Bathroom Art

I have been collecting paper towel (and toilet tissue) tubes for a while now, just waiting for inspiration to strike. I had a picture in mind, but I couldn't muster enough confidence in it to apply it.

Today I found this beauty over on chezerby:

Go check out the blog about their bathroom renovation and this lovely tube art!

Now I have a direction to go - wish me luck!

Verse

Kimba over at A Soft Place to Land really seems to be a fun, fascinating person. She has a decorating blog, which is how I found her. Lots of fun DIY projects and a strong work-with-what-you-got attitude make her blog worth the read. But that isn't the only reason I love stopping by her little acre of internet.

She has a Sunday Morning feature every week, where she posts an interesting Bible verse that speaks ot her. This week, I found it to be very encouraging:

I have swept away your sins like a cloud.

I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist.

Oh, return to me,

for I have paid the price to set you free.
Isaiah 44:22 (New Living Translation)

Mid-October morning

This morning is not unlike other mornings, or at least it hasnt been so far. I didn't sleep particularly well, but I used my extra time this morning to do some stretching. Now I feel energized, as if I had rested peacefully through the night, instead of kicking and tossing and waking.

I'm sitting at my desk with my yummy cider, and Im trying to make my brain go three different directions. This, unfortunately, is very much like every other morning. I am trying to focus on work, to accomplish the urgent tasks set forth by the foreign overlords. I am also obsessing (as per usual) over our budget; when to pay which bills, how much to save, what events have we got planned, etc. Thirdly, I am plotting, in every imaginable detail, our new home.

Brad and I are buying a house. We are so excited, and often terrified, and I have trouble focusing on much else for long periods of time. I am decorating the living room, or I am shopping for furniture, or I am making a drying rack, or I am arranging closets - all of this in my head. In real life, all I can do is obsess over paper work and schedule, and plan ahead to rental trucks and utilities. Not as much fun, but just as exciting. For me, anyways.

This weekend, weather and wallet permitting, I intend to start on the drying rack. It is a handy little DIY I picked up from Centsational Girl, my fave new blog to follow. I am falling in lurve with so many blogs as of late, mostly involving home decor or event planning (Hostess with the Mostess is like party planning on crack... in a good way...) After the drying rack, I intend to tackle my hideous dining room chairs. Lacy said she would recover them as our wedding present, so I may drag her in to help if she is in town.

All in all, it has been a productive week and an exciting month. We are on pins and needles a bit, thanks to the closing date being pushed to October 30th, but the anitci.............pation is fun as well as frustrating. Wish us all the best, and keep our safety and sanity in your prayers as we move.

Blogs I Love

Here are some cool blogs/sites I am watching right now, and what makes them rock:
www.ikeahacker.blogspot.com
Ikea Hacker is an interesting version of a DIY site, because the instructions aren't usually specific. It's more like, "Look at the cool, creative thing I made out of a and b. What can you do?" There are lots of things on this site that I wish I could make, and even a few I probably could (maybe even would) make, and if nothing else, it is a great source of creative inspiration. For example, the latest idea that I am actually considering for myself is the Money bank. You take a deep frame, put in a picture of what you are saving for (ie a trip to DisneyWorld), and you make a slot for money. So whenever you put money into the bank, you see your goal shine up at you! This would make a great gift for kids, I think.

http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/
Few things are as therapeutic as looking at yummy and funny pics of cupcakes. Don't believe me? Give it a try. Tell me these don't make your mouth water.

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
Seriously, these are hilarious. Laughter (and catharsis) is one of the things more therapeutic than cupcakes. You get to read the notes people leave behind, from subtle to brick-heavy, from polite to hateful, from gentle to ALL CAPS AND PUNCUATION!!!!! If they don't brighten your day from laughing, at least you can say, "Well, at least I don't have THAT problem..."

It always makes me think of Eddie Izzard.

"People of Berlin... I am a donut!"

"People of Hamburg... I am a Hamburger!"

"People of Frankfurt..."

You get the idea. So whenever mention is made of Hamburg, I think of Eddie Izzard. Or at least I used to; now I think of my amazing friend Amy with is working on a costume crew in Germany for a touring production of "Porgy and Bess". She wrote this blog about her visits to museums and monuments while in Hamburg, and the photographs are amazing! She has everything from Nazi propaganda to McDonald's endorsements in other languages - SCORE! Some would say those two things are actually similar, but I digress...