Another Festive Holiday Potty!

I just couldn't seem to keep myself from taking the dad jokes and potty humor decor of the "new" water closet all the way to Christmas. Luckily, I'm not the only one with a 9 year-old sense of humor*!

The ornaments and figurine/toy were found at chain stores. But this one I made with my Cricut machine out of materials on hand.

In case you don't remember all the gags and jokes from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation or you do and want to watch again: https://youtu.be/4fyS5CLBgyM

* But an adult vocabulary.

Let's Potty! Part III - A Water Closet Renovation

Sometime this spring I took on the project of replacing all the flooring on our second story. Of course, that project lead to other while-I'm-at-it projects, including almost totally remodeling/redecorating the little water closet in the master "suite." It should've taken a couple weeks of fairly consistent work, but instead it took months of totally inconsistent work. Phases A-E and F-H, if you have forgotten or are otherwise interested. As usual, I was very thrifty about this whole thing. Buying this many pieces pre-made and full price would've cost more than the rest of it put together, so of course, I made most of these.

I have one more piece already purchased to go in that spot lower right corner; I just need to find a frame for it.

Phase I (that's an uppercase letter "i," not a Roman numeral one): Fun and funky decor items. For some reason the idea of a gallery wall style display of silly, potty-themed things got stuck in my head and it didn't let go. I had a lot of fun, giggly moments coming up with what I have so far, but they'll be hard to photograph in that tiny room, so I took pictures before installing them. I've seen a few methods for planning and hanging gallery walls on pinterest and decided to make templates to use for putting in the nails. I had this wrinkly packing paper on hand so cut it to size and went for it.

I drew two baselines, 3/4" apart, separating the bottom third of the papers. That is to line up with the 3/4" base of the TP cabinet to create a visual line that flows around 3 sides of the water closet. Then I arranged all the pieces I have so far. I'm a big fan of "a structured border containing chaos" and that is what this gave me. It's also why I love the English Garden style.

I used a pencil to draw around the pieces as they were laid out, so the marks are hard to see. I didn't trust myself not to get ink on my things! Then I used a grey marker to mark where the hanger would fit a nail. Once the paper was on the wall and all leveled up, I tapped a nail though the marks just enough to mark the wall underneath. Finally, I took down the paper and hammered in the nails.

I spent a lot of time on the pieces that I made so, here they are all individually photographed for your viewing pleasure. By which I mean, my need to hassle you with the details.

I made my first-ever cross stitch projects! I bought three patterns each from two different Etsy sellers and went to town on airplanes and evenings over the summer. I had 2 frames in the stash and bought the rest at thrift stores, a garage sale, and at deep discount.

These are the first three I made. I bought the patterns from this Etsy store.

Then I went ahead and ordered three more patterns from this Etsy shop.

I have also finally started exploring what my Cricut can do with a little help from a friend who came to visit so I could finally put together these paper projects!The first is based on a sign a friend has in her cabin's bathroom. The second is based a couple of scenes from the movie "Elf" _ I altered that frame, too! The third is a free printable I found online and the fourth is based on something I found on pinterest - it's all mounted on a stretched canvas that I had in my stash.

It's been awhile since I've gotten to make a diorama, but I received a gracious gift of a bunch of vintage Fisher Price Little People stuff just in time to make a potty diorama! < LOTS of detail photos at that link.

I didn't want all the stuff to be made by me, because I didn't think that would look quite like a true gallery wall display: collected over time from various sources. So I searched and am continuing to search for silly, potty-themed bits to include.

I have had this blank note greeting card for ages. Not sure why I bought it, but pretty sure I know why I haven't ever given it.

I picked up this weirdo at this Etsy shop after seeing them on Instagram.

I found this nesting set of two shadow box shelves at a junk store in a neighboring town for just $5! Even though the finish was a bit chipped, they were otherwise in great shape and well-made. So I sanded them down and refinished each of them a bit differently.

It really seems like I have had a long run of projects going pear-shaped on me these last months and man, does if feel good to finally have this water closet redo behind me. Well, mostly behind me. I expect to pick up more pieces for the potty-humor gallery as I find them.

