J and I had to do some "cat-napping" this morning...not a snooze, but actually kidnapping of cats. We stopped by a store that has plumbing etc. He thought I would like it.
Saw some very cool things in the showroom. Too bad my camera battery died, but I got a few shots. Loved this one sink and faucet combo we saw. And there was a crazy sink counter that was lighted. And I saw a mirror that was cool with a light on the inside of the frame. Thought I'd share.

more pics...sorry, the others didn't take first time! :)

@MP. Sounds like you had fun looking at things you had not seen before today.

Wow, so much happens when I am gone. Backsplash nightmares, cool sinks…but the scary thing is the hobbit house. Took the Cutie Pie to the hospital today for a heart procedure ( esophageal endoscopy and a cardio conversion). So, what is a girl to do when you can't be part of anything? I met a good friend for lunch while waiting for the hospital to call. The entire place(the cafe, not the hosptal) looked like the inside of a tree. I squeezed into my teeny weeny seat (remember the cookie commercial with the gnomes?) I had the most delicious lunch and felt guilty that the other half was undergoing some nasty stuff.

Then I went looking for the fabric for the Sea Star paint, but could not focus. Anyway, HE is home, doing great, ate two servings of lasagna and chix cutlets. I, exhausted from worry, am having a margarita and I have no fabric. Now I ask, is this fair?

Is it fair to have a margarita and no fabric? Yes. I'd much prefer the margarita. Backsplash nightmares? You think? And then there was one that said "Which toilet paper holder". Seriously??? Can you tell I'm cranky???

Glad hubby is ok, at times they're like little kids, you can tell how they're feeling by their appetite!

Hi everyone. This damned heat has got to my tum again - well I'm hoping that is all it is. Very hot yesterday but got curtain fabric and can't wait to get started on them. Stopped off on the way home to do food shopping ........ don't know why I bothered, by the time I got home felt too crook to even look at it. Do feel a bit better when I hydrate and am trying to keep the vitamins up when I can't eat. Just had some fruit yesterday. Supposed to be 40 again today but so far it is cool in the house, outside is warm but very overcast and very oppressive. Don't know what is worse, clear skies = HOT, overcast = humid.

Very disappointed with our powder room. The dark green walls are the same colour as my old bathroom would you believe!!! Love the colour of the vanity with it but I really can't handle the stripe. I think I would have preferred a white ceiling but you would have to be in the room to judge that. It is just incredible how like my old bathroom the colours are.

Humid is worse, hands down at least for me. Humidity makes the power surges so much worse. Oh, I'm sorry you new looks too much like your old! But maybe that happened for a reason, maybe you really liked the old enough to duplicate it?

roo, you need to take care of yourself and your tummy. If you have Gatorade there, that's a great one for hydrating. Also a drink called Propel, or any sport drink. You need to get some rest! Sit or lay down with a fan on you and drink something with electrolytes.

Bobbi - I have to congratulate you on your restraint. What part of busy did that guy not understand???? Actually I noticed it looked like his wife posted the dilemma and then he took over. I think the ethnic background had a lot to do with the busyness too, they do tend to make everything ornate and not look at the big picture.

That reminds me, I meant to post a link to a news item here about a guy in India who had a pure gold shirt woven for New Year. Here is a link to one report

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257209/Wealthy-Indian-Datta-Phuge-spends-14-000-shirt-GOLD-impress-ladies.html

According to the LA times it was worth $230,000 and our report had it around that price too.

Anyway it made me wonder if it might be that poster we discussed one time.

I saw that shirt, somehow it got to my Facebook page! Ridiculous. roo, I worded that as politically correct as I could. The truth is I think he does equate opulence with class and glory. Remember LOL's foyer? Oh boy.

I think he would have listened better if he had made his post a poll. It's doubtful many commenters would have chosen any of those backsplashes. And I don't think he liked any of our answers!!!

Gatorade - thanks Bobbi, I was trying to think of something like that, just need the energy to go out and buy some now. I'm trying just to potter a bit and stop when necessary but I am getting soooooo bored. Have fans on everywhere, as long as the air is moving it is really pleasant at the moment.

