Octopus Triptych

 I wanted to show you a little project we have been working on...my octopus triptych , I had to have one.
What we did was use the image from Graphic Fairy here . I changed the color by using Picmonkey. Then it was up to my husband to do some Photoshop magic and make the image wide enough to fit properly into the Ikea ribba frames I had purchased for this project.Then all you have to do is find a printer who can handle such a print size , good luck with that , that turned out to be the hard part.
I then cut it into 20" wide prints using a large carpenters square and voila , instant art.
We love the look, my only complaint is that the plastic glass Ikea calls it, has a lot of warped glare , I may replace that plastic with some glass .

Napoleon or Mille-feulle , whatever you call it , yummm

 I feel so pleased with myself after making this dessert. My husbands favourite dessert is a Napoleon , but for some strange reason they are really hard to find around here.
When we do find the occasional one the problem is there are not nut or peanut free, which is what we require.
It never really occurred to me to make the dessert, that is until the other day. With my husband birthday coming I decided to see what was involved. It seemed easy enough. Especially since most of the dessert is puff pastry , well they have that pre-made in the freezer section . So moving on I gave it a try and it turned out , so well ....and it wasn't hard at all.
You can find the recipe here. 

 I followed the recipe , but I did have 4 layers of flaky pastry. I even made the pastry creme, and it was simple enough to make...I was in shock. I have never made anything like this before. The recipe for the pastry creme is so stable which creates such a nice end result.
My husband just loved it .

 Making the pastry cream ....

Are you a fan of the Napoleon? give it a try , I'm sure you will love it too. It's not too sweet and it looks so pretty.
once again the recipe you will find linked here Napoleon 

A new bathroom indulgence

 Well I finally nearly a year after moving into our new house got a television for our master bathroom. Finally because I could not justify buying a TV for the bathroom. No one needs a TV at all especially not in the bathroom , but it is a nice thing to have and I know it's a luxury.
I just had a milestone birthday which I didn't really care to announce....but it happened I turned 40 last week , that means I guess I'm really a grown up after all, hahaha !!!

My husband decided to get me a 24" TV for the bathroom , I thought it was the perfect gift for me especially since I don't think I would have ever splurged on it myself...thank you thoughtful hubby...
We also had a lovely dinner out on the night of the worst winter storm in years and we are taking a big family trip in the upcoming months to Aruba , we are so excited....so hopefully my Mom will enjoy her stay at our Casa while she house /dog sits for us!

 I will  be able to watch GMA in the morning while getting ready and even indulge in some Housewives shows in the evenings...how sweet!!!!

 I loved the mirror but I have always thought it would be neat to have a TV for the bathroom....I know lots of people will think this is nuts but that's OK....it's my bathroom .

Thank you for stopping by my blog today ,
Chris

a closet reno out of the blue

I can not stop looking at my closet , today that is...

I am usually always closing the closet door , who wants to see that mess? 

But after 6 days of renovating my closet I am happy to keep the door open , now that it is a pretty little well organized room.

 Here is what I started with a basic closet , walk in but basic , three shelves around the perimeter and three rods. I added the dresser and some hanging organizers but they were just a bandaid solution to a lack of storage.
I had planned at some point to reno the closet , to create built in storage and to create double height hanging to maximize the closet, not any time soon though. Well not until I was browsing Home Depot.com when I saw some closet component towers with free drawers on special buy for $69 for the wide tower and $59 for the narrow tower. Well that was a huge savings and it would allow me to build off of. Since I bought them I needed to install them , no sense in them waiting and collecting dust I figured.
I picked up two of each , two narrow for my side one wide tower for hubby's side and one wide tower for Sophie's closet, her closet I will deal with later.
              
 I started by removing all the shelves , rods and supports and then repairing the damage that made , which were a few dozen holes .

 I then removed the carpet , since I did not want the towers sitting on carpet and eventually we will be adding wood throughout the master bedroom so the closet should be wood also. The floor took me 3 days worth of work, I am in slow mode for sure and dealing with a little bit of SAD , winter is very hard on me but that's another story.

 I added bead board to the angled wall , I thought I could cut up a dowel into three inch lengths and I could install them into the bead board with adhesive , it worked perfectly. I used a spade bit to bore out a hole the same size as the dowel and used no more nails adhesive and voila peg hooks for hats and purses.

 The towers are a great starter but they are only 72" tall , not really tall enough for double hanging and I like to utilize all the available space. This is my hubby's side.

And here is my side. As you can see I added basic three sided boxes to the top of the towers, I used no more nails again. I will at some point add crown moulding to those extensions.

I will stain the floors when we finish the floors in the master bedroom.

 I haven't had a chance to organize my clothes , please forgive me , I just needed the clothes that had taken over my bedroom out of there, I can't live in chaos for long.
I added a shelf for shoes above the highest hanging bar it was perfect for shoes. I even have room for more shoes and I still need to add one more shelf, yippy.

What an awful mess , it is amazing how much stuff fits into a closet, there was stuff every where...nightmares.

'

 I changed out the ball light to this lovely light from Lowe's, Allen and Roth, it casts such a nice pattern. I added the pretty mirror which I had but didn't know where to put until the closet reno was well under way , I think it was meant to be. I used a little bookcase that was from the old house , it was just what I needed for folded pants and on top more shoes. High heels are like beautiful accessories just sitting pretty in a closet.
Do you see the little handy garment rod?

Finally I finished the baseboard , added a rug and switched out the photos , love these photos of our girls when they were smaller.
I can't explain how happy it makes me to have a finished or nearly finished closet , it feels so much bigger, freshly painted crisp white and organized for the most part...now to keep it this cute that's the hard part.

 I made sure to keep space for a shelf in between my husbands hanging .

 That's a lot of ball caps , right!

Happy organizing , it's a great time of year for it .