BATHROOM DECOR: Raymond was in the middle of painting the hall bathroom when I decided to move the guest room and the sewing room, so in the flurry of switching around the two rooms, I never got around to mentioning about the painting. Originally that bathroom was painted a very dark avocado green, walls and ceiling alike, which made it a very dark room.
I love green and consider green to be a neutral color because it goes with everything, so avocado was fine for a while. Nonetheless, I have always had a love/hate thing going with avocado. When my mother re-did her kitchen and dining room she did everything in avocado. All the appliances and the floor were avocado. The curtains on the windows were too. It was very fashionable at the time, but it was a lot of avocado day after day, year after year. So, I knew it wouldn’t be long before we painted that bathroom.
Over our years together, we have amassed a wide assortment of towels in various shades of blue, lavender, green and rose. Shortly after we moved in, we found a nice shelf thingy to go above the toilet to hold the towels and look pretty nice. And this room was perfect for all the angels and cherubs I made in ceramics in Florida. It even has room for the three little angel pictures I got a hundred years ago at Wacama Pottery in Illinois. You can see one angel peeking above the shower curtain. One of these days, I will try to get pics of the others. It’s hard to take good pictures in there. Besides the fact that it is a long narrow room, if the bathroom light is on, the colors in the picture are too light, if the bathroom light is off, the colors are too dark. I took the picture below by standing across the hall in the guest bedroom so the doorway blocked the light fixture.
After much consideration, I decided the bathroom would look better in lavender, so we got some paint and he got right to work (what a sweetie he is). We got white paint for the ceiling, which made a big difference all by itself. I picked out what I thought was between a light and a medium lavender. When it first was on the wall, I was worried that it was too dark, but now I think it is perfect.
A couple days ago, we went shopping for a new shower curtain and eventually settled on one at Bed Bath and Beyond. It has rose and lavender flowers and some green leaves and stems on a translucent white background that looks a little like mulberry or parchment paper. Yesterday, we got a toilet seat cover and rug in a dark purple. I think that touch of grape sets off the room nicely. So here is a picture of our hall bathroom all fixed up:
The new wall color, the towels, the angels, the shower curtain and the rug all look good together. It looks like a whole different room to me.
The counter top went really well with the old green paint — it looks kind of orange in this picture, but it is actually an ugly guacamole greenish color. We are planning on replacing it eventually, once we decide on what will look best. Until then, I am pretending that It looks OK.
BIRTHDAY PRESENT: Raymond decided what he wanted this year for his birthday – another TV! I figured why make him wait until September if he knows the one he wants. After some research, he decided on this one:
The one on the bottom is the new one. It is 42″ and will be mounted on the wall once he finds the right wall holder thingy for it. He is very happy with it. I am happy that he is happy.
The one on the wall has moved to the master bedroom. It is 30″. I will post pictures as soon as he gets them completely arranged in their new homes.
LIVING ROOM DECOR: The TV that was in the master bedroom was in a big armoire that goes with the bedroom furniture. The TV that got moved out of the bedroom is awaiting a new owner.
Since the new (to the bedroom anyway) TV is going on the wall, that armoire is not needed anymore. I had linens in it’s drawers, but there is room for them in other drawers in the room. So, we moved it to the living room! It is now my ‘supply cabinet.’ I think it looks much better next to my computer than that stack of plastic drawers it replaced. And it has lots of room in it, so I may be able to clear off my computer desk. That will make the whole room look neater and better. Here is what it looks like now:
I moved the plastic drawer cart into the sewing room where it will become home to crafty stuff.
QUILTING: So that I could measure the full width of the pick-and-choose quilt top, I had the brilliant idea to put my two little tables together end to end, making a narrow table long enough to lay the whole quilt across. I think this allows a more accurate measure than my only other option which would have been to lay it on the floor in the living room. Besides the awkwardness of crawling around trying to measure the quilt on the floor, there would have been the added challenge of trying to keep the cats off and out from under the quilt while I was measuring. So, I thought I would show you a picture of the long table with the quilt on it:
I love how versatile this sewing room is. In this picture, you can almost see that I have two of the first border strips attached on opposite ends. Well, you can see the border on the closest end. Today, I should get the other two sides on and maybe the second borders as well. Then it will be just a matter of quilting this giant thing. I have the binding strip already assembled.
Today, my grandson Joey is 12 years old. Happy Birthday Joey!
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for taking the time to read through it all. Until next time . . .
Towanda 
Great idea with the tables together. I’m going to do that next time I layer a quilt. I end up crawling around on the floor. Cats are easier to keep off than my two toddler boys and big lab who thinks every blanket on the floor is his bed. You did a great job on the quilt- it’s beautiful.
Thanks for the kind words. When my kids were toddlers, I couldn’t do anything crafty at all. Well, I managed to crochet a bit. Good thing I didn’t know how to quilt then or I would have had terrible withdrawals from it.
I have one more big quilt in mind and after that I plan to stick with wall hangings and smaller quilts that I can quilt all on my own.