Let's Potty! Part II - A Water Closet Renovation

As home remodeling projects tend to go, this one ran into some obstacles which made it take a bit longer. The biggest obstacle was simply that we ended up having to order our new toilet, because they were out of stock. Luckily, they had some coming and we got our name on one! Yeah... we're considering ourselves lucky to have our name on a toilet. Phases A-E are here. Below are the long-winded phases!

Phase F: Install new, modern, low-flow toilet

I forget about good ol' WD-40, so was mentally preparing myself to have to take a hacksaw to the various metal bolts holding all the parts of the old toilet together. Pulling the old beast (tank dated: August 14, 1977, so still younger'n both of us) out of that tiny room was still a hassle, but less of a hassle than feared.

You know you're a reeeeeally grown up grown-up of a certain stripe when things like fancy toilets and endless storage space with thoughtful design are part of your lottery-winner fantasies. This toilet is not fancy, but was rated highly-enough and the price was right. In fact, simply by pulling the old toilet out myself, I probably saved the cost of the new toilet! And by installing that myself, I saved the cost of disposing of the old one and buying a new flange... plus some. So this is essentially a free new toilet! Or something.

We picked up a new trash can - one with a lid, because a certain member of our family likes to eat things out of the trash can. I'll let you determine which one of us that is. Ahem. Not sure we'll be keeping the rug-thingie. This is the only toilet in my life that has ever had one and I'm not convinced I want one. It's hardly been used and it seems like a thing no one is going to want to buy used, so the idea of generating waste by not keeping it is bothersome. Yeah, I'm that person.

Bummer: I ordered the toilet on August 8 with a pick-up date of August 24. When I didn't hear from them on the 24th, I called on the 25th. They had no real idea when to expect it, but since it was a stock item they guessed August 31st of September 3rd. I got the call on               . I called again on September 5, and was told it was there! This situation was more frustrating than I expected it would be,  because having any clean running water with indoor toilets is pretty great and we have two even without this one.

Phase G: (Reprise): Install that TP holder... with a modification.

I had to move the holder to the far right of the crate to make room to replace the roll, because the whole kit and kaboodle needed to be installed closer to the door than I expected.

Phase H: Refinish and hang cabinet for TP or make/buy holder-storage combo.

So, I decided that I needed to go with the make/buy option... which became the make option.

The toilet is not centered, so I had to decide how to hang the cabinet: centered over the toilet or centered on the wall. The difference between the center marks was about an inch and I roughly split the difference.

I've already been down the special-toilet-paper-for-a-particular-bathroom-due-to-storage road and I am over that crap. (heh)

It is a bummer not getting to reuse that perfectly serviceable cabinet and that the TP holder wasn't going to do. I donated both pieces to the local used building materials warehouse. I did look there for replacements for both of these pieces, but had no luck. All this means that I ended up making a little cabinet! I had purchased a pair of these little bi-fold doors at a thrift store years ago and am glad to finally actually use at least half of them. The wood* for the carcass came from shelves we removed from the master bedroom shortly after moving in. I was also able to use stash for the shelves, shelf pegs, and paint. And the knob is an antique door knob we brought with us that had been in Eric's basement in the old 1911 Craftsman in Portland! I did buy the plywood for the backing, new hinges, and some supplies to make the doorknob into a cabinet knob.

Another bummer: So. The carcass. Well, I hadn't remembered we had those 1x8s stored in the rafters of the shop and when I was shopping I decided to save on budget and buy some MDF. Well. Sigh. Let's just say that didn't work out for me. The bummer is exacerbated by the fact that scraps of MDF 1x6 and 1x8 aren't nearly so useful as "real" lumber. The bummers just keep coming: the door was too heavy for the hinges I bought, which were pretty much the same as the hinges that had been on it if the "scars" were any indication. So I ended up buying continuous (i.e. piano) hinges. And then procrastinated installing them, because I was scared that they also would work, but they did!


Part III:
Handmade & vintage decorations!

Springtime In The Rockies: Rabbit-based Decorations

jazz hands!

