8 months later...

No seriously its taking me a half a year to really get this blog going....I think I'm ready....then again I'll probably take another 6 months to post something else!  HAHA...it's part of my life's quest to get organized...

Anyway...patching and painting this powder room.  As you may recall it started off looking like this

Lovely burnt orange color to really bring out the orange in all that oak wood.  Blllllaahhhhh.  So after taking out those ceramic towel bars and tp holders and creating giant holes that we had to patch....we picked up a can of OOPS paint at good ol' Lowes and got to work!

Woo!  We were so very lucky to find this can of paint in a fantastic light grey.  There is no color name, obviously, but it's preeeeeetty close to Martha Stewarts Nimbus Cloud.  After hanging a mirror (which I actually already had), this bathroom is really starting to turn itself around!

My immediate goals are to get a nice rug for the bathroom, paint the vanity and the ceiling, and update that horrible laminate countertop (which means I'll do the sink and the faucet then too).  The bathroom is very LONG so I think a rug and some stuff on the walls will do nicely!  I'm thinking a navy for the vanity...something with impact.  I have to do things slowly as I'm on a super strict budget..but I think things will come along nicely!

Not so Quickie Powder Room Fix up

The day before Thanksgiving I moved into this house.  Why?  Because I love being insane…I really do.  Thankfully (get it….Thanksgiving….) I had the help of my wonderful parents to get most of it done.  It was quite the whirlwind to leave the home that started my life here in NJ and the home where I brought my babies home, and start an entirely new life.  Besides the emotional aspect, to move and get the boys settled and then host Thanksgiving?  Quite the feat if I do say so myself!
That being said, we didn’t get much done in the way of decorating or even putting away while my parents were here that time.  It was just getting in.  But they managed to make it back for a few weeks over the Christmas holiday and DON’T YOU KNOW that I put them to work!  One of the must do projects was the powder room.  We figured a little paint to give it a fresh little pick me up will be good.  That’s all it needs for now.  Let me give you the breakdown of the before:

Oooohhhh Yeah!  That’s what I call sexy!  Burnt orange in this teeny tiny bathroom with amazing laminate counter tops and vanity lights that were practically hanging off the wall.  Hot stuff I tell ya!  And that ceramic towel bar and tp holder….they’re the new big thing. (Yeah they had to go)
My dad tried to convince me that since we couldn’t find any set screws for the bar and holder that they were staying.  Um, no.  They were placed randomly in the middle of the wall so if you open the powder room door they are right there to greet you.  So after convincing him that they were probably just glued to the drywall and we’d just have to do a little spackeling, he agreed to take it down.  Then we were left with this

Yes that’s right…a giant hole in the wall.  This turned into a completely different kind of project now.  Thankfully I work at a home improvement store and was not worried that I could ask the right people for help.  The lovely previous homeowners had install a ceramic towel bar INTO drywall.  It was amazing.  So since we had one hole in the wall….we figured why not have three….just for kicks! The towel bar came off fairly easy and in one piece…

Which then led my dad to go all crazy on the tp holder when it didn’t come off right away, which in turn led to a mad hunt for band aids in moving boxes due to a nice slice of the finger.  Just a side note, my dad had about 4 band aids on his right hand at some point during their visit. 

We debated the best way to patch these holes and after consulting a few people at  my place of business, they directed us to these lil' babies

I unfortunately don’t have any process pics because I was doing the work and my dad was to be in charge of the camera…..so….you know….
But all in all its really simple.  You place the metal mesh centered over the hole, spackle, let dry, sand, repeat. It took about 12 hours for the first round of spackle to dry, about 3 for the second and I just did one more to smooth out.  It looked amazing afterwards if I do say so myself.  Next up was painting!  To be continured...

Welcome and Wahoo!

Hello all y'all on the web-o-sphere!  My name is Lani and I will be your host on this magical journey I call....my new blog.  Yes I said new.  As in I've done the blogging thing before and loved it, took a break because life threw me a giant curve ball, and now I'm back with a vengeance!  Rawr!

Let me tell you a wee bit about myself.  I'm a (sorta single) mom with 2 amazingly cute, funny, rambunctious, occasionally rude yet still sweet and silly boys whom I lovingly call my Bubbs.  I just moved into a cute little townhouse which I am working to fix up on a teeny tiny oh so minuscule (hey look a nickel!) budget.  Paired with my design background and my flair for the quirky, I think I'll do a pretty good job.  I think.  I always tend to second guess myself, though.  I have a passion for fashion, a fetish for shoes, an obsession with Target, and a love for all things Disney. I love baking and cooking, run an Etsy shop (www.lemonsqueezies.etsy.com) (#shamelessplug), and most of the day you can find me with a coffee glued to my hand.  I work full time as a kitchen designer in a big box store (which shall remain nameless but I'm sure you will soon figure it out), full time as a mom and a crafter, and I'm jealous of people who are tidy and organized.  I try to do my best with what I've got, have goals to whip my financial life back into a good state, and am constantly prepping for the inevitable zompoc.  Just kidding on that last one (kinda)....I just really like The Walking Dead.  Basically I'm a whirlwind of an enigma with a slight bit of narcissistic hot mess.  But hey....I'm a good time.

So is there a general category that you can classify this blog?  Sure.  It falls into the "Mommy crafter DIY home organization fiscally responsible fashion blog......oh and food too."  Sounds great right? I think so...it's all about me after all.  And who better to share me with than you!

So, in short, welcome to my life!