Happy 2nd of Advent

B is back!

Finally, the wait is over!
Barrigade, Little Man's beloved Elf on the Shelf, is back and has been causing mischief all over our Ugly Duckling House since his arrival on December 1.

Just like last year he's been hamming it up for the camera while causing mischief, and we're happy to share his antics with you!

He discovered that there are sweet treats hidden in Little Man's Advent
calendar and taste-tested a piece ...

... before long he found the deer candle holder and went for a ride. We think it must
have reminded him of Santa's reindeers.

 He was curious about Little Man's music collection and snagged his mp3 player
to spend the night listening to music.

 Then he got into trouble. We still don't know who to suspect of locking him into a jar ...

... and after escaping (we opened the lid so he could climb back out) , he painted a sweet little painting for Little Man.

We can't wait to see what else he will be up to until Christmas!

Guestbedroom revisited

My in-laws are scheduled to arrive in less than two weeks and so in our excitement we naturally end up project hopping from left to right.
Let's do this!
Let's do that!
All of that amidst the general chaos that the Christmas season brings with it. How could I possibly resist adding another project to my list? This is another piece I inherited from our lovely neighbor. It's a vintage headboard and foot board and something about it just grabbed me and I needed to have it.

Just ... the brown stain color wasn't working for me. It wasn't really what fit between the black side tables we are using in the guest bedroom. Alas, this was an easy problem to fix!

Black laquer! I don't know about you but I'm a Valspar girl. I had never used their lacquer before though but I though, heck, it sounds like fun!
 Maybe a little eighties, but I figured if I didn't like it I'd just paint over it.

So, I went to town, painting the headboard with thin even coats of black spray lacquer.
Yummilicious!
The pant went on beautifully, rich and glossy, yet allowing the grain of the wood to somehow show. In fact it looks more like a black stain than, you know, paint.

Here you can see just how rich the color is. It's a gorgeous ebony black and because the grain of the wood shows, it doesn't invoke that cheap eighties black polish furniture feel (Thank goodness!).

I have to confess the "After" picture is staged. Lacquer paint is so not low VOC, and after a quick photo shoot we decided it would be better to let the head and foot board air out and cure on the porch. This is the "Before" - clearly. No headboard, just a slightly unfinished guest bedroom with a servicable bed, two night stands, and lights. For some odd reason I've meandered away from the orginal plan to a grey, white and yellow color scheme. Hmm .... I wonder how that happened?

And "After"!
Now we have a -BED-, not just a bed. It's funny how much more defined the bed looks now. Of course, one door closes (headboard installed) and another can of worms one opens one opens. That wall above the headboard is clearly demanding art -now-, doesn't it? It never ends ....

Wordless Wednesday

Little touches

After hitting a really low "low" I feel like my DIY spirit has returned.
To top it off, the in-laws will be visiting in just two weeks and nothing inspires and invigorates quite like the tight deadline of the impending arrival of guests, especially the kind of guests that will notice any kind of progress ...or lack thereof. Ahem ...

So, rather than starting yet another BIG project, I've been busy putting a couple of finishing touches here and there. As you may have noticed we have hit that dangerous level of "almost done." All of our rooms are in that stage of "almost done" where they are usable - comfortably so - albeit not finished.
Maybe the trim needs a second coat of paint.
Per chance an outlet cover is missing.
Perhaps we should install the light fixture.

You know the drill.

Invariably you will run out of steam at some point during your restoration/renovation. No shame in that - we all do it to some degree. I bet a lot of my neighbors know exactly what I'm talking about... heh. Anyways, since our bathroom is the room with the most recent activity (I  changed the color scheme of master bath, master bed and dressing room to create a more cohesive unit rather than a string of rooms), I buckled down and added a few minor finishing touches.

Like escutcheons.
The very pinnacle of little finishing touches.
E ...what?
Escutcheon. The little ring that frames plumbing sticking out of walls or floors (or the plate around a key hole, that's also an escutcheon... and the shield shape in heraldry).

There was the case of the drain pipe of our clawfoot tub that was missing its escutcheon. Nothing pressing, nothing life threatening, but definitely one of those things that separates the men from the boys ...err, the finished rooms from the unfinished ones.

