Author Archives: Mary

A Better Bathroom: The Seeds of an Actual Plan

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I’m out in Colorado for a few days to go through my grandparents belongings (they’ve both passed away within the last year). It’s nice to see family, although its definitely not a vacation. And to add to it, it looks like this:

Scary stuff—it’s been nine days and it isn’t even contained yet.

In all of my free time, I’ve been looking at pictures of bathrooms and discussing them with various family members.

  • I should do a shower and not a tub (everyone)
  • We can totally do plumbing.
  • And frame a wall.
  • And tile. (Uncle Rob)
  • Get a swinging glass door, not sliding (Aunt Sharyl)
  • Oooh, pretty tile (Cousin T)

These are the things I HAVE decided on:

Open shelves over the toilet

A shower (?!?! but I’m excited about it)

Cabinets above the door (I can only find pictures of shelves, but I want closed storage)

Glass swinging door on the shower (my Aunt Sharyl says she wishes that’s what they had instead of sliding, water on the floor and all. Sold.)

And then some things that are STRONG MAYBES:

A larger vanity base

With an open shelf on the bottom

A niche shelf in the shower

An accent band of tile in the shower, with either grays or blues

Plus some HMMM INTERESTING THOUGHTS:

Maybe dark wood base on the vanity (with a light colored top)

Some extra storage on one exterior side or the other of the shower, like this.

And things I really should have some concept of but have NO IDEA:

A medicine cabinet (I did like this oval frame one)

A new toilet (?!?! maybe I need one??)

What do you think? Are you on board with my shower-only craziness?

A Better Bathroom: A Wrench in the Works (er…my mind)

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Most of the delay in fixing the bathroom is my own indecision. I have the money saved up, I’ve been pinning ideas, I even have the tub picked out.

Except.

Do I need a tub?

Before you answer, hear me out. I was talking with a neighbor and her husband and we were talking about how we don’t take baths but we still need to have a tub “for resale.” Which is a good point: Do people really want to buy a place without a tub? Keep in mind, my condo is a 1-bed, 1-bath. Most adults do take showers instead of baths. I realize I would be turning off some potential buyers when I want to sell, but how many?

Here’s the thing: One of the biggest reasons people want a tub is that kids don’t take showers. You have to put them in a bathtub. But I’m pretty sure nobody has a baby in a one bedroom on purpose. And if they do, they have almost two years to go find something fit for a family (because the baby doesn’t go in a tub right away; you use a baby tub, or so says my mother).

I’ve never been excited to take a shower in a bathtub, no matter how fancy (and mine? Won’t be fancy. Tiny bathroom, remember?). But a shower? My best friend has an AWESOME shower. It has a regular shower part and then a rain shower and then four body jets and also a steam shower. And a bench. The whole show is oriented about 8 in. too high for me, since they are both tall and I am not. But still. Every time I watch their cats, I’m all excited to go over there and shower and then glare at the tv because I’m never entirely sure how to work it so I can’t actually watch. But the point is, the shower is really nice.

So, I would probably be all excited to take a shower in my nice new bathroom, but not to have a nice new (little-ish) bathtub. And then I could have a larger vanity, and the shower would be nice. And some people (but really, how many?) would be like, “Huh, this place doesn’t have a tub. What were they thinking? Next!” but other people would be like, “That shower looks awesome. I never take baths anyhow.”

I was going to put pictures in here, but that really isn’t the point. People have plenty of bathrooms with just a shower, the issue here is to ONLY have a shower.

What should I do?!

To Build a Better Bathroom

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(Ok, so technically, it’s remodel, but that didn’t have the same ring to it.)

My bathroom is ugly.

I’m not sure pictures even do it justice, but yeah. Not pretty. (It’s also very narrow so getting pictures was a challenge. And I’m a terrible photographer.)

Problem #1: The walls. They are ancient plaster and lath, with weird textures and wallpaper on them. They’re in bad enough shape as to not be salvageable, so they’ll have to come down and be replaced with drywall (hey, I know how to drywall!).

Problem #2: The colors. I realize these come down the walls. But still. They are not my favorite.

Problem #3: Storage. I have no linen closet. Closets in general are at a premium in here, so I store coats and linens and craft supplies and cleaning supplies and other random stuff in the one closet besides my bedroom that I can actually put stuff in. It would be nice to work some storage into the bathroom for at least towels.

Problem #4: The medicine cabinet is not my cup of tea. Its a little old-fashioned, although I already have people waiting in line to get it who think its awesome. Just not my favorite.

Bonus Problem: I don’t like my clawfoot tub.

….Please don’t start. Yes, “some people” love those. But I bet those people don’t have to use them. Whenever I say that, people nod wisely and say, “They are hard to clean under.” (Ahem…wouldn’t know…terrible housekeeper). My issue is I hate showering with shower curtains on both sides of me. Also, its not like mine is nice and fancy or whatever. It’s an original clawfoot tub. I don’t think someone is going to not buy my place when I go to sell it because there is no longer a clawfoot tub.

And one of those things that you only even consider once you realize you need a whole new room: maybe I should get a new vanity.

Sigh.

I’ll tell you about the plans soon–I want to get this party started!

What’s your stance on clawfoot tubs?

