You're an Organizer, Baby

Post title to be sung to Britney's "Womanizer" as: Organizer, organ organizer you're a organizer oh organizer oh you're an organizer, baby (you, you are). Hehe. 

Kate over at Centsational Girl posted her results from a BHG organizing quiz this week, and it inspired me to take the quiz myself.  I never put too much stock in these quizzes; they're just something fun to do, and always interesting to see how well they work.  But this one hit the nail on the head.  (You can take it here.)

I'm pretty sure from the moment I entered the world, I was making lists.  I kept a spiral-bound notebook from elementary school (think second or third grade), and it's funny to flip through it every now and again to look at the things I thought were worthy of a list.  Even my choices of the boys in the third grade were ranked.  Serious business.

Image (and onesie) here

Guest Bathroom: The Numbers

Admittedly, it's a lot more fun to look at after pictures of the bathroom than it is to talk about the money we spent to make it happen.  But in case anyone else is in our position (and for my reference in the future), I figured I'd outline what we tugged out of our wallets for this project.

After adding everything up, I have to laugh at our initial $150 budget, which certainly limited us.  But with a 20% mark-up for incidentals, we were still only looking at spending $180.  Well, that didn't take into account the $160 we spent on drywall, new trim, plumbing, and other random stuff that it took to get the room from moldy to ready for paint. 

Guest Bathroom: The After!!

I have another post I'm getting ready for next week with some meat (i.e., numbers) in it.  For this post, though, let's just admire the finished product.

Pumpkin Party

Our mystery squash turned a suspicious color over the weekend:

It looks like our pumpkin carving this fall will be courtesy of our compost!

Stuff We've Tried

I had hoped to have a final post about the guest bathroom up today, but life got busy.  So instead, I thought I'd start a new series of posts about things we've tried from around the interwebs.  Enjoy!

We're on a pretty tight budget around our house, so I love to find cheap recipes that are easy and tasty.  These three things don't always happen together, so it takes some searching to get good recipes.

Fancy Ramen Noodles.  I read about these noodles from Ashley and Greg over at 7th House on the Left (recipe here), and we quickly got addicted.  The recipe takes barely any ingredients, and we usually have all of them on hand.  The perfect combination!  I usually double the recipe and use less Sriracha sauce (aka "rooster sauce" around here) than suggested.  Maybe we're just pansies.  I pinned this recipe here.

Source: 7thhouseontheleft.com via Mrs. Great on Pinterest

The Five Dollar Faucet

We had an awesome yard sale Saturday this past weekend.  Our best find was this guy.  He was only five buckaroos from a yard sale across town.  It turns out the people hosting the sale had a daughter who bought this faucet, used it for a year, then got a fancy free faucet (say that three times fast) from work.  There wasn't a price marked on the box, and we were fully ready to pay up to $20 for it.  But Mr. GI learned a chunk of wisdom from American Pickers:  always ask the seller what they're willing to take for a piece, never offer a price first.  The buyers (you!) are always in control, so if the seller offers a price that's too high, you can always work it down. 

Garden 3.0

I feel like I have still yet to make up for my terrible blogging habits over the last few months (an overflow of posts and then... nothing).  Case in point:  It's 11 days into June, and I have yet to let out a peep about our summer garden that we planted two months ago.  Well, I'm making up for it now!

Here's a layout of our garden this year. 

Last week I counted 23 tomato plants, 5 mystery squash fruits, and 20 tomatoes waiting to ripen.  Mmmm!  See the bottom of the post for a picture of our mystery squash.

Our Redneck Chandelier and Barn Light Electric

We're still loving the redneck Mason jar chandelier we made for the Winter Pinterest Challenge a few months ago, and I figured I'd give an update about how it's holding up.

Guest Bathroom: The Iron Curtain

Old Winston would be proud of this curtain.  No, not THAT curtain (although it is a lovely color scheme, no?).  We're not Communists.

Image here

I guess I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.  A month ago (although it seems like that was just yesterday) I posted about the end of my burlap-colored dream.  My grand plan for the guest bathroom shower curtain was to DIY an extra-long burlap curtain, bringing in a nice variation in texture and trying out a new type of fabric.

Missing in Action

Somehow I blinked and it's been a month since I last posted.  I'm sure part of it has to do with how busy my life was in May, but probably more with the exhaustion that came with the guest bathroom being finished.  I've got a few things to share with you (is anyone still out there?), so stick around and you'll hear from me again soon.  Pinkie promise.