Pink Saturday/ Bathroom Makeover

Welcome to another Pink Saturday!

Remember this bathroom with the truly dreadful wallpaper that just screams "desperate '70's bachelor?"

And this ugly bathroom rug?

My landlord refused to let me rip down the wallpaper and wouldn't even let me paint over it! Besides, I had been unemployed and had no money. What on earth was I going to do to make this room into something I could love? (I am now only very marginally employed and still have no money, lol.)

First of all, I banished that little rug to the kitchen where it actually seems to kind of work.

Then I had to get creative! While going through bags and boxes, I found my old battenburg lace curtains that hung in my bedroom windows two houses ago. Since I couldn't remove the wallpaper or paint over it, and I certainly couldn't live with it, I decided to cover it! The curtains seemed to fit against the wall quite well!

I hung the curtains from some straight rods rather than staple them to the wall. I figured that it will be easy to remove the curtains for washing in the future.

Oh, now my shower curtain fits in too! I covered the floors with rugs I had two houses ago. See the cute little pink basket I found for $3 at Goodwill? I figured it could hold all kinds of things as I don't have much storage in the bathroom.

I love how the curtains look in my bathroom. Even the drop light seems to fit now!

I needed something over that huge mirror and the valances worked great! It even softened up the hard edges of the mirror. To cover the gap above the mirror, I cut up an old stained tablecloth and put that up to hide the wallpaper, plus it brings more pink into the bathroom!

I will need to get a strip of ribbon to cover the wallpaper right above the curtains.

I was still lacking a medicine cabinet. I had two huge ones at the old house, but couldn't put them on the wall here above the sink here because of that big mirror. I had an old display cabinet sitting around that I never really cared for and didn't use.

Sorry I didn't get a before pic of the front before I painted it, but I thought this pic would give you an idea of how it looked.

I'm not quite finished as I need to attach the scrapbook paper into the glass in the front, but this gives you an idea of how it will look. I still need to find someone who will loan me a jigsaw so I can cut a hole in the back. This will allow me to hang the cabinet up over the ugly thermostat that you see here.

With all these changes, I love my bathroom! It feels soft and romantic and very feminine now.

To see more Pink Saturday posts, please go to Smiling Sally's blog for a list of participants. The list is growing all the time!

Have a great Pink Saturday!

Foodie Friday - My Son Cooks Dinner

This is my first Foodie Friday post! You are not likely going to see another soon because, believe it or not, I really hate to cook! I do only what I have to.

Actually, this post is about a dinner that my 16 year old son made as a school assignment. He had to plan and cook an entire dinner. He had to make three dishes from a recipe, and he could use two boxed or bagged sides. He also had to make a table setting. His meal had to be nutritionally balanced and have a main dish, sides, and dessert. First of all, we went grocery shopping.



Though he certainly did not get the gene from me, I think my boy just might be a foodie! He seems to really enjoy cooking.


The first thing that he did was cut up peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes and put them on skewers, topped by black olives. He put those in a olive oil, lemon and basil marinade.


He used a recipe that combined ground chicken with bread crumbs and other ingredients, and then he fried the patties.


He added tomatoes, lettuce leaves, alfalfa sprouts and cucumbers to his chicken burgers. Don't they look yummy! They were! Yummy enough even to forget about how he smoked out the whole house when he fried them.


The french fries were from a bag, but oh so good!


Didn't he do a nice job on the table setting? Ok, I confess, I helped a little. The dishes are my everyday dishes. Okay, they are my nice dishes too. Though I aspire to be a dishaholic someday, I only actually have one set that I use for any and all meals. My second set of dishes is the plain white paper plates I bought on sale at Meijer. The blue placemats were from Goodwill.


My son wanted something green in the setting because he cooked dinner on Saint Patrick's Day, so we decided that he could serve root beer floats in my depression glass parfait glasses. It looked so pretty and the floats were so good! I used Diet Root Beer on mine and only a very small amount of ice cream.


I really wish that I had a pic of the dessert he created. It was a very complicated recipe, but he managed to come up with a chocolate filled cake-roll sort of confection. It didn't last long. I so broke my diet on that cake!

Sorry I don't have recipes to add, but my son doesn't know where he put the cookbook!

I was very proud of my son and his cooking efforts.

To join the Foodie party, pop on over to Gollum's blog. Check it out for the awesome decorating too!

Jakey Settles In

Jake the dog is settling into our new place quite well. He has claimed his own special space. (Please ignore the boxes in these pics. We are still in the process of sorting through things!)


Remember my July 4th project from last summer? In the pic below, I had covered the cushion in a pink and yellow toile and the footrest in a pink knit throw. For the new place, I covered the seat cushion with my blue and white Goodwill bedspread, and put the dark red pillows from an old couch on the back, along with a light blue checkered pillow that I found packed away in the garage. A matching throw covers the footrest.


I also added a small pillow that was a $1 bargain from a garage sale last year. It says "Berry Sweet" and "Berry Good." Don't you believe it for a minute!


Here he is totally sacked out. It must be from all the walks I have been taking him on.


He likes to sleep on the couch too.


So does my son.


Jakey is so creative that he has even found his own drinking fountain!


Yes, I think the dog is happy here in his new home!


So are we!

Blue Monday/New blue blog look, blue apartment, and good news!