Can you believe - here is another one for you

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/which-backsplash-for-my-kitchen-dsvw-vd~300495

Everytime I look at granite or marble now I just cringe and I think this is the reason why, everything is just all so overdone. Surprisingly this hasn't taken off here, maybe we just like everything plainer.

roo, weird! I was just looking at that design dilemma! I don't agree with busy mosaic tile and granite. Nor the 4" backsplash some people have installed with their granite. Too busy!

OMG - Look what I just found. My embed button was there and worked Bobbi

[houzz=]

Oh Lordy. I've just got to get me that clown er crown.

here are the kits we saved! and the lighted vanity mirror from the store...and a stainless steel potty (not wild about that!)

bob, i think roo is talking about our olld houzz powder room.

judyg, glad your guy is okie.

Judyg, sounds like a stressful day indeed. Glad your husband's procedure went well. My husband has some expertise in the cardiac field so if you have any questions I can relay your concerns. Olldroo, take care of yourself. The flu is really hitting some areas hard...I believe the news said there have been over 2000 flu related deaths in the States.

That flu is scary!

MP, are the kidnapped cats joining your household? They look sweet.

potty didnt upload....

ok, ladies I have a DD for ya....
bought this floor lamp for $10 tonight. i am planning on painting the base a wild color. probably one of the colors in the painting in background (oranget, lime green, pea green, blue)...and changing the shade to another color but keeping the square. what are your thoughts ladies?

Ok, don't kill me, but I like it the way it is! Or you could put a fishnet stocking on it and some fringe on the shade? A Christmas Story?

another angle..having probs with the upload tonight!

they were abandoned and we took them to a no-kill shelter to be adopted! :) they were precious.

I really like that the way it is! The wood is really pretty.

We are all crossing here and I am missing comments. Glad all seems to have gone well with SP, Judy, or does he have to wait for any results. My DD does cardiac sonography, works with cardiologists, so knows all about everything.

There is a lot of flu raging here, especially since Christmas and I feel it has a lot to do with how changeable our weather has been, especially when the temp can vary 20 deg from morning to afternoon. The body can't cope. I have heard of people having a tummy flu. This is just a general feeling of unwell that comes and goes, everything I try to eat blasts out the other end immediately afterwards, I get a thick head that also comes and goes and I am just really tired. I was feeling so good yesterday morning, even breakfast stayed in place, before I went out into the heat and being in and out of air con just isn't good for the body. By the time I got home and put everything away I was so exhausted I actually laid down under the fan. I think I would have stayed there only I wanted to watch the news for the bushfire reports.

Didn't realise that photo was part of an ideas book on houndstooth

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/guest-picks-hankering-for-houndstooth-stsetivw-vs~5996552

mp - those kitties are gorgeous, there is so much love on their faces. I want one!!

Did you check the colour of the light in the mirror? If they are fluorescent lights they can make your skin colour go horrible.

well what if i covered the lamp shade in some colorful fabric?

You don't like it the way it is? Remember, you already have a lot of color and pattern in your house, the eye needs a place to rest, no? Or, you could cover it with toothcheck!!!

roo, sometimes the schedules we set for ourselves just can't be attained. Your health MUST come first! Before painting, shopping, sewing. If you feel the need to lay down, do it. Don't fight it because it will only make you more tired.

oh yea, bob, it's not wood...it's a faux painted wood look. It may even be plastic, or thin metal. The base on the bottom is wood though.

MP, crackle finish the stem! You can get lots of colors in your base coat.

i am not cracklin that thing!

mp, that lamp is a problem, I like it as it is but I'm trying to really analyse it all. The timber is different to the fireplace but I like the contrast otherwise it would get lost. I like the green like the cushion, 'cos I love green with timber but with the bright hanging it could also get lost, plus with the cushion end up being a bit patchy, if you know what I mean - dollop of green here, dollop there, etc. I assume the black isn't letting out much light though. Maybe the paler shade of blue from the hanging????

MP, fine! Then don't! hehehe

Bobbi, lucky BH disappeared Thursday and still hasn't returned so having the house to myself is great, I can give into it without him tsking around. Just would have so loved to have been able to get things done, but always next week.

Yes! roo, and the next week and the week after. And if he asks what you've done while he's gone, tell him you mowed the lawn, had a smoke, talked to the neighbors, had a smoke......hehehehe Where did he go?

