Top 5 of 2015

Peace OUT 2015! 
You were cool, and we had some great times, but much like the leftover holiday desserts in my fridge...it's time for you to go. It's also time to brush off those sequins and party hats for NYE! I don't know about you, but I fully intend to end the year with a bang, 100% Geller style.

Those moves were on point!

While we were home visiting with family and friends, I got asked the same questions over and over again; "So what have you been up to?", "How have you been?", "What's new with you!?" And I'd usually respond with an autopilot answer of "Oh you know, not much...". Which got me thinking, what HAVE we been up to? Honestly our life has kind of hit a plateau, a fantastically blessed plateau don't get me wrong, but I found it odd I couldn't think of anything remotely interesting to share about the last 12 months.

For those of you who've been reading this blog for a while now, know it's main purpose is a diary of sorts. A place to share our home updates with those who can't visit, random things I find wonderfully beautiful, crafts, food, art, and everything in between. So when I needed a reminded of the glory that was the year 2015, I knew THIS was the place to start.

After rounding up the posts with the top number of hits, I am proud to present:

#5 Eric's...I Mean OUR...Summer To-Do List 
Apparently you people REALLY wanted to know what Eric would be doing all summer. Truth time, we didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I'd hoped we would. But considering how often we were away since everyone and their brother decided to get married, it's all good. Plus our backyard has really stepped it up!

#4 Mini-Awkward-Bathroom Reveal!

Giving that stupid little bathroom in our kitchen a makeover is on my list of Best Decisions Made This Year. Right above "downloading the Starbucks app" and "storing Go-Gurts in the freezer". It's been finished for months, and I still get excited when I open the door to go tinkle. 

#3 MAB Update - The Magical Powers of Paint 
Hands down my boldest color choice, and the coolest thing I've ever done to a wall. Paint pens, a couple hours, and lots of patients are all I needed to basically tattoo the bathroom with this uber glam floral pattern. 

#2 Trying the Tri: Three Events, Three Women, One Mission

Watching my mom and two aunts cross the finish line after completing a whole triathlon, will go down in history as one of the most memorable moments of my life. The amount of love, selflessness, and determination shared between those three women is inspirational.

and finally...

#1 My Fitness Journey
Oh this post. I seriously can't tell you how many times I considered scrapping the whole thing in the midst of writing. But because I'm surrounded by beautiful people, with beautiful souls, and am incredibly blessed that those people care and support me, all feedback was 100% positive. I just wanted to give someone the push in the right direction they needed, assure them it's NOT impossible, and encourage living a healthier lifestyle. If that was true for even just one person, I'd mark it down as a victory! 

I'd like now say THANK YOU to each and every one of you who take the time to read this blog. It may seem like nothing particularly special, and compared to the thousands upon thousands of visits other sites get, it's pretty miniscule. But the thing is, it's special to me. And whether 10 people or 10,000 people read what I have to say, it makes no difference. I have a passion to create, Soliloquy by Bethany is one of my creations, and I can't wait to see where 2016 takes us.

So I'll say it again, THANK YOU. May you have a spectacular finale of 2015, and endless hopes and dreams for the upcoming year. 

Love, 
Bethany 

DIY Custom Light Fixture

**NOTE: If you're going to tackle this project, please, please, PLEASE turn off the power source before doing so. And if this is your first time working with electricity, ASK FOR HELP! I am not a professional, Eric did all of the wire work, so in reality I have no idea how these things go. Be safe not sorry people!**

One of my all time favorite details from the bathroom makeover is hands down the light fixture. I had seen the tutorial floating around the interweb for some time, but never had a reason to execute it until now. From the quirky branch-like arms, to the multiple clear globe bulbs, there's just so much whimsy I HAD to make it my own.

I first saw this light on the blogs Rain On A Tin Roof and Little Green Notebook. Their versions are shown below, both provided easy to follow instructions, and were great jumping off points for my own lighting creation. 

For my own light, I wanted it to have a decent amount of visual weight. When I began painting the walls, I debated about painting the ceiling the same color. The original color was on the ceiling as well as the walls, and I thought it looked fine, maybe even helped the small space appear larger. But black is intense, and when I finished, there was a moment of panic where I thought I had made a HUGE mistake. Did I just turn my bathroom into a cave? A swift text to my BFF explaining the problem, and she calmly put my nerves at ease explaining that if my new light had some impact, it would easily balance out the black ceiling. Bestie to the rescue!

