my bathroom, on a budget...

one major complaint i have about apartment living is the minuscule size of the bathrooms (among MANY other things). and while it's taken me several attempts to get my bathroom to a point that i can live with, there are still a lot of things i would change about it. what i do love about it is the wall color, the accessorie hardware, the sconces, the shower curtain, the fact that is has a good sized bath tub, and the full wall mirror on one side. here are some of those things....

cheapo 'artwork' from the christmas tree shop

crystal springs blue from benjamin moore's classic colors

granita knob from anthropologie

cotton waffle weave shower curtain from target

and a little lighting trick i like is to use soft pink bulbs in my sconces. granted it's not the best light for applying make-up (you might come out of the bathroom looking like a hooker) but it's a flattering light to look at yourself in otherwise. just be sure to have your main overhead light outfitted with a daylight bulb for make-up application, and put them on different switches...

soft pink light bulb from sylvania

there are a few areas that i'd certainly like to update. first would be the tile work for sure, right now they're a creamy colored porcelain tile that i don't love, at all. for the floors i'd probably do a 2x6 carrara border with a carpet of the following tile inside...

2" honed carrara hexagonal tile

OR

honed carrara mini-brick in a herringbone pattern

and for the shower walls i'd do a simple 3x6 subway tile on a running bond with 3 rows of 5/8x5/8 honed carrara decorative boarder at about 5 1/2' up from the tub floor (i actually did this is another project recently and it was simple and gorgeous)...

3x6 white subway tile

1x1 carrara mosaic tile for the boarder

then i'd certainly swap out some of the plumbing fixtures for some of these...

5" rain shower rose from rohl

c-spout widespread faucet with cross handles from rohl

eco promenade elongated toilet from toto

unfortunately space is limited (actually, it's totally cramped) so i have to have a vanity with under cabinet storage for all my excessive amounts of product (the medicine cabinets on the opposite wall just don't cut it). i also like the fact that i have a 'banjo cut' vanity top which goes over the tank of the toilet to provide more surface area. i would of course swap out my current vanity surface for an ogee edged, polished carrara marble top with a 4" backsplash, but keep the 'banjo cut' feature. and of course i'd love to have a washstands with double sinks someday...

gramercy double metal washstand from restoration hardware

and while i love the fact that i have a full bath tub, someday i'd love to have a frameless shower enclosure with a great bench seat (for shaving my legs of course!) and a separate freestanding tub. just add that on to a list of many...


one last thing...it would be fabulous to have floor to ceiling open shelving, maybe with some nice seagrass storage baskets, rolled towels, decoration, etc. and i love, love, love that ladder....

image courtesy of decor pad

small kitchen, small budget renovating ideas to come later...

wedding weekend in vermont...

we're back from a great weekend of celebrating our friends new life together. and although it rained on their big day, the couple certainly didn't let it 'rain on their parade', so to speak.

first off, let me just tell you how cute this wedding was. i knew it would be fabulous from the moment we got their save the date & wedding invitation in the mail...




and the wedding program couldn't have been cuter either. i haven't shown the inside of the program here, but let me just tell you, there were 13 bridesmaids, 8 groomsmen and about a dozen little 'flower children'...



i'm officially a fan of the basin harbor club now too. i think everyone should take a family vacation there one summer. had we known how dog friendly it was we would have brought our girls up too. our room was so cottagey & quaint...



and these little gifts were delivered to our room at cocktail hour from the bride & groom...



the details of the wedding really were picture perfect, and aside from the photographer, i might have been the only person snapping away with her camera like a madwoman to capture them...




the bride was gorgeous, but i expected nothing less from this girl, she has impeccable taste and it showed on her wedding day too...



yes, enormous wedding party...



and the bridesmaids looked stunning on this j. crew dress in light pewter, adorned by lovely turquoise dangled earrings, a gift from the bride (turquoise was obviously the accent color to this pink, pale grey & white wedding color scheme)...



the boyfriend and i had a blast. he was reunited with his old college mates, got to play a little golf (despite the rain), drank a whole lotta' beers, and on the ride home yesterday he turned to me and said, 'my face hurts from laughing so much this weekend'...a true sign of a good weekend...

we're headed to vermont...

we leave tomorrow morning for vermont, headed to annie & ross's wedding at the basin harbor club. the boyfriend and i went to college with ross and we had the great pleasure of meeting annie last summer over labor day. i'm super excited for this wedding, annie has fabulous personal style so i'm sure her wedding is going to be chalk full of great little details...their wedding invitations was A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E, I'll post them when we get back. really looking forward to meeting their wedding photographer too, amanda of orchard cove photography! more to come when we return...

image courtesy of orchard cove photography

does anyone know what day it is?...

big, big, big fan of the cavalinni easel calenders at paper source right now. would look uber-cute on my uber-messy work desk...

playing in my head...

does anyone else absolutely love this song, or is it just me???....

everything's better with a little bubble in it...

my sister's friend told me about the carbonator she has a home and how wonderful it is, she carbonates everything from her water to her wine! i don't know about you but i'm horrible at drinking my 8-10 glasses of water a day, water's just so boring...which is probably one of the many factors of why i get such debilitating migraines. but i do love sparkling waters, especially the flavored polar waters, so i think maybe i'll ask for one of these bad boys for christmas this year...

jenny yoo, i love you...

between the wedding i'm going to in vermont, my sisters in colorado in september, and the several other girls i know who recently got engaged there's a lot of 'shop talk'...for dresses that is. i'm certainly not the authority on this sort of thing, but i've always loved jenny yoo's collection. i especially like her 'alternative' wedding dress designs, and i love how her bridesmaids dresses don't exactly scream bridesmaid...and i also love her assortment of color selections...

we lost a good one...

it could just be that i have a soft spot in my heart for little old men (although there's nothing little about ted kennedy or his personality), but i got super emotional this morning when i turned on the news to discover that ted kennedy passed away last night in his hyannis home. i remember a point in my sisters life when she read everything she could about the kennedy family mystique, and in turn sparked my interest as well. and living in massachusetts you can't escape their presence/legacy either...


i may take a walk down to the rose kennedy greenway today or tomorrow to say a silent prayer for him and his family...