Went up to DDs. The German male left Friday and he was cooking an authentic German schnitzel dinner on Thursday. My stomach heaves at the thought of schnitzel at the moment. DD's partner's birthday yesterday so assumed they partied on. He likes to pretend he is the party king and can keep up with the young'uns. Probably all hung over today - GOOD. Leaves me in peace.

I think my day would be vacuum, lie down, toilet, lie down, vacuum, lie down, toilet, lie down.

Did I tell you when he went to Germany a couple of years ago the World Cup was on so SIL took him out to taverns every night to watch games or to actual games. They were drinking till 3am!!! Three days later I got a phone call - could I send his gout medication over?? Did the right thing labelling it as medication which of course brought it to German Customs attention and it took them a month to clear it and for them to collect it. Told him it would be far quicker to grow up.

MP - PLEASE DON'T POST A PHOTO OF THE POTTY!!!!!!

mp what about painting the stem cream and using a lime green shade or keeping them stem as is and going cream drum shade? It's a cool lamp, great deal!

Hi ladies, hope everyone had a great day! Judyg sounds like you had a very busy day! Glad to hear your hubby is home and doing good!

Ok, I have a question for you ladies. If I have wainscoting going down the hall do you think I could get away with just doing a shadow box trim in the 1/2 bath instead of the full blown wainscot? Same paint color, etc. The first pic is similar to what is in the hall and the second pic is similar to what I would do in the bathroom if I went with shadow box. Thanks!

Sorry tk, you are talking another language but I just have to say I absolutely love that wainscotting. Don't see it here and to have it done would cost a bomb. So practical though, especially with kids ............and careless husbands.

I absolutely love it with a 5 year old. We took it up the entire wall going up the stairs because of fingerprints. It's wonderful! But I don't want to have to take up the toilet again in the 1/2 bath, if I put up the box trim I won't have to. I just found a house (worth a whole heck of a lot more) that mixed them so I think I might go ahead. Don't know...going to play with it awhile longer.

What is a box trim?

It's more like the second picture. Sometimes people will paint the wall a different color and just paint the trim/wood white. It's only a trim piece in the form of a square and not the actual 1/4 with trim on the inside. It's still wainscoting but simplified. I could be combining the terminology also. But to me box trim is just a decorative outline, not the actual wide board wainscoting.

So you don't have tiles in the bathroom?

In the 1/2 bath I only have paint on the walls and tile on floor. I just got done painting the ceiling and adding crown. Now I think I want to add the molding. Ideally I would like to do tile up to chair rail height all the way across the room but too much $ and when I laid the floor I replaced the floor molding. I don't want to have to pull it off and pull the toilet back up. So I'm just kind of playing with ideas. Here's a picture of what I call box trim (probably calling it wrong) when people just paint the trim white and not the walls. But I would take it to chair rail height and paint it all white. It's just a simple trim, wouldn't take much time and less $.

I would try to do it more like this but have a feeling it wouldn't turn out near as pretty. I'm embedding my first pic from Houzz so if I do it wrong, don't laugh. :)

Traditional Powder Room design by Baltimore Interior Designer Elizabeth Reich

[houzz=]

OK, so we do things different here - a lot because of requirements - and I'm still learning your terminology. So floor moulding, we call skirting and the crown (I think) we call a cornice. We put a skirting tile around the floor/wall join - in my new bathrooms the floor tile was 350cm square so we put 1/2 a tile up the wall. That way you can slosh water around washing the floors and not damage anything. You don't see timber skirting used at all in bathrooms here. I decided to go really minimal on tiling this time too, painted walls are fine with me as tiles just seem to need cleaning all the time.

So the white in the photo there, is that just like a moulding you buy in lengths and just stick it on the wall for effect? It does look nice but the way I feel, probably I'm not the best person to comment at the moment, I'm just looking at it as work and wondering why. A plain painted wall would look just as nice and if you are going to put any towel rails or anything there, it is going to hide it. It isn't like you will have it on any other walls so it isn't really 'matching' the hallway, if you get my drift.

It's funny how terminology is different. The tile skirting makes sense. All I see here is wood unless you tile up the wall. For some reason I'm really into trim lately. I think it's because once I get it up I love how it changes the room. Just didn't know if I could mix it, kind of like metals. But I love the look of mixed metals. After looking through a few homes I don't think it will be any big issue. I already changed it upstairs in my sons bathroom anyways. I did more of a board and batten in his. I think I will sit on the 1/2 bath awhile and just enjoy the ceiling until I get the urge to do more.

