Let the Countdown Begin
Less than three weeks until Christmas! My kids are tearing through their advent calendars each morning and hubby has the front yard looking as festive as the inside of our house. My shopping is essentially done, and all I have to do is my baking and wrapping.
We’re hosting Christmas dinner on Boxing Day this year, because it’s hubby’s side of the family’s turn, and a few relatives can’t make it on the 25th. There’ll be 15 of us, so I’ll have to do up lots of dishes to make sure everyone has enough to eat while ensuring we have lots of leftovers.
I got a lovely email yesterday from Rhonda Penders (editor-in-chief) of The Wild Rose Press, and I had to smile. Meeting her and my TWRP editors at that Texas dude ranch was wonderful on both a personal and professional level. It makes all the difference when you meet and actually spend time with the folks you work with, and it’s no different in the publishing world.
Callie Croix has another release next Friday, the sequel to Deacon’s Touch. Dillon’s Claim features Dillon (yeah, you’d never guess that from the title, right?), the eldest Dumen brother. He’s quite the alpha male :).
Hope everyone out there is handling the December chaos well! Happy holidays to everyone.
Voila! French Bathroom Transformation.
Well, it took almost 7 weeks, but the master bathroom face lift is finally complete! I’m thrilled with how it turned out. I’ve been wanting to make some changes since soon after we moved in, as things were starting to break/peel/chip and generally just feel dated.
To make a long story short, it was actually the shower I hated since day one because of a bulkhead drop wall that trapped all the steam inside and made the paint in and around the shower peel and get all moldy. Ick. I was so sick and tired of sanding and repainting in the shower all the time! Once I got the accounting department’s permission, it was go time on this bathroom operation.
Here are the before shots I took:
If you look closely in the above shot, you can see some of the paint peeling along the edge of the bulkhead “drop” wall that goes across the shower. So annoying.
The old vanity and sink with peeling counters and trim. It looks much better in the picture than it did up close, believe me. You’ll just have to take my word for it 🙂
And… *drum roll* Here are the after shots!
Ta-da! Nice clean, modern shower, with no more bulkhead or peeling paint. Because the rest of the room is so girly, I went with plain white subway tiles and an accent of silver and black mosaic, colors reflected in the rest of the bathroom. I thought hubby would appreciate a hint of masculinity. The shower head is the neatest I’ve ever seen; a rain head with a center detachable spray head, so we can clean the walls easily. So very cool.
Beautiful new black granite vanity with silver flecks in it, a new undermount sink and brushed silver Victorian faucet with French writing on the knobs. I love putting together little details like that!
Pretty robin’s egg blue paint on the walls, a fresh coat of white on all the trim, some French decor I had all kinds of fun picking out, and then I gave the clawfoot tub a coat of semi-gloss black Tremclad to make it match everything else. I added all kinds of neat little accessories that pulled the room together: French towels, toothbrush holder, fancy towel racks and candles, etc, etc. That was my favorite part of the whole project 🙂
And last but not least, a couple pretty silver French-style chandeliers, to make everything seem that much more luxurious.
Yeah it took awhile to get all the tradespeople lined up to do their thing, but the important part is that it all turned out well in the end. I love the room, and I had my first long soak in the tub last night. Very nice, if I do say so myself! Hubby likes it, though not as much as the kids and I do. But a happy wife means a happy home life, right? So I say it’s all worth it, lol.
In writing news, I found out last week that Absolution took third place in the 2011 Laurel Wreath Awards. Another accolade for Luke and Emily! I miss them.
Now that the bathroom’s done and I’m finally wrapping up edits on the last story I have contracted (gulp), I plan to get the rest of my Christmas shopping done in the next week or so, then write without any undue stress hanging over my head! How are your Christmas preparations going?
Incognito
This weekend was another whirlwind of activity at our place. An 8 am soccer game Saturday morning, then I had to leave right away to do a presentation to the Vancouver RWA chapter. I missed my eldest son’s soccer game, and ironically, his first two goals ever. I was so sad!
He forgave me, and we went ahead with our dinner plans to a fancy place downtown, followed by a special Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performance featuring Loony Tunes cartoons (Bugs Bunny et al) while the orchestra played the musical score. Was a great evening.
In other news, Callie Croix has a new release today. A very hot short read, but did I mention it’s hot? Oh yeah. If you’re interested, you can find the details on her website. Hence the incognito post 🙂
Hope everyone south of the border has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week! Have some turkey for me. Yum.
Decking The Halls
I warned you last week that it was the start of the Christmas season at our house, so this post shouldn’t come as a surprise. All weekend we put away the regular decorations and started pulling out the Christmas stuff. I went through both kids’ rooms, purging them of old toys and clothes that were no longer in use. It felt so good! Whenever I “purge” our closets I always feel lighter. That TV show, Hoarders, is my secret addiction. Every time I watch an episode I always want to frantically clean and scrub my house.
When all was said and done, we wound up filling the back of my hubby’s pickup truck with donations for goodwill. When he took them over, though, he was told they no longer take toys.
Say what?! What kind of a goodwill place doesn’t take toys?
So we’re still looking for a home for them. But, we did get the majority of the Christmas things up–only three trees and the outside decorations are left to go.
Our master bathroom renovation (it was only a cosmetic makeover) is moving along at a snail’s pace. Seems our job is so small it’s a giant pain in everyone’s butt to come over here and do what needs to be done. The rest of the house is looking cozy and Christmasy though, so that makes me happy.