beef.  Once beef is browned, add spaghetti sauce and seasonings to taste to make the sauce mixture.  I used Italian Seasoning -- no salt.  In fact, we never really add salt to much of anything.  I'm not a huge fan, but this is where you would add it if you want it!  Heat the sauce mixture while pasta finishes cooking.  I left the heat high so that the sauce would heat more quickly.

Get a pan ready -- I used the biggest pan I have available, at least a 13x17 will be needed.  Butter it lightly to prevent the baked pasta from sticking to the edges.  Drain the pasta, turn off the sauce mixture.

Put half the pasta in the pan and pour about half the sauce over the pasta.  Stir it.  Sprinkle a handful of cheese over it, along with half the chopped green onions.  Now put the rest of the noodles in, add the rest of the sauce, spreading it over the noodles with the back of your spoon.  Then sprinkle the rest of the green onions over the top.

Now, take the sour cream, and take two large spoonfuls (about one-third of a 16 oz container) and spread them over the top with the back of your spoon.  Cover the top in cheese, lots of it!  I used one full bag plus one handful of shredded cheese total on this recipe.  You will have about a half a bag leftover.

Put in the oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted.  Change oven settings to broil and brown the cheese for about 3-5 minutes.  Watch it carefully so you don't burn it!

It's delicious.  Definitely the easy way to do a "lasagna" without all the hassle!  Everyone loved it and went back for seconds and now Brian and I are enjoying eating the leftovers!

Today I am...

....enjoying the weekend I've been dreaming of for months.  Lazy. Quiet. Peaceful. And, most importantly, at home.

Brian is in the garage:

building us a new entertainment center for here:

I cannot wait for the first piece to be finished!

Speaking of finished... the laundry room is almost finished....

Just waiting on choosing a counter top, raising the center cabinet, finishing the trim for the shelf above the washer/dryer and hanging stuff back up on the walls!

Brian's wildflowers:

Are growing in now:

And I love them.

And I cannot wait for these to ripen...

I have a little mess to clean up from a fun little party last night:

We played bingo, ate a great new pasta dish I cooked up and had fun hanging out.

Now I get to go play with the crafty stuff all weekend....

Or maybe the fabric?

Or maybe I'll just take a nap with this one....

Or this one...

Or hope for more text message pics like these of my cute niece Abby and her big brother, my favorite nephew CT...

♥ & miss those cute kiddos! :)

Starbucks Hidden Menu Item: Cake Batter Frappucino

So it's no secret I have a sister who works at Starbucks. :)  She's been teaching me some interesting combos of items that taste like other things.  This one tastes like cake batter.  Perfect for someone like me who has a serious sweet tooth and loves the sugar-y sweet taste.  I should add that Brian doesn't have nearly as sweet a tooth as I do and he wanted to drink the whole dang thing!

To order, it's a grande vanilla bean creme frappucino with 2 pumps of toffee nut syrup.  You can order it light (non-fat) and it tastes yummy with the whipped cream.  Why cheat yourself of the best part?!  You'll definitely want to go for a run or go to the gym after consuming this!!  But it's totally delicious and worth it. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Yep, she sleeps with the doggie toys in the doggie bed!

Let's Talk About Toothpicks (Megan, this one's for you!!)

So I'm working tonight and I had to laugh when they came on the news to talk about a toothpick replica of San Francisco at the Exploratorium in SF.  It reminded me of 7th grade and our toothpick house!  And by "our", I'm talking about Megan and I.   What started as a math project of draw out your dream house on graph paper turned into "now, you're going to build it out of toothpicks".  Occasionally, I still flashback when I use a toothpick. :)  So this one's for you Megan!  I'm still looking for our floor plan.  I really hope it's still stashed away in my closet at my parent's house.  :)

Life has been very busy in recent months, but I hope to be back to blogging soon.  Really soon.

Our First Five Years

It's amazing how time just flies right on by!  Later this year, we will be hitting the ten year mark since we met! :)  So today I'm sharing the first five.... rapid fire in mini album form! :)

all product info here.

I haven't been around here much cause I'm just running around like crazy trying to keep up with life!  I have some posts I want to write, so maybe I should just quit thinking about it and get to writing them!!  And, I'm super behind on reading my favorite blogs in my reader.  I'm hoping to catch up in the next week or so.  Hope you have a great weekend! :)