I think I'm the late owl of the bunch. Everyone else seems to be morning ladies.

Why don't you sit IN the bath and take a long luxurious bubble bath while you do so. LOL!!

This is a pic I have of my old ensuite where we did 2 rows of the floor tiles on the wall to give you and idea.

That second bathroom you sent does look stunning and I love wallpapers. I wallpapered our main bathroom many years ago and always love it - until the 70s went really out of fashion. Then wallpaper went up in price so much it went totally off the agenda. I think it is coming back again but there are not the shops around stocking it like there used to be.

So can you just buy whole boards done like that, that you just put on the wall?

The OLD girls do seem to give up early, olldcan does too but she gets up at 2am for some reason I have yet to find out. They all seem to be early starters though. It is only 4.30 pm here - my slump time so I usually get on the computer and talk to myself to stay awake.

I wish I could sit in a tub but unfortunately there's only a sink and a toilet in that one. So, needless to say, when I use the potty I sit and gaze up. I know, too much information. Lol.

I love wallpaper also! Especially all the beautiful patterns that are available now. But, I have to admit, I did a wall in my daughters room and it was the bain of my existence. It wasn't prepasted and you should have seen me trying to get it up. To top it off, I used some paste from Walmart and it would not get tacky. Took forever! Wallpaper is so expensive too. The wall turned out to be a very expensive wall and I cursed every bad word there is while applying it. My daughter was laughing her butt off at me.

Anyways, the trim is pretty easy. You can buy it in strips like any wood and just miter cut it to the length you need and nail it in a square pattern. Measurements and leveling are the main things to watch.

Wow, 2:00 is super early. I have never been a morning person. Kind of funny because my husband is. When he finally gets home that will be one thing we will probably have to adjust to. Like right now I'm laying in bed with the iPad, this will drive him crazy. But then again, he gets up around 3-4 and that will drive me crazy. Always a compromise.

Thanks for chatting with me, Roo. Have a great evening! Hope your stomach lets you have a good dinner! I'm going to head off to sleep. My daughter leaves for work at 6:30 and I want to see her off, guess I better get some zzzz's. Take care.

Night tras, have a good sleep. Tummy not too bad at the moment, but it does come and go. Maybe I should go grab dinner now, only tossing a salad, I am always so mindful of trying to keep up vitamins and such.

Good morning ladies! Starting 1/12.

Finishing up 1/11 - I found an article on Inhabitat with Patrick Dougherty’s work. There’s a picture of one of his creations on an open staircase, but it kind of looks like a massive tumbleweed! I like the outdoor stand-alone ones that look more functional! But there’s one that looks like a cluster of people like a sculpture, and that would be interesting for a lawn.

Roo & Bobbi – I saw those 2 different names too, about the countertop & backsplash. I know couples who each have their own computers, and maybe the photos were on the other person’s, so they had to do the original post. I think that people’s reactions to comments are based on how “invested” they’ve already gotten with their own choices. If you’re just thinking about a project, you may not mind critical feedback; but if you’ve already selected some finished & someone is negative, the homeowner may react more defensively. If someone wants to use a multi-colored mosaic tile for an accent, that might be the perfect time to use quartz or granite with minimal pattern to it for the countertop.

I never tried to embed a picture, just add it at the end with "attach images". What’s the difference? Does embedding allow you to put something in the middle of a post, where it might make more sense?

I’m at the computer by 6:30 AM, with breakfast. It stays on all day, unless I’m out of the house, but I might be concentrating on something in particular. Then I usually turn it off about 6 or 6:30 PM. Get my money’s worth out of it! (LOL)

Astraea - I try not to be racist but some things stand out as fact. It looked to me like the wife started and then the husband too over. Judging by the name and assuming the nationality, it did not surprise me one little bit. Likewise the choices did not surprise me either but when people get down to asking others for opinions but don't want to change from what they are considering, you wonder why they bother.

Bobbi told me how to embed so I just followed her lead and it has worked fine. I have tried to cut and paste from other sites but writing works, pictures don't.