Winter Tablescape

My dining room table had been empty and lonely since the Christmas decor came down on New Year's.  Well, last week I decided it could be bare no more!  I made a trip to Hancock Fabrics and got some burlap and a couple other wintry-looking fabrics, and voila!

I gathered a bunch of glass vases I had lying around the house (the one on the far left was used in my reception centerpieces, Steven bought the taper holders in college when he was trying to woo me with candlelight, the candlesticks in the back were on sale at Hobby Lobby a year or two ago, and the other three are all from flower arrangements I've received over the years).

I unraveled the edges of the burlap to create a fringe.  Sooo easy and such fun for the kitties.

I think the combination of jute, blues, tans, and glass screams *winter*.  Or else it screams beachy.  I can't decide, but either way I like it and it's staying until I decide to do something for Valentine's Day.  Which, by the way, I'm thinking about skipping this year.  I usually at least do a tablescape for V-Day, but I'm so burned out on it already (no offense to you bloggy friends who love V-Day and have been posting a V-Day craft a day since before Christmas, but I'm just over.it.).  Is that Grinchy of me?

I was just doing some random Googling when I came across this article about "White Day" which is celebrated in Japan on March 14th.  Basically, it's just like Valentine's Day is for us Westerners.  The thing is, the Japanese (and other Asian cultures) celebrate V-Day on February 14th, but it's like a Sadie Hawkins holiday, where the women give gifts to the men to show their love and affection instead of the other way around.  But then when White Day rolls around a month later, the tradition is that the men should spend three times as much on their significant other than their ladies did on them for V-Day.  Interesting, eh?  Just a random bit of useless trivia for your Tuesday. :)

Paint, wreath, and a new rug!

I've been a tad MIA... have you noticed?  I missed my blog-iversary and everything!  I started this blog one year ago on January 7th.  I should have done something monumental, but oh well.  There's always next year, right? :)

So this is what I've been up to the past week and a half:

I (finally) painted the baseboards in our guest bathroom!

Soooo much better, right?

I joined in the club and made a yarn wreath with book page accents!

The flowers are attached with velcro, in case I ever decide to change it, but I just looooove it the way it is for now.

And the most exciting thing EVER... we finally got a rug for our living room!  I spied it at Target, it was on sale, and I had a gift card... I couldn't pass it up!  Of course I had to do a little redecorating too.

Yes, we have had the materials to put the TV cords inside the wall for 3 years, but no, we have not gotten around to it yet.

There used to be a basket on this end of the couch because there wasn't room to have both of our end tables, but I got this little table from my mom and I just LOVE it here.  Now we have two end tables and it doesn't take up any more space than the basket did!  Also, the chenille throw is actually a darker red but is showing up really bright in all the photos.

Just so you know what it looked like before...

And now!

I think it's much cozier and feels more like a pulled together space.

Oh, and I got a bunch of twigs.

So that's pretty much what I've been up to for the last few days.  I have a full week left before I start work, so I'm hoping to get a few more things accomplished!  I'm thinking: paint the baseboards in the basement bath (whew, that's a tongue-twister), figure out a tablescape for the dining table (I've been stumped on winter accessories!), and do some crafting for b-day presents.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Happy Birthday to Me: Fabulous Bathroom Hooks!

Today was my birthday (well, yesterday I guess seeing as it's after midnight)!! How did I celebrate, you ask? 

By giving our master bathroom a mini-makeover!

It all started last week with a trip to Hobby Lobby (I had a $10 gift card that was burning a big fat hole in my pocket!).  I didn't go in with anything particular in mind, but when I went down the clearance aisle, I found some glass vases that I just knew would look perfect around our bathtub.  They even matched the Ball jars I got at a garage sale over the summer that I really wanted to incorporate into my bathroom decor. 

The before:

A couple of seashell owls and the Ball jars just randomly sitting there.

And, the after:

Love!  I want to get a bunch of off-white votives to fill in the rest of the space around the bathtub and provide cozy mood lighting should I ever actually decide to take a bath.

On Monday, I went down to Charlotte with my aunt, where we stopped into Southpark Mall and whadya know but they have an Anthropologie store!  I picked up two cast-iron hooks that I just couldn't resist.  When I got them home I was a little unsure how they would look on the wall where I wanted to put them.  It seemed to me that two random hooks in the middle of the wall all by themselves would look a little bland.  So off to Houzz I went to search for ideas.  I saw a photo of someone's mudroom, and they had frames hanging on the wall, with coat hooks in the middle of them - genius!  Theirs were all fancy with either scrapbook paper or wallpaper in the center of the frame, but mine were going to be in a bathroom so I didn't want to take any chances with paper.  I woke up on my birthday with a mission - find cheap frames!

I got these lovelies at Goodwill - $1 each!  Score!  I picked up some Vintage Copper spray paint and two little wooden plaques that are supposed to be used in some capacity for crown molding. 

There were quite a few staples holding the picture in, but they were no match for a pair of pliers!

Except, I sustained an injury in the process.  My hands don't look so wrinkly in person... I blame it on the close-upedness.

Whew!  Hard work.

So, here they are, de-uglified.  Well, almost.

There!  Lovely.

Random picture time.  I had my camera on and I set it on my bathroom counter for a second.  When I came back to it, I noticed this on the screen and just had to snap the pic.  Doesn't my curling iron cover look cool?

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Blank, boring wall before:

Our towel situation before: 

We had to fold our towels twice just so they would both fit on this short rod.  It took them forever to dry all the way, plus it just looked sloppy.  I really (and I mean really) wanted to put some nice pretty towels on this rod instead.

The mid-after:

Hallelujah!  We're getting somewhere...

Wondering why I chose vintage copper?  The color ties in with our counter top, and the accent pillows we have on our bed (you can see our bed in the background of the last photo in this post).

Here they are, complete with towels and white paint to camouflage the screws:

Eeee!  How I have dreamed of bathroom hooks...

If you're wondering where those two little wooden plaques went, they're still sitting on the kitchen counter.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with them.  I bought them with intentions of painting "his" and "hers" on them and mounting them above the frames, but then I had a stroke of genius and thought "Hey, I'll use my new Cricut Imagine and cut his and hers out of vinyl and put it right on the wall!"  Well, I'm still working on that.  Stay tuned.

While I was in the bathroom makeover mood, I moved the tissue holder (see it there in the background? Yes, you're right, it doesn't have tissues in it, but that's because I can't find them and I know we have four boxes somewhere so I refuse to buy more! Oh the joys of moving.) and replaced it with these apothecary jars from my stash, with some rock vase filler and seashells I gathered in Florida. I think having the glass there makes the countertop seem larger and I just love it.

Prettier towels - yay!  I still want some new ones though.  It's on my list.

Total cost for blue glass vases:  $16 ($26 - $10 gift card)

Anthropologie Hooks: $24

Frames: $2

Spray paint: $6

Total cost for master bathroom mini-makeover = $48