Last One of the Year?

I've been up to my neck in kitchen renovation, a painting project seemingly without an end.  So this evening I spent a little time in the quilt studio just to get away from it all.  I started with a piece of hand dyed fabric that came from my last round of dying, the rest is hand dyed except for one dark purple commercial batik.  Here is the little resulting little quilt I started.  Last one of 2009?  Perhaps, better wait and see I suppose.  The night is still young.
Happy creating and thanks for dropping by my blog!
-Carmen Rose

Bathroom Makeover

Before (well... we'd already started making the mess at this point)Everything was vintage 1975! There were various colors of green in this bathroom, from the avocado tub, to the multicolored floor, to the moss green counter top… and then the gold walls. Mercy! Instead of remodeling, I decided to give it a face lift. No demolition, no tile work, no big mess or big bill. Just a new look.

After:

First of all, I covered this avocado tub...
...with this great new shower curtain from Marimekko.
And all the gold paint had to go! I chose a shade of green that would tie the other greens together and give an updated look.
I picked out a new faucet and hubby installed it for me. I picked up new hardware for the vanity. (Can you tell I have a thing for fleur de lis?!) We painted the vanity and all the trim in a lovely clean ultra white. I removed the hinges and rattle canned them white. Hubby installed new GFI outlets and changed the switches and recepts to white with white plates.
My hubby removed the old lighting and put in track lighting, with two pendants lights and some spots. I love how the glass shades echo the black lines in the shower curtain and the flexibility of track lighting spots.

I must admit to loving my new TP holder which is now on the end of the vanity to the right of the throne rather than on the wall to the left.
I like how the new towel holder works to cover up the intercom system a bit. Though I love having music from my ipod piped to every room in the house, I think the wall units are kind of ugly.
The "towel rack" is ready for towels, and that wall is ready for artwork! So I'd better get to work!
We were able to do all the work ourselves with help from my Mom & Dad who dropped by to help paint and re-hang the doors. It was far cheaper than a remodel job and we have a nice sense of accomplishment in the transformation.

Thanks for stopping by.

After the Rain

The rain gave way a little while this afternoon and I ventured out to see what was happening on the outside. This is our first Spring in this house so I don’t know what kinds of plants are even in my yard at this point. Here are a few of the high points. I haven't touched anything, I have not so much as removed a single weed. I will eventually get out there and try to work a little order on the chaos, but at this point I don't even know what everything is.
I believe this patch of tall things are going to burst into lovely peonies soon enough, but I’m little concerned about the vine that surrounds the patch. Hmm… Anyone know how to get rid of poison ivy without succumbing to its horrors? And some lovely honeysuckle below.
And again, lovely batch of lily of the valley, with the sentinel poison ivy… argh! And slippery rocks. Note to self, do not stand on slippery rocks after the rain. (Well, duh!)
This pretty pink thing comes in a bush form, never seen one of these before. But it's pink, so I love it.
How long will it bloom? What else does it do? I'll be watching.
Big thorny thing with just a few sprouting rose leaves. Hmmm... I am told it is yellow and something really special by the neighbor. Looks like it has been badly neglected and I'm not sure I'm a rose bush kind of gardener but I'll be watching this one with interest to see what happens. Maybe I could become a rose bush kind of gardener. I remember when I was a child helping with the care of the rose gardens each Spring and Fall, it was a big job but so fun to see a pretty bloom on one of the plants. (Provided you can get it before the bugs do.)
Another rose, I wonder what this one will do.
I should be walking around my house more, this one caught me by surprise, I hadn't even known these lovely lavender ladies were even there.
I need to spend some time making a plan for my yard. We aren't going to do a veggie garden this year but hopefully some plants in containders on the deck will yield a bit of this and that. That should work.