Independence Day Flashbacks and Nonsense

How was your weekend?  Ours was lovely.  We discovered Mad Men and iced green tea lattes.  Both have changed our lives.  I’m changing the name of the blog again.  It’s now “Mad Men and the Dog”.  Or “Mad Girl and the Dog”.  That’s probably more like it.

We did manage to get some things done.  Non-blogworthy things like getting our lives in order.  You know, like cleaning out the bathroom medicine cupboard.  And the garage.  Oh, the garage.  Fun stuff.  I’m also getting ready to move the ol’ blog to a different platform.  I have no clue what I’m doing and it’s going to be amazing.

Beings that I didn’t take a picture of the expired bottle of cough syrup from 2010 (Yes, I’m a pharmacist.  Why do you ask?), I’m digging out some ol’ Independence day inspiration from the archives. It’s make me sad when lovely posts get forgotten. Enjoy!

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Who’s excited to watch fireworks this week?  Want to photograph some of those fireworks?  Nate has some tips for you.  My tips are wear bug spray and drink green tea lattes to help you stay awake.  Also try not to sit next to annoying people.  I’m horrible at that last one.

How to Photograph Fireworks

Want your dog to be super stylish in red, white and blue.  How about an easy sew dog tie?  You know Ike will be wearing his.

Easy Sew Dog Tie

Or how about baking a flag cake.  Mine, obviously, turned out well.

Flag Cake

Big 4th of July plans?  Any fellow Mad Men fans?  Whose dog needs a tie?  Any cake fails?

Life As We Know It

I’m going to be honest with you all.  Having your blog grow is a weird (yet awesome) thing. But there comes this pressure to have stellar pin-worthy posts all of the time.  That just isn’t my style of blogging, yo.  I tried it. I didn’t like it.  I would panic when I couldn’t come up with a stellar post idea and instead write nothing.  Lame.

Today, I’m headed back to the Michelle way of blogging. Why?  Because I can.  (I’m on a power trip.  Look out Nate.)

Today we will discuss life.  Mostly according to Instagram.  Because really, is it life if it wasn’t capture on Instagram?  There is no order to this nonsense.  Just like my life.

Ike is now a redneck.  He is madly in love with this bandana that his uncle gave him.  He is the only dog I know that gets upset if you take his bandana off.  I think I will rename the blog “Ike Dynasty”.  (Thanks, Kristel!)

Oh, it makes me so sad. Is this what it’s like when you’re kid wants to wear that Disney princess horribleness instead of the cute Gap cardigan you bought her?  But that look on his face.

There’s a new antique store in town.  It’s not good for my savings account. So much old cuteness.  I’m going to talk to them about a frequent shopper card.

I’m kind of behind times but I forgot to mention that I got to meet Shannon (Bottle Pop Party Co.) back in May.  I love meeting strangers from the internet.  First I survived meeting Kim and then Shannon.  Maybe I should test my luck and meet a stranger from Craigslist. (I kid. I kid.)  Shannon is cool and she got me addicted to Straw-ber-itas.  I like friends that are good influences.  She’s also ridiculously good at party planning.  Party on, Wayne.  Party on, Garth.

Speaking of good influences,  Kim and I should have a new item listed in our shop, Sew Midwestern, soon.  Sneak peek.  ***Spoiler Alert:  It’s not my purse.  Or the baby monitor.***

Earlier this week I shared with you some of my brothers house (the exterior and bathroom).  Here is Ike super pumped to check out his living room when we first arrived.  I’m liking brother’s rug.  He does good work.  (I did, however, crop out the deer heads.  Brother Dynasty.)

We had a storm go through the other day.  I got to spend 30 minutes of my work day sitting in the hallway wondering if I was going to die. ***Spoiler Alert: I didn’t.***  I was close to getting one of the docs to write me a script for Xanax.  ***Spoiler Alert: I wasn’t close.***

This was the aftermath of the storm.

Or that was the aftermath of me accidently falling asleep after work one day this week.  He opened the bi-fold doors, pulled his travel bag off of the mini-fridge and then proceeded to take out it’s contents.  He left the treats and food.  Because normal dogs do that???  They also do this too. I’m sure of it.

Oh, Ike.

That’s life.  Or some of it.  Actually lately it’s been feel of sweating a lot and trying to get arm muscles. It’s my newest obsessions.  I’m so weird.  And beastly.

What are you all up to this weekend my beastly readers?

Pink Bathroom Makeover

Brother:  “Why are you cleaning my bathroom?”

Me: “Because I’m going to snap photos for the blog.  Hope that’s okay.”

Brother:  “Want to photograph my upstairs bath then too?  How about my kitchen?  The dining room?”

Good try, little brother.  Good try.

This is what the bathroom looked like when little brother bought his house.

I don’t know about you but I was totally digging that stencil.  That dirty pink tile was to die for.  The oversized vanity and shelving unit where pretty stellar too.

But for some reason, little brother hated it.  I just don’t get it.  He was afraid of the cost to fix it.  Luckily his sister is an important DIY/home decor blogger.  (I kill me.)  Or he’s lucky he has a brother-in-law that is handy.  And a dad that likes to destroy things. 

Some sweat, family bonding and around $350.00 left his bathroom looking like this.

One thing that has surprised me about my brother during this whole house renovation process is that he actually has really good taste.  (Well, minus the deer heads in the living room.)  But overall, his selections have impressed me.  He usually asks if what he likes is okay but I rarely have to tell him it’s not (minus the deer heads).

The makeover started by gutting the bathroom. (We make our father proud.)

Moving the plumbing and adding a new outlet revealed a giant mass of razors.  About a week later we watched a home improvement show that had the same issue. I guess it was common to just drop razors in a slot in the medicine cabinet and let them fill up a space in the wall.  Guess those dudes weren’t thinking about the poor people in 2013 that would have to clean that mess up.  (Soccer sandals and socks are a favorite trend in Iowa.)

After cleaning up the hot razor mess, it was time to prime and paint.  I did feel slightly bad covering up someone’s time consuming stenciling.  But only slightly.  Brother could have cared less.  He chose Dutch Boy’s Peppercorn for the wall color.

It was then time to lay the tile.  The tile was purchased at Menard’s.

My dad and brother then installed bead board and molding to cover up the tile grossness.

They then replaced the toilet.  He also added a new sink, light and medicine cabinet. It’s hard to believe it’s the same room.

Pretty impressive finishes for a bachelor.  (I’m still looking for a sister-in-law.  Contact me if interested. I mean, you get a cute house out of the deal.  I’m sure the deer heads are negotiable if you’re not his sister.  Man, I’m going to get sucker punched for this one.  Let’s look at more pretty after photos.)

Who thinks the pink tile was pretty rocking?  Any takers on that whole future sister-in-law thing?