I've been focusing on trying to use up my rather... let's say "thorough"... stash of craft supplies. I've already completed a few rather intense sewing projects (not shown) with my cotton print fabrics, but what I feel compelled to share here are a couple of seasonal decorations I pulled together entirely from various supplies stashes over the St. Patrick's Day weekend.

First, Easter T-rex dares you to hunt Easter eggs.

Second, weird pile of bits arranged in a bleached & dyed bottle brush tree sprouting out of a rabbit head mug.

Third, I repaired this yarn doll rabbit that Betty roughed up once in a fit of separation anxiety... within hours of my finishing making it. Now that Betty has left this mortal coil, I guess it is safe to bring back Mr. E. Rabbit.

Before the "accident":

What was left:

Post surgery:

I added a hat to cover the sprung eyeball situation.

I couldn't face making new polymer clay eggs, then painting them. So one row of felt grass and one large egg from a box of wee bits & bobs I scored at the 50-mile Garage Sale last year.

With the doe rabbit the inspired the project in the first place, made my my grandmother.

Finally, this super cool jackalope ornament that was a birthday gift from one of my besties over at Fizzy Party!

He fits right in with the faux chocolate jackalope I made last year and Dale, our resident jackalope, but he doesn't fit quite right on the cabinet handle. I'm still on the search for just the right spot.

A Loads of Fun Laundry Room

The next steps for updating the guest room and taking care of some other projects upstairs are kind of intimidating - they're just big and/or uncharted territory, not really difficult. So, I decided to do some other, simpler projects that I have had in mind & partly sourced for awhile... to decorate the laundry room. Well, it's really more of a glorified closet than a room. Now that I think about it, it's probably smaller than the master closet which is big, but not glamour-big.

I actually painted this room in the first couple of weeks of our moving in five-and-a-half years ago. It had been a sort of 1970s baby blue with hyperlink blue on the fuse box and washing machine outlet box. Why someone would want to call attention to those things is a mystery to me... especially if they're going to do a sloppy job of painting them. So I made sure to cover it with an equally distinctive, but more contemporary color that is more my jam before we got the washer and dryer in there. Sadly, I didn't have the time to replace these 1980s looking peel-and-stick vinyl floor tiles, but I do have a plan in mind when I feel up to disconnecting the water heater for a day and struggling with shoving around the stacked washer/dryer.

Oh, hey, look! There's also some probably-original, 1976, faux brick-ish, sheet vinyl under the water heater! Sigh.

I had picked up these vintage flash cards at various vintage markets over the last few years with intent to frame them using thrifted frames. But digging around in thrift store frame piles - and aren't they usually just horizontally oriented piles? - is something I find really easy to put off until next time... the next-time-that-never-comes, apparently. So I set out to look specifically one afternoon and luckily found three that were close enough at one shop and for under $8.

Not sure why I am so attracted to these things, but I am. Obviously, because I made these xmas decorations with some, too.

I'm still committed to trying to use up stash materials whenever possible and feel like what I got from my scrapbook paper stash worked pretty well to mount the flashcards on, both for colors and for sort of a fabric-inspired theme.

Here are the frames with the glass and "pictures" out, ready to be refinished. On the two oak ones I used the old pickling treatment and the black and "cherry" I used house primer and paint. Spray paint probably would've been faster, but I'm not a fan of how spray paint looks on oak and I already had these other materials on hand, anyway.

Once they were dry, I thoroughly cleaned the glass and got them all put together! 

The reason I chose white? I painted them all white to coordinate with... this laundry soap jug diorama! I had saved the pin that inspired it years ago and was able to make this whole diorama with materials in stash and on-hand.

The washer/dryer set is vintage Fisher Price Little People stuff... which I LOVE!

Most of this is "merely" assembled, but I did make the little clothes rack and the wee hangers on it. I'm trying to come up with just the right thing to sit on the shelf, but am considering this done-enough.

YAHOO! This is where we're at now; just a bit cheerier and a lot less plain. It will feel a little nicer to go in there now and it feels quite nice to have a couple long-simmering project complete.

And now for some REAL TRUTH! The photo below is closer to the Real Laundry Room Situation (RLRS)... at least the RLRS after a good cleaning and de-cluttering. The Real Real Laundry Room Situation (RRLRS) is TOO REAL for public viewing.