Homemade*Handmade Mothers Day

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When I went up to visit Lesley a few weeks ago, a strange role reversal happened. We sat at the kitchen table, Lesley working on our stars, and me beading. I wanted to make a beaded glasses cord for my mom (actually, she’d specifically requested it) for Mother’s Day, and obviously who better to help me than Lesley? We went to Michael’s, and I got some beads and clasps for the ends–we looked for but couldn’t find the black rubbery grips for glasses. Instead we realized that we could put large lobster-claw clasps on the ends; this would make it more interchangeable anyhow, so I think this is actually better. You can just clip the clasp onto the rubber grips–and as a bonus, you can clip the clasp together and wear the chain as a necklace.

I started with these supplies (I bought the two strands of beads and clasps, Lesley provided the seed beads and wire).

[I was really nervous when I got started–I didn’t want to write this post (I thought she should–I have no idea what I’m doing!) and I was convinced it wouldn’t look good if I did it. ]

Anyhow. I started by pulling just a few of each bead free on my flannel mat (which makes it a lot easier to not send beads flying everywhere whenever you breathe) so I could play with some layouts.

I went with the first one I tried, and the next part was pretty basic:
1. Put first bead on wire.
2. Push a few inches down.
3. Put next bead on wire.
4. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I did that until I had used up all my blue disc beads (seemed like a good place to stop). But obviously I couldn’t leave it with a loose end.

This brings us to the finishing step:
5. Have Lesley use a “crimping bead” and “crimper” (as well as “wire cutters”) to finish the end and secure the clasp.*

I did not take pictures of this step (not just because all I did was watch) because Lesley said to send you here if you want to know how to crimp. It’s step-by-step instructions for three ways to do it. You’re welcome.

And here we are, a lovely glasses cord for my lovely mother. I hope you don’t break it too quickly, Mother. Lesley did a nice job crimping it, after all.

What did you get your mother for mother’s day?

*If you do not have Lesley, my other recommendation is magic. Sorry, don’t know what else to tell you. Pretty sure that was the hard part.

P.S. Lesley made her mother a wall for Mother’s Day.Hey, if it’s what you want…

P.P.S. This is Lesley. Crimping is easy! Just watch the video Mary linked above.

Baby Socks and Onesies: Planning a Shower

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This weekend I’m co-hostessing a baby shower for a close friend. I’ve always wanted to throw a shower for someone (I’ve been a maid of honor twice, but nobody wanted a shower. Sad.) I’m hosting with two other friends of the mom-to-be, and our jobs (according to Emily) are:
Sarah: Project manager (she’s in charge of timelines, etc.)
Mary: Creative Director (invites, paper products, look)
Emily: Brings wine (it’s also at her house, so she’ll be hiring a cleaning crew, too)

The parents-to-be aren’t finding out the sex until the baby is born, so our color scheme is green and yellow. (You know where you can get plenty of gender neutral baby stuff? Yeah…me either.) I make my own cards, so I showed the girls some samples of different cards I’ve done and they picked a look they liked the most:

In retrospect, our final product looks nothing like this. But they thought it was cute!

Then I started playing with the colors I actually wanted to use, combined it with this:

And we ended up with this.

We used Emily’s (realtor) husband’s fancy color office printer to print the text in green on white cardstock. We rounded the corners (on everything–the yellow embossed sheets, the green backing and the card itself. Emily and Sarah did that part. Not. Fun.) and then attached the ribbon to the yellow piece. I wanted to make sure the oval (my new die from cuttlebug!) didn’t slide around, so I used a glue dot half on the ribbon and half on the oval to stick them to each other, then to the front. Then we just used tape to attach the ribbon where it folded over to the back. We really liked the look of the white ribbon, and so far people love the embossing (kind of hard to get a picture of, but it’s adorable).

We’ve got a whole bunch of other fun details up our (my) sleeves for the shower–can’t wait to share!

Introducing Mary

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Hi Mom(s)! I’m so excited to start working with Lesley on our new format.This actually reminds me of when they would introduce a new American Girl (before they got all commercial; mother is not okay with commercial): Mary is an American Girl who lives in Chicago in a _____ (adjective: spunky? refined? rustic?) apartment by herself (so if I were an actual American girl that would be weird/illegal. I’m a grown up though so we’re good). She loves playing tricks on her little sister, roller skating and helping the housekeeper (bonus! Which American Girl did I have??). [Note: I don’t actually have a housekeeper.]
 

I make this kind of expression a lot.

So, I really do live in a one bedroom apartment in Chicago. I teach high school math. I do my best to be green, including biking to work when possible, recycling and running the Green Team at my school. I wouldn’t say I’m artistic, but I like to put things together so they look good. I make all my own cards, and I like to think I’m pretty good at choosing the right paper and look and combination and then putting it together, but I can’t really draw or anything like that. I’m working on learning to do different types of lettering though!

My mom saves EVERYTHING (because you never know when it might come in handy) so whenever I get a specific idea in my head, she’s the first person I ask. And my dad is one of the handiest people I know, so he’s my go to for home repairs and the like, especially replacing light fixtures.

When I’m not decorating my Chicago condo or making some cards, I’m probably baking something (I’m trying to cook more, but I’m a baker at heart) or playing a game with friends. Lesley and I are a great team and I hope you enjoy our (mis)adventures!