Happy Friday and Hello to the BBA!

Happy Friday Everyone!  Recently my sweet friend Sharla from BeadedTail talked me into joining the Blogging Business Artisans team, and I am excited because I feel like I've finally found a team that is a good fit for me...  I've tried to be on Etsy treasury teams in the past but I could never keep up with them, however my blog - however random it may be, is something that I've always tried to maintain, so joining a group of other blogging artisans is going to be great, and I'm especially excited for the monthly team challenges because I've been trying to find a way to learn to craft for fun, rather than always looking at new ideas from a business point of view, so perhaps this team really will be just exactly what I needed!  (Thank you all so much for having me, and I look forward to getting to know you better!) ♥

I haven't had a chance to visit everyone's blog yet, but so far I've found a few new 

blogs that I love, and wanted to share them with you...

We are moving along slowly but surely with the bathroom remodel.  I knew this wasn't going to be a weekend project, it'll probably be at least a few more weeks before it's done.  But the good news is that we're saving a lot of money doing the work ourselves, and I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure what my husband was capable of, since this is the first big project we've done to this house, but he's really doing a great job, taking things one day at a time, watching tons of YouTube videos and reading tutorials online.  If there's a will there's a way, and I have to say I am actually really proud of him.  :)  I'll post another update on that next week.

I hope your week has been well, and you're looking forward to a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday Everyone, xo!

Under Construction!!

We've been quietly pondering our next house project and on quite a whim last week, we decided to start ripping apart our bathroom.  Originally we had planned on rebuilding our back porch this summer, and making a bigger deck out of the space, but we've known we had dry rot issues in our shower looming too, so it was very quickly and suddenly decided the other day while chatting and inspecting things that it was TIME.  Time for the bathroom remodel to begin. 

outhouse chic bathroom

Here's a picture to try and explain where we are at with things, and the big to-do that's the main issue we are dealing with.  Our house was built in 1920, so at the time, I can imagine there was a claw foot tub in the bathroom, and the plumbing would then have been on the outside of the wall, something like the picture above...

Fast forward about a hundred years, and throw in some not so well done renovations by some not so skilled craftsmen, and you've got a problem that needs to be corrected.  We need to move the plumbing back into the wall, where it should be, but this is turning out to not be as affordable easy as we thought it would be...  At this point we have two options.  A, we could leave the plumbing where it is and have a small tub, or B, we could pay the price move the plumbing, and finally have a standard sized tub like normal people.  (haha)  Most likely we will chose option B, and either pay the plumber, or phone a friend, but for now, we are working on re-leveling the floor, re-dry walling areas where we knocked the old plaster out, and generally preparing the space for being put back together again.

Over the weekend we picked out a new vanity with sink top, and a new medicine cabinet/mirror... I'm pretty excited about what we chose because neither of us really had anything specific in mind for updating the space, so we went about our shopping very open minded and both fully agreed almost immediately on the vanity we selected.  As you can tell I am pretty excited about it, but I'm keeping it a secret for now, so I can hopefully in the next few weeks, show you the full reveal.

But if you can't wait till then to see what we're up to, here's my inspiration board on Pinterest with some of our design ideas.  Picture something spa-like with a twist of mission contemporary.  I think it will be a surprise even to us, how the whole thing comes out, but I'm loving the way simple elements can change the whole feel of a room...

houzz bath designs

Remodelista Sourcebook

hgtv design portfolio

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and a very Happy Mother's Day!

Soon I'll be putting together a Construction Sale for my shop, so make sure you are
on my Mailing List for the details!

a Day-cation at the Beach!

Monday the hubby and I decided to take a day-cation to the coast, and stretch our legs a bit.  It's been a while since we've been there, and oddly so too, because the coast is only an hour away from where we live.  Once the weather starts getting nice though, naturally the beach has more tourists and visitors of all kinds, so we try to sneak over on days when we don't expect so much.  

{ Szabo's - Newport, OR }

When we got there, the sky was blue and the weather was beautiful so we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants for a late lunch/early dinner, and then headed down to a favorite beach spot to fly kites, and look for agates.  But by the time we finished eating, a layer of clouds had moved in, which was fine by me, because I don't handle a lot of sun very well anyways...

Of course the pooches are always happy for an adventure, and Sarah is always waiting for something exciting to happen.  And, if you get lucky and the tide is low enough (which it turned out to be when we got there)... you can sometimes find tide pools with starfish and sea urchins...

Years ago, when we discovered this spot of rocks and tide pools, there were also lots of agates and other pretty rocks to be discovered on the beach... but I imagine with every season, and even every storm... the beach changes, which means we didn't really find any treasures along the sand this time around, but simply getting to visit the beach and just enjoy ourselves was a treat enough.

 We've grown very fond of the Oregon Coast, and dream of someday living there... Until then we visit as often as we can, and return to this very place often, because you just never know what you might find along this stretch of beach.  Should you visit the Oregon Coast anytime soon, and are in the Newport area, you can find this little hide-away by parking in the gravel area on Curtis Street near mile marker 150 a few miles south of Newport.  Once you get down to the beach walk as far south as you can see (about a half mile or so) and you'll eventually end up here.  Off in the distance you can see seals perched on rocks out in the ocean, and the waves crashing in can be stunning and beautiful too.  Ahh the Oregon Coast.  We feel so blessed to live near such a place.  It really is special here. 

Hope your week is going well, I've been busy playing catch-up, but it was all well worth it!
What have you been up to lately?

♥ Janell