Let's backtrack to what I originally started with. 

A moment of silence for the death of yet another boob light.....ok that's enough. 

The materials I needed to make the light include the following:

1. Porcelain lamp holder

2. Three lamp bulb socket splitter - this is how I planned to expand my light and make it bigger.

3. Light bulb socket splitters for standard bulbs - I ordered 20 of these splitters, but only used 17 of them. 

4. Ceiling Medallion - just for a nice flourish!

5. 25-watt clear globe light bulbs - after building my light shape, I needed 24 bulbs, but ended up only using 18. 

Now time for the fun part. Assembling this light is pretty much a giant puzzle. Somehow all of these pieces need to fit together, while looking balanced, but also leaving room for the light bulbs.

Once I created the basic shape, I stuffed paper towels into each socket to protect the electrical parts, grabbed my favorite gold spray paint, and headed outside. 

It took a few coats, but I focused on how it looked from the top...or bottom once it's hung, since that's what people will see when they look up. Speaking of hanging, when Eric removed the old light, he discovered there was a metal box holding all the wires that probably shouldn't be removed. This wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but once spray painted the same gold, it looked like it was intended to be there all along. 

An all-purpose construction adhesive was used to attach the medallion to the ceiling, and it was like icing on the cake. Such a beautiful addition for such a small cost. You'll also notice the final shape isn't exactly the same as when I finished connecting all the socket splitters. As Eric installed the light, he disassembled it, and then slowly reassembled, turning on and off the power every once in awhile to make sure we weren't going to blow a fuse. Better safe than sorry! 

Was it more work than simply buying a new light? Of course.

Is it a little crazy looking? Maybe. 

But it's better to be absolutely RIDICULOUS, than absolutely BORING! :) 

Mini-Awkward-Bathroom REVEAL!

I am happy to announce that the mini-awkward-bathroom makeover is officially COMPLETE! Although the awkwardness isn't entirely gone, I mean there's still a shower in lieu of a sink, it's absolutely a BILLION times sexier. Which of course is what every bathroom strives to be during their little bathroom lifetime.

If you're new here, you can read from my original post I wanted something dark, but also high contrast, with a lot of gold accents. 

After the intense paint job, the space was about 75% there. Not to brag, but I'm pretty sure I nailed that last 25%. 
Warning, you're about to get bombarded with pictures. Enjoy! 

Above the toilet, I really wanted to take advantage of the space by installing shelves. To bring in more gold, I spray painted the brackets, and then Eric trimmed simple white shelves from Menards to fit snugly between the walls. 

Another detail I'm obsessed with is the new light fixture! It's like a glittery golden chandelier just twinkling above your head. It's totally unique, totally DIY, and I'm totally going to write about it next. Stay tuned. 

I am so SO happy with how this makeover turned out. For being such a small space, it's still jammed packed with personality, and LOTS of original details. 
Check out these wonderfully satisfying before and afters.

Again, I cannot reiterate how pleased I am with how this project came together. Yes it took about two months when I wanted it to take only a week, but some things are just worth waiting for. And a super gorgeous place to do your business in, happens to be one of those things. 

MAB Update - The Magical Powers of Paint

Last post I discussed the plan of attack to update our Mini-Awkward-Bathroom, or MAB for short. There really wasn't a whole lot going on in this space to begin with, so I kind of went into it with the attitude of "anything will be an improvement to this". 

With an entire weekend of nothing stretched out before me, I grabbed my paint brush, cranked some Pandora, had myself an adult beverage, and got to it! 

Friday: 

Hit up Menards after work to get paint for the bathroom. It was already past 7pm and I hadn't had dinner yet, felt super hungry, and accidentally walked into the men's restroom. 

Yup. That happened...let's blame low blood sugar. 

Got my paint though! We're going deep and dark with Dutch Boy's Crayola Black. 

First things first, the trim and door needed to be primed. Since I knew I wanted to paint the walls, I only needed to tape off the floor and shower so that saved me some time. 

