Month: April 2015

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Friday (Kinda) Favorites

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This has been one of the most chaotic weeks of my life… (Said the woman with no kids) So instead of some fancy tutorial or renovation blog I’m just going to show you what things have been making my crazy life a little easier and more relaxing of late.

I’ll start with what helped me out a bit with my (thank goodness it’s over) bathroom remodel

This marvelous triangular brush is Ah-May-Zing. I (and my cat strangely) have a thing for brushes. If you have the right one it does most of the work for you. This is true with makeup and painting, and this brush was excellent for getting tight edges around tile work and molding.

Can I just say “Why didn’t I think of this?” These shower curtain hooks are genius. I love the little metal hooks with the rolling cylinders at the top but I hate the way they pinch shut. I also hate trying to get a liner and a curtain on them, especially when the curtain doesn’t have grommets. Enter a sturdy metal double hook. One side for the liner one side for the fabric shower curtain.

Ok on to pampering awesomeness, I’ve needed this as stressed out as my week has been.

I’ve been trying out some new cleansers, and new cleansing methods, I’ve used a Clarisonic and purity face wash as my evening cleanse for the last year and a half but with everything in my bathroom being packed away in boxes I downsized to these little sample sizes and a Konjac sponge. The sponge has been absolutely amazing, especially in the morning for a quick cleanse/rinse and the Fresh Soy Face Cleanser is wonderful once you get used to the somewhat odd smell. Dr. Brandt’s Microdermabrasion is absolutely wonderful as well. I generally steer clear of microderm partly because my skin is very sensitive and because with a Clairisonic I’m getting manual exfoliation on a regular basis already. Unlike most microdermabrasion washes this has a very creamy and hydrating effect and is not at all drying or irritating even on very sensitive skin like mine.

My everyday makeup drawer (which you may have seen here) got an overhaul as well. I managed to weed out some product and find room for my everyday skin care, which is nice because it gets used even on days when I don’t use makeup.

First off is my Mario Badescu Rosewater spray, I use that after every wash simply because it’s very soothing. Then in the mornings I just pop on some Renewed Hope in a Jar from Philosophy and call it good. It works great as a standalone moisturizer and works wonderfully under makeup. As you can tell by the amount of product in there, my night time routine is a little more extensive. After my rosewater spray I go in with Clinique Smart Serum… I’m not a big fan of Clinique skin care, it’s always been very harsh on my skin but I absolutely adore this serum. Then I go in with my all-time favorite night cream Korres Wild Rose Night time Brightening Sleeping Facial (Believe it or not that name used to be longer). Those two things have been really great at helping my acne scars to fade, helping minimize pore size and improve tone and texture. Just as a testament this is about my 5th jar of Korres and my 2nd bottle of smart serum. They are definitely repurchasing products.

I do have a couple of new things in there one is Dr Brandts Needles No More… OMG!… It works… It possible works to well. I put it on my smile lines a couple nights in a row I went to work and low and behold, I had no little makeup creases in my smile lines anymore. So maybe it doesn’t work to well, but frankly I like my smile lines, those are the good kind of wrinkles. It shows that I don’t always have resting bitch face.

I’ve also been trying out Nars latest foundation … this is supposed to be a post about favorites… so I’m not going to talk about Nars latest foundation

A few new things in the makeup department too, Urban Decay’s Naked Flushed in Native. I know I’ve bashed UD before… and I stand by not liking their eye shadow pallets. But this face trio is actually pretty wonderful. As is the wonderful Stila Window to the soul pallet that my bf got me (because he is just that amazing)

And if you were wondering The necklace in my featured image is from Etsy Shop owner VintageWonderlandGA who makes custom jewelry from vintage pieces. And of course the display piece was made by me a couple of weeks ago for this post here. 

Let’s move on to my favorite things that I don’t have. Like for example ….

this ENTIRE ISLE at target… I mean really, have you been there lately? They have chalk paint!!!! Target needs to pay me (in product) for marketing… OMG pillow forms, seriously I just noticed that, I legitimately need those. Going grocery shopping is so hazardous to my wallet now.

Also my new bathroom needs a mascot and I think it shall be this little guy

He can be found at ModCloth if you were wondering.

Ok thank you for reading my random ramblings, I’m hoping to have something closer to my usual up some time next week (an excuse to go to target?) since I’ll have a more manageable schedule.

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Tiny Bows, Meet Teensey Bubbles

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It all started with this sink a little over two weeks ago. If you’ve been following along on The TinyBows facebook page you’ve likely seen little updates but this is the big transformation.

My Bathroom was A color called “Swimming Pool” and done in ridiculous Gerber daisies as any 14 year old might choose. I still like Gerber daisies. Just not in my decorating choices.

I liked bright colors so much I even painted the door bright green.

In addition to the leaky sink the (oh so lovely) popcorn ceiling started to fall down about ten years ago… As you might be able to tell I just proceeded to scrape the rest of it down

So when we took out the vanity it wasn’t tiled under the cabinet, we knew this going in, the unfortunate part of this is that the cabinent was not a standard size. So we either needed to take up the flooring (not an enjoyable task) or figure out a work around. You might also note that when I painted the walls the first time around I did so directly over the wall paper because this wallpaper is like cement bonded to the wall… Unfortunately that had to go.

So after about a twelve hour day in a steam room we finally got all the wall paper off without too much damage to the dry wall and only minor heat rash and steam burns.

The hideous old brass light fixture came down for a makeover of it’s own

And a paint color was discovered. We seem to choose paint colors based on names. I originally wanted to do it the same color as my office which is called “Sigh” or possibly my bedroom “Blanket” but in the end I was out voted for the aptly named “Teensey Bubbles” from Lowe’s new HGTV Sherwin Williams collection.

