Wordless Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday

Welcome to my second Wordless Wednesday post, graciously hosted by Dixie at French Lique, Texas. Visit Dixie at http://frenchlique.blogspot.com/ to visit all the other participants. Dixie has a fun and interesting blog, give her a look see! The word for this week is Love





Hope you enjoyed these pictures that represent love to me. Make sure to visit Dixie and see
what everyone else is sharing this week.

My second post today is for Outdoor Wednesday. Susan at A Southern Daydreamer started this fun event. Visit Susan's fabulous blog at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ to see a list of this week's participants.


This week I had planned on taking some outdoor shots around our little town - we are finally seeing a few little signs of spring. I've seen quite a few robins and lots of daffodils peeking up. We've had some rain and it's been very cloudy, so I didn't think that would put anyone in much of a spring mood. But I'm not going to complain, we desperately need the rain, and besides it washed most of the blankety blank cedar pollen out of the air! Anyone who is from or has lived in Central Texas knows that's nothing to sneeze at - pun VERY much intended. So, instead, I'll be sharing more pictures from St. George Island Florida. Hope you enjoy these little doses of summer!
Sunrise from the deck of our rental house
Sea Oats, St. George Island National Seashore
Just a cool cloud we shot from our deck
Oops, sorry to disturb you Mr. Crab!

Hope you enjoyed these little glimpses of paradise. Jump on over to Susan's to see what everyone else is showing off this week.

Metamorphosis Monday

Welcome to Metamorphosis Monday, graciously hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Make sure to visit Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ to see a list of this week's participants. There are some really great before and after ideas to be found at this event. And if you haven't visited Susan before, you will be glad you did. She has the most gorgeous home, and her decorating ideas and tips are fabulous!

This week, I decided to share our guest bathroom renovation. If you've visited my blog before, you know that we began doing some renovations to our home after our darling daughter left for college. As we like to say, we figure the new stuff is safe now! The guest bath was Cait's while she lived at home. We affectionately call her "aqua girl", due to the extraordinary amount of time that she spends in the shower! Needless to say, 18 years of this had taken its toll. We basically took this room to the studs, as there was some water damage behind the tile. Also, in this day and age of "full disclosure" the before pictures were actually taken in my mom's guest bath. We were so happy to start ripping out our old bath that we never thought to take before pictures! Our bath was identical except we had nasty linoleum floors, and our lovely "faux marble" counter was green as opposed to yellow. Also, our shower has a window and the white ceramic tile covered the entire stall. Other than that, everything is identical. I guess those vanities and linen cabinets were a "builder's special", as our homes were built within a year of each other.

Old shower enclosure with white ceramic tile
New shower area - modern glass doors, new window and travertine tile
Old builder grade vanity
New modern vanity and sink. This was a steal at Home Depot - clearance floor model $99.00! It does have a scratch on the back, but I figure the wall didn't care tee hee.
Old "built in" linen closet
New linen closet. This is actually part of a wardrobe line from Ikea - it fit perfectly, but oh the little cloud of blue words while assembling this. It is almost exactly the height of the room, and the room is very small, so it went together fine but trying to squeeze it into the niche . . .
Detail of the ceiling. At the time that we redid this room, we had no idea how easy it was to remove popcorn from the ceiling, so our fix was to put beadboard up. I actually like the way it came out and it was certainly less messy.

Close up of the travertine. We used smaller tumbled travertine for the trim (also around the window in the shower area). I like the contrast of the textures.

Finished view from the hallway. My husband laughed because for the first month after we finished this he would find me in the doorway just looking at the room!

Hope you enjoyed our bathroom renovation. Now pop on over to Susan's to see all the other great before and after posts!

Butterfly Award

I received a lovely surprise today. Susan at A Southern Daydreamer gave me this wonderful award. Thank you Susan, this is so sweet of you! If you haven't visited Susan yet, go to http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ for a real treat! She has a wonderful blog with great decor ideas and some wonderful tutorials on making your blog look great. She is also the host of Outdoor Wednesday, one of my favorite weekly blog events.

The rules of this award are:
1) Accept the award and post it on your blog along with the name of the person who gave it to you as well as a link back to their blog.
2) Pass the award on to 5 blogs worthy of the award.
3) Be sure to notify the recipient that you have left them an award!

I would like to pass this on to some new friends in blogland. Actually a few are old friends, but have new blogs, so please support them and visit!

Marty at A Stroll Through Life - wait til you see her gardens!

Robin at Alabama Slacker Mama (the title alone is enough to grab your interest, no?) Very funny lady - see her Cartoons and Sick Days post.

Cyndi at Life on the Prairie - she has the cutest grandbabies you will ever see. And wait til you see her pictures of the snow they've had this year!

Christine at Christine' Home and Travel Adventures - Christine has the most gorgeous home, and she has been to some amazing places. She's a great tour guide.

Lori at Basketball, Gymnastics and Me - if you know Lynette at Lynette's LAM blog, you've probably met Lori by now. Great sense of humor and a fun blog to read.


Thank you again Susan, can't wait til next Wednesday!