Tharr she blows ... unceremoniously the drain pipe dips into the hole in the tiles. Not like you'd see it when you're standing but hey, there are times when crawling and bathroom happen at the same time.

Anyways ...

I went and got an escutcheon at the blue box for a whopping $4 and some change. These babies here are plastic and feature a little per-perforated slit for an opening so you can just slide it over your pipe.

You bend it back and forth gently until it breaks at the indicated line, then - equally gentle - twist it slightly so the ends separate.

With a little bit of twisting and wriggling you slide the escutcheon over the pipe and voila! the drain pipe vanishes in the tile with a bit more style!
I did the same thing using smaller escutcheons on the hot and cold water pipes and the drain pipe of the faucet in less than 10 minutes.
Ta-da!
(Just why on earth does it always take that long until you get around to it?)

Next was the area where our new tile met the floor of the closet. Yep, until we can find a door that fits or can be made to fit the not-so-standard size of our odd bathroom closet, I hung a quick curtain with a tension rod. Clean and simple (and another one of those "less than 60 minutes" projects).

Yeaaah, not cool. The fix was equally simple, inexpensive and quick.

During the same shopping spree at the blue box I'd picked up a simple seam binder threshold. I measured the opening, cut my seam binder to sized (I even shaped it with my Dremel tool to make it fit exactly into the opening following the outline of the trim) and screwed it in with the included screws.

All better!

So here is the remaining to-do list for the master bath:

• buy and install light fixture for vanity (in progress; need shades)
• buy and install new ceiling light
• install shower curtain rod
• decide on window treatment
• find art
• decide on shelving/storage solution

And one crazy day I could see

• adding wainscoting
• removing the ceiling and exposing the rafters (that's not scary - what is scary is that husband thinks that's a really cool idea)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 Finally! It's that time of the year again.
As of December 1, the Christmas Season has officially arrived at the Ugly Duckling house. Throughout the coming weeks, I'll be adding little bits of Christmas and Winter decor here and there. It's a slow but steady process with lots of old-time favorites making their annual appearance and a few new items shining for the first time.

The first thing I changed, of course, was our front door wreath. Nothing better to herald the season and to give you a first taste of what to expect inside!

 This year I kept it simple, picking up on the bird and nature theme we seem to have going in the dining room. I just couldn't resist picking up this cute chubby bird with its sparkly pine cone wings and snow white belly. So stinkin' cute!
I have gobs of those soft brassy sparkling snowflakes I love to sprinkle all over the house - their warm sparkle and filigree shape tickles me pink. You can find them for very little money (less than $3 for a box of 12) at W-mart and even pick up their buddies like snowmen, etc. in other colors

 The next thing to be decorated was the fireplace mantle. Once you set foot into our vestibule it's the first thing your eye is drawn to. Now more than ever after I added the lit pine garland, and sparkly snowflakes!
I picked up a very pretty, pale pink and white poinsettia at the blue box, kept the stack of vintage books and vintage typewriter and added our Christmas-Countdown chalk board to make everything look a bit less serious. If you look closely, you can spy our elf on the shelf "Barrigade" on his first day this year.

 More lights!
The diningroom came next!
Every year I create an Advent calendar for Little Man, and we have had this particular one for the last four or five years. It's a real classic: I sewed up 24 little bags, hand numbered them and each year I fill them with little goodies (chocolate, candy, etc) and toys (LEGO mini-figures work great as well as stickers, pencils, etc.) and little notes suggesting Christmas-type activities from "drive through the neighborhood looking at lights" to "take photos wearing Santa hats."

 In the windows I hung pine wreaths with sprigs of holly with white berries and 'snow-covered' pine cones. Then I discovered those beautiful glass ornaments at W-mart featuring this little glassine bird print suspended inside the glass orb. It has a frosty frozen beauty to it, and I love it to bits! Not to mention it picks up on the pattern of the dining room curtains. Woot!

Just in time for the first of Advent I managed to put together our advent wreath. Again sparkly snowflakes make an appearance along with a few other of my Christmas staples.

We love it cozy and traditional with a little bit of glitz and sparkle and some rustic elements thrown into the mix. What's your Christmas flavor?

Happy First of Advent!

This is it, ladies and gentlemen, four more weeks until Christmas!