Next up was the actual paint. We've been painting our trim and doors Simply White by Benjamin Moore, and since beginning the process of updating everything in the house white, we constantly have a gallon of this in the basement. A few coats later and I was in business. 

Saturday:
Let's get some color on those walls! 
Black paint is kind of crazy, you open the can and instantly think "WOW, that is a stunning shade of purple", and then pray to the decorating gods that it'll actually dry darker. 

Patience is key when painting a bathroom. 
That and a clean toilet. You'll find yourself lying on the ground, face pressed against the lid of your john, attempting to paint behind the tank, and that is NOT the moment to realize you haven't scrubbed it in a week. 

It was a pleasant surprise how well the black covered. I had heard horror stories about dark paint taking coat after coat, but this only took two, with the third just being for touch ups. 
As Saturday came to and end, this is where I left off: 

Not to shabby! The dark walls turned out to be such a beautiful contrast compared to the crisp white trim. A nice little burst of interesting when you open the door. 

OK, on to the exciting part.
Wednesday: 
I really REALLY wanted to have an accent wall in here. But as I stared at the space behind the toilet (the original location in my plan), I just wasn't sure. Is this really the most interesting wall in here? I stuck the shower curtain up for a sec, stepped out, opened the door once more, and took note to where my eye went first. 
Above the shower, right to the window. 
THAT is where my beautiful gold wall belongs. 

With the above inspiration in my head, and a couple Gold Sharpie paint pens in hand, I first did some practice doodles. Once I felt fairly confident, there was nothing left to do but hop up on the ladder and begin!

I broke the design down into three separate parts; big flowers, medium vines, tiny leaves, and lastly little dots. It took me maybe an hour-and-a-half to two hours from start to finish, you can see the sun going down in the pictures below. 

I am OBSESSED with how this turned out!!! It's seriously SO MUCH BETTER than anything I ever envisioned, and if I had the time (or it wouldn't be WAY too in your face) I'd do the entire bathroom. 

The gold and black are absolutely sick together! I love how it has all the beauty of wallpaper, but without the messy glue, and I can just paint over the design if I ever get tired of looking at it. 

Sooooo close to being done! All that's left is to finalize the light fixture, hang some shelves, and of course decorate. Then it's time for lots and LOTS of before and after shots! 

Bring it on! 

Mini-Awkward-Bathroom Makeover

Off of our kitchen there is a door. 

When touring our home for the first time, most people exclaim "this must be the pantry!" only to be surprised when they find a bathroom...with a shower. 

Yup, we have a shower 5 feet away from the oven. 

If you're already super turned off by the idea of a naked body in such close proximity to food, then I won't mention that this bathroom doesn't have a sink. 

That's right, we have a toilet and a shower...but no sink. So if you're visiting, and feel the urge to bath while eating dinner, we've gotcha covered! 

We do have full intentions to remove the shower and replace it with a vanity, but that's probably not going to happen in the near future. Until then, this teeny tiny wash closet (literally, it's a closet) will have to settle for a face-lift. 

AKA:

OK, game plan! 
Eric is gone all week, and my goal is to finish before he gets back. Not because I want to surprise him, more so because the plan I have may not be exactly what he had in mind. My strategy = ask for forgiveness, not permission. 

I don't know about you, but I've seriously been crushing on black bathrooms. Black? Yes black. These moody rooms have been stealing my heart, and our bathroom actually gets a lot of sunlight, so I think the dark paint color will work without feeling too goth.

Source / Source 

The contrast between the white and dark is so dramatic. Gah! I love it! 

Below is what I have to work with.

Not a whole lot of room to do your business, and yet another boob light to replace. 
The trim will need to be painted white, and then of course the walls black. I'm also toying with the idea to make the wall behind the toilet an accent wall. I've been obsessing hard-core with these hand drawn patterns that replicate wallpaper.

Source / Source 

I'm fairly confident I could pull this off with a few hours, and half-a-dozen paint pens.
Below is what I'm envisioning: gold accessories, a new light fixture, dark paint, some plant life, and a bitch'n focal wall to really make it unique.

See! Beautiful.
Eric's going to come home, open the door, and BAM! Get smacked square in the face with a bathroom bursting with style.

It's gonna be great.