The wedding dress

Is it shocking to post my wedding dress on the blog?  Not for me.  Shaun has seen me in it, and it's no secret to any of my friends and family that I was going for a retro 50s-style dress.  I ordered the Edmonton in Ivory from Dolly Couture, and I'm thrilled with the dress!  After a scary initial try-on where I wasn't able to zip it, I'm happy to say after a month of hard gym work it is now a bit loose.  Forgive the grainy, nighttime, super-zoomed pics...here it is:

As you can see, I have yet to figure out how to use my camera timer and tripod....but who cares, you get the idea!  The shoes are Bordello by Pleaser Violette 06.  Unfortunately, they only carry whole sizes and the 8's I got from Endless were falling off my feet.  

I'm not sure if I love them, so the jury is still out on returning them and getting a 7 in this same pair (they are quite comfy despite being too big), or a competely different pair.  I do love the retro look and fun toe detail - plus they are only a 3.5 inch heel, lower than most evening shoes. 

What do you think?  Would you ever order a wedding dress online without trying it on first?

Reflecting Pool

I got an email from a reader that was having trouble locating Ralph Lauren paint and really wanted to use 'Reflecting Pool' in her bathroom.  I love it so much, I used it in my closet:

My front hall:

And my downstairs bath....I love how it sometimes looks more green, sometimes more blue depending on the light. 

I found out that RL paint is only sold in select True Value stores and their own stores, so that was a bummer.  Lucky for you, I have the formula for the color mixed in Behr paint - which is what I used because I'm cheap and didn't want to pay for RL paint. 

In related news, this is one hot shade these days...do you think John and Sherry were inspired by my closet when picking the color for their guest room?  haha

Young House Love

The colors are nearly identical, no? 

Obviously, we all have great taste. 

So, I cleaned again

This time I had to do something about our disgusting garbage can. 

Ok, it was way worse than this shows.  Let me try a closeup. 

It was like this all over the outside, and don't even get me started on the inside of the lid!  I decided to give Shaklee Scour Off a try on this gross dried food-drippiness. 

Have you tried it?  It's a thick paste that smells like cherries and won't "burn off your nosehairs" - it actually says that on their site!  Here it is with my oldest yuckiest sponge just waiting to be slathered on. 

And slather I did.  I buffed it (with water) all over the outside of the can.  In some spots, I used a lot of elbow grease as well.  Ok, I got a pretty good bicep workout.  I can't lie. 

And afterwards I used a soft towel and a bit more water to remove the paste.  Here are the very nice results!

And the full can in all her sparkly prettiness! 

I'm very happy with the results, it looks brand new!  For the record, I bought my Scour Off on ebay about a year ago because I didn't win it on a blog giveaway.  I have been using it since then for polishing faucets, cleaning the stove, and many other things.  I'm glad I picked some up!

Pine-Ola silver polish

I've had the fun opportunity to try out lots of Howard Products since I got my 'care package' from the owner of the company last fall.  He read my review of Restor-A-Finish and Feed-N-Wax and promptly emailed me to offer this amazing bounty of goodies for free: 

Holy stash, right?  I decided to try out the silver polish one sunny afternoon.

The victim was this ice bucket I've had for years.  And clearly, have never polished.  Or removed dead bugs from the inside.  Anyway...

I washed it well to get all the loose dirt off, put the polish on as directed, and buffed it with a soft cloth.  Wowsa, it worked!

Now I just have to do the inside.  UGH!  Hopefully nobody looks in there because I just haven't gotten around to it yet. 

Stop looking inside my bucket, will ya??

Our closet is full of coats again

Thank you all for your nice comments about my paint color!  This is the final post about our little closet, so I hope you can read one more.  Wednesday night, I got all my hooks attached and the shoe rack assembled.  Here is the closet all empty and waiting for our crap.....  

It was so pretty I didn't really want to hang anything in it!  The bamboo shoe rack is from Amazon and holds my few athletic shoes.  These bronze hooks are from Target:

I also got some double prong hooks from Target for the back of the closet.

They are perfect for all my scarves.  This isn't even all of the winter scarves I own.  I sort of have a sickness, I think. 

And here is all our stuff, back in and organized. 

Here's a closeup of the bamboo shoe rack.  I love it, but egads what a blurry pic!  It's really beautiful, and the turned-up edge is genius, your shoes can't possibly fall off. 

I bought the wood hangers on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond for $3.50 a 6-pack.  I also only bought 18.  If the hangers are all being used, we have to take a coat out to get another one in.  No more jumbled mess!  (famous last words, eh?)

The Orla Kiely bin was put back in, all of our gloves are in there.  You know, the ones that are still matching pairs.  The rest of the shelf space is for Shaun's clown shoes. 

I love having the hooks on the side because let's face it, I'm lazy.  I will definitely use them for hanging a coat or two when I don't feel like going through all that work of actually putting them on hangers.   For now, more scarves!!

And a lone hat under the window...

Cost breakdown:

Paint and primer: leftover from previous projects

4 large hooks: $16
4 double prong hooks: $7

Shoe rack:  $35

Hangers: $12

Total: $70.  Not bad for this before and after!

ps - you better believe there was a trip to Goodwill after this closet redo! 

Coat closet painted

After many days of scraping, sanding, priming and painting, I can finally say I don't need to bring a paintbrush inside this closet ever again.  It took forever.  Here she is:

I thought long and hard about paint color.  I hate white closets, so I needed color or pattern.  I briefly thought about stenciling or adding beadboard, but I knew it would take forever and would always be hidden with coats and stuff, so it just wasn't worth the effort.  The color is Ralph Lauren 'Reflecting Pool', the same as the hallway. 

I was able to use some leftover gray primer in the closet, it made it possible to only do ONE coat of the teal with minor touchups.  How sweet is that?

I love the color!  I know it's dark, but I felt free to take liberties since the window brightens it up considerably.  And if you're looking for something at night, good luck!   

The shelves and trim turned out nice and crispy as well. 

What do you think?  Am I crazy for putting such a deep color in a small closet?

Coat closet part 2

So, this baby was looking ok once it was cleared out.  From a distance. 

Then you look a little closer at the paint job...

Woo hoo!!!  A barrel of monkeys must've helped Boozie with this project!

Oh hell no!  They put latex paint over oil-base paint without using primer all throughout this house.  It scrapes off like confetti.  All over my hair.

Okay, the filthy floor was all me.  At least I made a little money while cleaning it, though.

I used these little 1x1 scraps to help out with the 'low shelf' problem I hated above the hanging bar.  We had them laying around, so they were free!

Wala!  I also cut a long one to fit under the back of the shelf.  Then, I had to address the missing shelf for the top supports.  The only scraps I had were not deep enough, so I improvised by combining a leftover shelf from our built-in project and a 2.5 wide pine scrap to make an 11.5 inch deep shelf. 

They fit pretty nice when I got at em with our trusty miter saw and sandpaper.  No one will ever know it's two pieces!  Except all you fine people.  And anyone that sneaks into the closet for '7 minutes in heaven.'   

And here is the planned setup, before priming and painting.  And apparently, before I decided to miter the front edge of the side supports!  Silly me.

I think it will be grand.  Now I just have to prime and paint every lick of trim, wall, ceiling, shelf and window in this tiny space.  And attach all the new pieces with the nail gun.  Then caulk all the seams and re-paint them.  And find hooks and accessories.  Argh!  Stupid closet.