Welcome to my new blog look! I figured that since I no longer live on Bonnie Lane, it was time for me to find a new blog name. My choice was Life on the Edge. I figured that it really fit what is going on in my life. There were some terrific suggestions from my readers too, my favorite being Kady-did Cottage. Though I am not going to change my blog name to that, at least not for now, that is the name I will be referring to my new home!

Also, I have great news! Remember back in February when I had an interview at a day care center? I was called back today for a second interview and I got the job! It is only part time and the pay isn't very good, but I can still get unemployment to make up the difference between the pay and what I have been receiving weekly. I go in for training tomorrow, and I start on Wednesday! I will work Monday and Wednesday, and can substitute one other day during the week. I am so excited to be working again!

Ok, on with the blues! I am very late in posting this today because I had to get my pictures downloaded to discs in order to put them on this computer, and then I had a ton of other stuff going on.

You may have seen my blue glass before, but since my apartment is too small for my display cabinet, I put it all in my cupboards. I am tempted to remove the doors, but I don't think the landlord would like that. Notice my poor butter dish that fell and broke when I was unpacking! I don't know if I can repair it or not.




Can you believe that I never unpacked my blue canisters at my old house? They were in a box in the garage and I couldn't find them! I am so happy to finally have them at home on my countertop. Sorry for the quality of the picture. My son's computer is so old that he can't download the program that lightens the pictures. I had to use Microsoft Paint to reduce the size of the pic.


My kitchen at my old old house was blue, but in my house on Bonnie Lane, the walls were green so my blue stuff just didn't fit. The kitchen walls here in the apartment are an awful blue and tan plaid, but my stuff actually fits here! It kind of rocks that whole '80s vibe. I actually hate the wallpaper a little less.


My favorite thing of all is the wood display cabinet which also sat in my garage. I had the perfect place for it in my kitchen on Bonnie Lane, but I was so busy that I never got around to repairing and painting it. I fixed the door, but it's not quite right yet and won't close fully, and I am now reconsidering as to whether or not I should paint it white. It's finally getting used for its intended purpose though, for storage and as a place for all my blue spongeware to live.


I'll show more of my apartment and my neighborhood as soon as I can. My computer is out for repair and I don't know when I'll get it back, so I am having a hard time downloading pics. My son suggested the library, so I'll see if I can do temporary downloads there that I can email to myself.

In the meantime, check out the other blue posts at Smiling Sally's blog.

Pink Saturday/ Weird Pink Things

Although I have internet again, I still don't have my computer working. I am on my son's laptop which is so old that it doesn't have any place for me to insert my memory card so I can download photos. What's a blogger to do then?

So I decided to go to Google Images and type in "Pink Weird Stuff." Let's see what came up!

Pink animals? No shortage here! Here is Little Skinny Miss Muffett with walking her pink sheep. I don't know why Muffetthead here dyed her poor lambie-pie pink. Where is PETA when you need them?


How about a pink frog? Not sure where you find pink frogs.


This picture is supposed to be real. According to the stories on the internet, this pink dolphin lives in a lake in Louisiana.


Has Miss Muffettbrain been at it again dyeing more animals pink? This poodle doesn't look too happy about it.


You knew I would find a pink elephant.


How about some pink vehicles? You've just got to love this little pink piggie car.


Just because one rides a motorcycle does not mean one has to give up one's feminine side. One can even paint one's bike pink and wear pink tulle. Even though one looks freaking ridiculous doing so.


Of coures, this post would not be complete without some weird pink clothes. This officer looks a bit unhappy with his pink frock. I suspect this photo is doctored, in fact I know it. The photographer's website is listed right on the photo. I would love to see this in real life though.


Here is Lucy Liu actually showing up to an awards show in a pink stole which makes her look like she wrapped herself in a giant piece of pink corkscrew pasta. No Lucy, just NO!


And here is a guy getting his girly side on. I don't think this little dress is going to score him a date...not unless he shaves his legs.


There were actually a couple weird pink things that I would like to own. Is this not the coolest pink furry phone?


And how about this pink bra planter? I'd sure love to hang this on my fence...if I had one. I'm sure my neighbors would be suitably impressed. Yeah.


Then there are some weird things as part of events that would be fun to see. This is an acrobatic group from Austria called Strange Fruit. Here they are popping out of pink lanterns. Weird, but cool.


I'm not sure why they painted the ice rink pink, but it would be kind of fun to see.


There are some weird pink things that defy explanation, like these pink weapons, for the fashionably feminine terrorista.


Or a pink sexbot. No, I am not kidding.


This is not a fashion statement that I care to make. Besides, this has got to hurt once the paint gets in the eye.


I've saved the weirdest pink thing for last. This pink head gives me the heebie jeebies. CREEPY! I guess it's part of a video ad. I think I'll pass.


Hopefully by this time next week, I'll be able to download pics from my camera again. I'm working on a couple pink projects that I'm eager to share.

For a list of people participating in this week's Pink Saturday, pop on over to Beverly's pad, How Sweet the Sound. Happy Pink Saturday!

Dog Food Diet

Yesterday i was buying a large bag of Purina Dog food for my bulldog at Wal-Mart and was about to check out.

A woman behind me asked if I had a dog. On impulse, I told her no, I didn't have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again. Although I probably shouldn't, because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IV's in both arms.



I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story.)



Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me.

So I told her no; I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter's butt, and a car hit us both.






I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard.




Wal-Mart won't let me shop there any more.