Mini-update: our bathroom!

For the past few months now, I've switched from using liquid foundation to using Benefit's Hello Flawless! pressed power.  While I really like, the only downfall is that to apply it I use a little makeup sponge and I use a new one everyday. The downfall is, besides being wasteful, I also have to reach under the sink every day to open the wedge/sponge bag and grab one.  It's not terrible inconveniently, but none the less, it was starting to annoy me so I decided to update our bathroom and have little canisters out so that the wedges, Q-tips, and cotton balls would be more accessible.  We're not ones for having "clutter" out (for example, we keep our toothbrushes and toothpaste in a plastic bin in a drawer), so I wanted something that would be kind of inconspicuous.


I spent a solid two hours between Crate and Barrel Outlet (love!) and Bed, Bath, and Beyond coming up with a plethora of options.  I ended up buying about $85 worth of items to take home and experiment with. Now, before I show you the winners, I should also say that things are never simple for me, so once I decided upon a "winner"  I also decided that I needed to update the rest of the wall.  It gave me the perfect spot to put up our wedding gift from my friend Coll as well as the opportunity to finally put to use one of my "button" pins from Pinterest. (oh and by the way; I ended up returning a ton of stuff the next day; I'm sure the store clerks both hate me now)

Framed Button Initial
(Approx $8)





Supplies:

• Frame (I used IKEA's RIBBA frame with room for a 5"x7" picture; $4.99)
• Buttons (I used some leftovers I'd used for a different project; $2.99 at Michaels for a bag)
• Needle/thread (although you could use glue too; I decided this after I'd finished sewing mine)
• Cardstock (cut slightly larger than picture size of frame)
• Template for initial
• Patience!! ( I did this while we were watching TV so I didn't realize how long it was taking; but I think it took me about 1.5 hours to sew on the buttons)



Directions:

• To make my letter temple: I went to MS Powerpoint and under the layout I set up the slide to be 8.5"x11".  Then I drew a box that was 5"x7" (measured using the ruler under "View").  From that I found a font I liked and sized it to appropriately fit in the box).  I printed it out and cut out the letter to use as a template/stencil
• I very lightly traced the letter on my cardstock
• And sewed on buttons, using the traced letter as my guidline

• Insert into frame
• Simple! (but time consuming). 

To be honest, my original plan for the wall re-do was foiled.  Originally I was going to put up a third shelf below where the canister shelf is...but when I went to put it in, this is what happened:

and this is what was supposed to happen:

Yep; definitely should have used a stud-finder (ow ow!) Thus, after a few minutes of freaking out; I decided to put the name sign/wedding gift there to coverup the whole and to adapt.  Overall, I think it worked out well! Here's our updated wall...I'm not sure that I love love love it yet, but it's an improvement and on it's way. The "winning" white holders are from Crate and Barrel Outlet (well, I had the canister already but here are the vase and ramekin):



compared to the original wall:

Don't you love that puppy pic of Oscar though?!

Much more fun and useful.  So, now that I've shared this wall, I'll take the opportunity to share the rest of the bathroom because it's one of my favorite rooms in our apartment.  I think that's mainly because it just feels fairly put together and the yellow adds a nice cheery feeling...

It definitely seems like the basis of a bathroom with a shower/tub like ours is the shower curtain.  It took a few hours of online searches to come up with something that we both liked.  The curtain is from CB2 and after almost two years of having it, I still absolutely love it!

The wall piece is from Homegoods and I think it was $12.99, then I found yellow votive candles to go with it...but the funny thing is I had been obsessed with a piece very similar from Crate and Barrel.

 



Although it's a lot smaller, it was a lot cheaper; which is nice!

Going along with the city theme of the curtain; we have the mini John Hancock statue (from Vonmaur; although you can find them a lot of places).  The little plant and pot are from IKEA.  I love having greenery inside the apartment (even if it is fake in this case):



Another reason I love this bathroom is the window.  It should be mandatory for all bathrooms to have windows.  It's definitely a "must-have" on our future home needs and wants list.

This Chicago skyline silhouette was one of my first etsy.com purchases. I custom ordered the color and found the frame at Homegoods.  The "body" of the buildings are pieces of maps from Chicago.  On the right hand corners there's actually a bit of map that shows an intersection about a block from our apartment.  It just happened to be a coincidence, but I think it's pretty cool considering how large Chicago is and how many intersections there are! (Here's a link to the seller's store)



And lastly, here's the updated wall in context (oh, and since I mentioned where everything else if from...the yellow frame is Cynthia Rowley from TJ Maxx and my little Eiffel Tower is a souvenior from my sister and parent's trip to Paris this Spring (lame, I didn't get to go, right?!)): 

There ya have it!  My little abode where I get ready every morning :O)

Oh wait, one more thing!  I tried to give y'all a link to the shower curtain.  It's apparently no longer in stores (go figure, it's been awhile)...but I did find an old post on ebay from March. The curtain sold for $110!! Geesh, it was originally $40.  I guess I should keep ebay in mind if/when we decide to get rid of it!