We also found our new vanity and sink at Lowes. Due to the original footprint being an odd size we had to build a box around it to make the footprint match. The sides of the box will be painted and the top will be tiled and integrated into the backsplash

The ceiling got the bead board and crown molding treatment (I never want to do a miter cut again) and the door is, thank goodness no longer green.

Hooray no more hideous brass fixtures

And here is the sink post painting of the kickboard and side.

So before and after, keeping in mind the backsplash isn’t done yet. I have to wait a full three weeks for everything to cure before the mastic will bond properly.

I’m so happy to have a functioning bathroom again.

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Rings and Things

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I’m taking a little down time while remodeling the bathroom… But it turns out I’m really bad at down time. I feel like I need to be doing something “productive”. Luckily this morning I had a little inspiration brewing. It all started with this little mouse that a friend got me as an engagement present after I had forgotten to take off my ring while we were working on a project at her house.

Then another friend who is going through a KonMari (I had to google it and it turns out I’ve been doing this technique for years) purge mentioned “aspirational clutter”. You know, all that stuff you have laying around that you go “well, I might need it… One day”. I generally hate stuff like that, but I do have a few odds and ends that have managed to hang around for no reason other than aspirational ones. So today I decided to use some of that crap.

(Admittedly the above is not Aspiration Clutter, most of it has actually already been used… It was just the only cluttered picture I had)

Enter Pinterest where I discovered this blog post (you can follow me on pinterest at TinyBows, as a warning lots of wedding stuff of late)

Then I remembered the tiny sad picture frame I had hanging around because “I swear I’ll find something to do with it”.

As you might have noticed most of its rhinestones are gone, so let’s just make all of them disappear, and break out my trusty decorating friend nail polish.

 

Much improved

On to the backing which I’ll be doing with some scraps of fleece and wide lace ribbon. The fleece is another aspirational hang around, it’s just scrap from a Finn the human hat I made for my boyfriend two halloweens ago.

I just cut circles of the lace and fleece the size of the glass that used to go in the frame then did consecutively smaller circles of the fleece to act as stuffing

Now just one last thing, a straight pin with the head painted with the same nail polish to match. It’s mint candy apple by Essie if you were wondering.

I’m pretty sure I now need to do a big one of these to stick my myriad of broaches in.

And now I have a nice pretty ring holder to sit in the bedroom and a nice pretty (but also durable and unfazed by water) one to go in the kitchen or bathroom.

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Silly Rabbit

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Easter always sneaks up on me. It’s the only holiday that I “celebrate” ( I should say recognize in a completely secular way) that follows the lunar calendar. Meaning it isn’t celebrated on a specific date (for example december 25th or October 31st) or specific day (like say, the fourth Monday in November) so you never really know when it’s coming. Clearly the bunny does what it wants

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Generally i have my seasonal desk vinyets changed out a good while befor a holiday but.. Well, one thing and another I put it up Wednesday. Luckily it’s more springy than anything else. So it will stay there for a while looking slap dashed together.

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I was going to do a little tutorial on how I made the cute little ribbon flowers for it. I was actually channeling the flowers from a friends wedding last year. She had the most beautiful decor I’ve ever seen. Which considering I worked in the industry is saying something.

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Apparently she and I were on the same wavelength this week, because without her even knowing I did this little project she has offered all those flowers to me!!!!

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I will definitely be reverse engineering some for a tutorial at a later date. I also have a feeling that despite lack of storage space or a date the boyfriend ( we decided fiancé is too grown up a word) and I will be hanging on to at least the majority of them until we can have our dream backyard reception/housewarming. Though I think some will need to be sacrificed as a couple of wreaths are in order as well, you can’t just give me flowers and expect me not to make a wreath for you.

Until then back to the grind of fixing the bathroom. For progress reports follow Tiny Bows on Facebook. 

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There Will Be Bows

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Adulting is hard was the alternate title for this.

However, the last couple of weeks has proved to me that despite all attempts to avoid the dreaded adulthood, it has caught up with me. Not only did I somehow get engaged I also managed to land a (nope) two new jobs, I’ve revisited my graphic design days and rediscovered how much I love publisher, I’ve somehow managed to save up a good chunk of a down payment on a house and … Stop… It can’t all be good all at once. Enter the bathroom sink of doom.

So I wash my face every morning and every night, as one should. The other night I was washing my face as usual but when I was done I heard this steady drip drip… the pipes are fine almost like new. However the basin of my sink looks like this.

(and yes that is teal paint stuck to the basin of my very old sink)

Upon further investigation it turns out the drain and tiny fractures in the basin are in fact the culprit. Soooooooooo. Of course it’s not a standard size, and of course I can’t find anything suitable, and of course the cabinet is actually nice but has a kick plate to the floor without tiling under it so if it’s removed I then have to retile (and the tile is actually kind of nice too). Looks like despite all efforts I might have a big project on my hands.

I’ll just ignore that for now and make bows. Bows always make life better.

First I’ll need some felt and hair clips.

And a template, you can find it at this website. I actually used a different one but now that I’ve found this PDF one I’m super excited to use it.

Or you can click on FeltBow  … assuming I have this technology thing figured out

Then just cut the felt from the template

Sew the ends of the large pieces together.

Then sew the back to the circle through the narrow center to create the bow shape. Then just wind the tiny strip of felt around the center of the bow to cinch it and sew it tight.

(That’s not blurry at all… Sorry)

You can then secure it to a hair tie or adorn a wreath what every you would like.

Aaaaaahhhh….. yes life is back to blissful again.