Kitty Deschanel

We found these at Nordstrom (or was it Bloomingdales?) when we were in San Diego and I've been kicking myself for not buying them ever since. I figured that they would go on sale and I'd simply order them online - neither store lists these on their website! Now, I've located these super cute little napkins here, but the shipping charge is $8.00 (to ship 4 feather-light napkins that could easily be mailed in a standard yellow envelope with 2 stamps like I use at work every day!) That price sucks the cuteness right out of these. If any store in Albuquerque is selling these, lemme know! 6/10/18 Update: My awesome boss gifted TWO packs of these napkins to me. Isn't she the greatest? In the decade I've had them, I've used them...twice. Ah, the joys of entertaining in your mind!

*Update* Wondering how our master bathroom remodel turned out? Click here for photos! Is it just me, or has this remodel been going on FOREVER?? To be fair, we were distracted for a while with the task of saving our dying ash tree. Did you know that there is a type of insect called an ash borer? We didn't! Was the rescue time well spent? Not exactly. Oh, our yard is so crappy now! Fingers crossed that the bathroom will be completed within the next month. We still need to plant a new tree!

I love browsing through decorating blogs. Here is my quick contribution to the world of bargain-hunting decor: This plant was marked down to $0.50 and was in a shopping cart full of discounted Easter merchandise last year. It didn't look like it would last very long, but here it is almost a year later and doing great. Not bad considering that it spends most of its time in the guest bedroom with the blinds closed. Instead of planting it in an actual pot, I just placed it inside a cute bowl from the $1 Store. The colorful thingy on the right is just an old jar filled of incense and tied with a bow. As for the slate tiles, they are the top of the bar that Sexy Nerd built. They're sitting inside a groove, not grouted down, so that if we ever change our decor, we can easily switch out the top of the bar with different tiles.

I need this chair. Actually, I need 4 of them. Maybe even six. Why, oh why, must they be $139.95 each?? Damn you, Pottery Barn. I will just have to DIY my own...somehow...with spray paint.

The shower is gone! So much for that being "the absolute last step of the project". I guess using the guest bathroom isn't that bad. Just when you thought it couldn't get any messier... My pack rat side won't let me get rid of the old shower door. We donated the bathroom fan from the guest bathroom, and look what happened - we needed a fan for our remodeled master bathroom and had to buy a new one for $30! But realistically, what am I going to do with an old shower door? Maybe if our new walk-in shower opening ends up getting water everywhere, (Sexy Nerd swears it won't) we can use it again. A hidden passageway between the walls of the two bathrooms? We are so totally adding that space to the closet behind the wall on the left. Eventually, we're going to need to throw some things away. Not the old cabinets though. I don't know what we'll do with them, but as soon as they're gone, we'll think of the coolest use for them ever!

*Update*  This bathroom remodel is finally finished! Here are the glorious AFTER photos. Even better, we've moved. Be sure to check out photos of the bathrooms in our new dream home in the mountains outside of Albuquerque, NM. I may be a bit biased, as we designed everything in the new house from scratch, but can confidently say they're stunning. Recently, I came home from work to discover that my husband had used his day off work to demolish our master bathroom - surprise! The new sink area is coming along nicely. It used to be 75% of SN's walk-in closest. Eventually, there will be a mosaic tile countertop joining the 2 sinks. There will also be a big, sparkly chandelier here, as well as an electric fireplace. Our "new" Jacuzzi tub (new to us, at least) is installed and ready for use. If only I had ordered the waterfall faucet sooner! What's that? You don't think we would actually take a bath with everything in the room destroy...

Sexy Nerd and I are still trying to decide how we want out remodeled bathroom to look. Technically, the best idea may have been to have something in mind before we started tearing down walls and ripping up linoleum, but oh well. I just found this lovely bathroom: Isn't it pretty? An all-white floor would be even better. The link to the blog where I found this photo is here . *Update* Our bathroom remodel is nearly done! Click here for photos.

*Update* Our DIY bathroom remodel is nearly done! Click here to see all the ridiculous changes. Here is our bedroom 2 weeks ago. This was our bathroom 2 weeks ago. I'll admit, neither the bedroom or the bathroom were very well decorated or exciting, but were they terrible?  Sexy Nerd thought so... He has every other Friday off. I went to work and came home to discover a wall in our bathroom had disappeared! I caught Sexy Nerd and Pica, his partner in crime, gutting the bathroom! Where is Pica's mask?? I can understand removing the garden tub, but surely there is somewhere in our 2700 sq ft. house where it can be stored without blocking access to THREE rooms at once. The loft has nothing to do with the remodel. Why, oh why, must it suffer too? I was all for raising the sitting area with one step. However, as I pointed out to Sexy Nerd after he had already done this, we have no intention of re-carpeting any time soon. (I'd love ...

Probably to my builder's dismay, I'm constantly seeking inspiration for the house we're building. It makes it impossible to settle on a design! My favorite sites for home photos are not Pinterest or Houzz, but ones like Redfin, Zillow, and Sotheby's, where all the photos are real-life homes (not staged for a magazine) and unique. It occurred to me this morning that other folks might like to look through these too, so from now on, whenever I come across a particularly beautiful home, I'll share it here. Enjoy! It's a charming, fairytale cottage. Using the term "cottage" lightly, of course, as it's a sprawling 10,881 sq ft! The dream home we're building is exactly like this house.  Exactly like it, in that it will also have walls, floors, a ceiling, light fixtures, and a roof. Oh, and windows! Our house will also have doors and windows, exactly like this house has doors and windows. Do all the homes in Greenwich, CT h...