I'm Dreaming of a White Fireplace

I like fireplaces. I like brick. I am not, however fond of my brick fireplace.

These bricks are so uniform they look fake. And they're SHINY. Who ever head of shiny bricks?!

Someday I'd like to put up a white wood facade to cover the bricks. But it's number 443 on the boy's project list. So in the meantime, I'm seriously dreaming of a white fireplace. I don't take painting brick lightly, but I want my living room to look like one of these lovelies:

Rachel Stuart Haas' living room @ decor8

flickr user Panopticon2's fireplace

AB Chao even shared a fireplace painting tutorial on Apartment Therapy

O is for Organization

Like most typical Virgos, I like things best when they're neat and tidy. That includes the junk drawer too. Yesterday I found some small baskets at Dollar General that are the perfect size for organizing small spaces.


I also had two baskets left over, plenty to tidy up one of the new bathroom cabinets.


There, that's much better and for just $2 plus tax.

Fresh Flowers

Buying fresh flowers every week as an offering to your home is one of the suggestions I immediately dismissed from the Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure book (although on the whole I liked the book). Buying flowers that will just die every week feels a little too extravagant to me (did I mention I'm cheap?). I'd much rather invest in a perennial for the garden that's going to bloom and bloom. But I'm starting to get spring fever and I do love how flowers brighten a room up. I'm not a houseplant person, but I really need to see some blooms!

I also love, love, LOVE daffodils and tulips, so when I spied $4 tulips tonight at Wal-Mart, I had to get them. My plan is to photograph the tulips to track just how long they cheap tulips can last. Stay tuned! This way it won't just be an impulse buy, it will be valuable research!

It's 13F -- Time to Winter Sow!

Seed collecting can be very addicting. My seed collection is starting to get out of hand, and this pic was taken before I bought ten more packs of seeds today (for just $1 at Walgreens). So today, despite that it was below 20 degrees out, I winter sowed a few more jugs. In the kitchen of course.

My little cluster of ghettos greenhouses is growing, but I'm going to need to get busy soon if I plan to sow all those seeds. So far I've planted Penstemon, Coneflowers, Canterbury Bells and Sweet Peas.

Wondering what all this winter sowing business is about? Find out more at wintersown.org and check out Kylee's pictorial at Our Little Acre.

Bargain Bulbs!

I found some bargain bulbs at Sears Hardware tonight. I picked up four Paperwhite kits, an herb kit and a crocus bulbs and vases for $6 and some change total. Hopefully it's not too late for them to still bloom.


When I first read about growing bulbs inside I thought it was way too much trouble, especially for a gal in a tiny house with a cat who loves to destroy plants. But after that freakishly warm weather we had, I'm jonesing for spring bigtime. Plus I need SOMETHING to show for the next Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

Third Law of Home Improvement

This weekend was a DIY extravaganza at min hus. Unfortunately, it was a DIY weekend that fell under the third law of home improvement. You know, the law that says any home improvement project you undertake will take at least three times longer than you think to complete it. It all started innocently enough with my tub.

Sure it looks fine enough, but the caulking around the tub was starting to mildew and pull away from the tile. The final straw was when my cat pulled off a chunk of loose caulk and tried to eat it. My plan was to re-caulk the tub in an hour, two at the most, then help the boyfriend paint the basement.

The first problem started as soon as I cut into the caulk on the outside of the shower door and water squirted out. This wasn't a complete shock because it didn't look like the inside of the frame was caulked where it should have been. I showed J and he said there was no way I could re-caulk the door with water stuck in the frame. He suggested taking out the doors, since I had been considering getting rid of them anyway. While nothing special, the doors look decent enough from a distance, but examine them closely and you'll see paint splotches, bits of rust and mildew beyond the reach of my scrubbing.

So we took out the doors and frame to find this gruesome sight (warning, if you're eating, you might want to skip this):


Gross isn't it? J said have fun and went back to his project. I cleaned the stains and mildew as best I could (the magic eraser really is magic), then set to removing the old caulk, re-caulking, and then cleaning that off in a huff since it looked terrible, and re-caulking again. Very tedious stuff. Tip: if, like me, you're not a super-neat caulk-artist then I definitely recommend using painter's tape. Though it's still not perfect or completely done, it finally became somewhat presentable.

Now I just have to decide if I prefer a shower curtain or doors.

I loved the doors when I first saw them, but living with them is another story. They make cleaning the shower difficult, keeping the track and doors pristine is impossible and since my bathroom is so tiny I manage to whack my elbow on the doors at least once a week. All of these things have me leaning toward keeping the shower curtain. Anyone else care to weigh in?

Living the IKEA Dream

This man is living my dream: Mark Malkoff Lives in IKEA

(found via Apartment Therapy)