How to Paint in the Bathroom (Without Touching a Single Wall)

My latest "looking forward to being home" project led me to my bathroom. Specifically, to my shower curtain. I like art. I sunflowers. I like Van Gogh. The answer was pretty clear. But all the shower curtains I found (and there are some pretty cool ones out there) were $50-$80...

No thanks.

I'll just make my own. 

Here's what I wanted:                                      Here's what I made:

Sunflowers, by Vincent Van Gogh

And here's what I used to make it: 

• Little bottles of acrylic paint (once dry, they're waterproof.) // $0.50 each
• Opaque, PEVA shower curtain // $8
• Paint brushes

I kept the variety of paints pretty slim, knowing it'd be easier to just mix for the shades I don't have. But feel free to get different shades if that's easier for you!

Hang up the shower curtain taut against a wall (I used thumbtacks) because it makes it easier to measure the proportions of what you're trying to paint. Since you're not working on the floor, it allows you to work in small chunks at a time. Unless you're a professional artist (and I'm definitely not) your proportions might not be exact. That mountain might be steeper. That sky might be less cloudy. But that's okay, because you're making it your own.  

Don't pile on the paint! If it's too thick, it'll peel right off. What you're painting on is essentially plastic, so the paint spreads easily. You won't need nearly as much as if you were painting on canvas or paper. 

I didn't de-wrinkle the shower curtain before I began painting (I burned my first trial against a blow drier...) and found that the creases ease out over time.

There's something so therapeutic about spreading paint all over a large plastic sheet... and now the biggest thing in my bathroom makes me smile every time I look at it.

This is what home improvement is all about.

Just as I finished, I saw that this shower curtain on amazon went from $70 to $20... with free shipping... 

(but I like mine better.)

Tea Tree Essential Oil

Today I want to talk about the best antibiotic. 

Yep yep yep it's another post about tea tree oil.

This stuff is an antiviral, antibacterial, and an antifungal, and can treat a myriad of things. Plus it smells amazing. 

I have some products with tea tree oil in it, but I used it in its "essential oil" form for the first time last night. Just woke up and my skin feels awesome.

Here's what I did: 

Take off any and all makeup. Then, slip a cotton pad under running water for a sec. (Using tea tree oil without water will dry out your skin!)

Put a drop or two of the oil on the pad and pat it all over your face. Let it air dry.

Applying tea tree oil to your face before you sleep has three major benefits:

- Treats acne/kills the gunk in your pores
- Inhaling it can treat coughs and colds + it's great aromatherapy
- It can also treat a sunburn



But whatever you do, DO NOT INGEST TEA TREE OIL! Don't put it in tea, don't take a little dropper and swallow it, don't use it near wounds or open sores.

This morning, I did notice that I had some flaky patches around my cheeks, so I'm going to use a wetter cotton pad next time. I didn't wash my face this morning because I didn't want it getting more dry. Instead, I just put some moisturizer on and my skin was fine afterwards!

Natural Cold/Flu Relievers

I have this thing about medicine/pills... I don't like them. I'm not against them, I'm not an anti-vaccine movement nutso, no no no. I just try not to take medicine unless I have to. I was sick with a cold all week, and I want to share my top non-nyquil remedies:

(If you're looking for herbal remedies, stop reading this now.)

Still there? Great!

1. Sleep. Even if there's something good on TV. Even if there are a thousand funny pictures online. Sleep.

2. Shower, even if you don't want to. Sure, your body is achy and you already feel gross and you know that you'll become snotty and gross 2 seconds after you step out of the shower, but the warm steam will clear out sinuses and make you feel better. Promise.

3. Speaking of runny noses... I stuff tissues up my nose (who has time to reach for a tissue every 2 seconds?) It helps, I swear!

4. Stay hydrated! Chugging water is obviously the best, but if you need a little more flavor:

Mint Tea w/lemon & honey // Coconut Water // Blueprint Juice // Lemon-water & Cucumber-water

I previously wrote about why I stopped drinking coffee, but recently came across a new study that states that coffee doesn't seem to dehydrate you after all. That said, you should probably still keep away from it while you're sick, because it'll make you jittery when you should be relaxing!

Hope you're staying healthy and enjoying the sunshine!

Monogrammed Coir Doormat

I was digging around the internet trying to find a doormat I liked, and eventually narrowed it down to the following: 

// 1. Constellation Bias // 2. Izola // 3. Wellfleet // 4. Piano Cocoa //

But then I realized that I don't want to spend $40 on a doormat. Instead, I spent $8 and used Lia Griffith's monogrammed door mat tutorial to make my own. Here it is:

I fell in love with the design and didn't want to change a thing. Literally. (She uses a G, too.)

I used: 

• Coir doormat // $5, Ikea
• Black spray paint // $3 from a local hardware store
• Griffith's stencil // print here

The hardest part in making this doormat was making sure that the stencil was a) in the middle, and b) not lopsided. I've never been good at eyeing straight lines (I think it's because I always kinda tilt my head to my left), which is terribly inconvenient for someone who's into geometric designs.

Heads up--unless you mount the mat to the wall, you can't use a leveler to align anything. Unless you're okay with the risk of getting paint on walls, you can't push the mat against one outside to make sure it's straight.

I used tape measure to make the stencil's placement as straight and centric as possible. It was a lot of guess and check, but I made sure the edges of the antlers were equidistant from the edge of the mat, and that the top and bottom of the "G" were equidistant from the mat. 

I'm actually still not sure if it's straight (I can never tell, remember?)

Oh well.

Vertical Cake

I'm celebrating my fourth by shoveling as much sugar onto my plate as I can. My friend and fellow cake lover, Kendon, made a gorgeous vertical-layer cake today, and I've been nibbling on it for hours now. iambaker has a great tutorial on how to make them!

Oh, and if you've ever wondered which founding father is your soulmate, the wait is over. 

My one true colonial love is Alexander Hamilton. Dolla dolla bill y'all. Enjoy the fireworks.

From buzzfeed: The only thing better than having a stack of 10 dollar bills is having the guy who is actually on the 10. You like your men polished, professional, and effortlessly competent. Something about a dude who is much more organized than you just makes you thirsty.

Choosing a Color Scheme

When I was "auditioning" for schools as a kindergartener, there was a school I didn't get into because I couldn't name my colors. (If you ask my parents, it was because I didn't say a word during the entire interview-quiz. Maybe the nuns scared me.) I did, eventually, learn my colors and became very confident in my ability to name them.

Until now.

In trying to create a color scheme for my space, I've learned that the hardest part isn't figuring out what colors I should add, it's figuring out what colors are already there. Take, for example, my couch. What color is it? I don't know. I mean, it's brown. But I can't point it out on a color wheel. And if I don't know where it is on the color wheel, how can I know what's directly across from it? Or the two colors equidistant from it?

I want to figure this out because I'm not starting from scratch. I'm not going to buy a new sofa. I'm not going to buy a new dining table. I could buy new sheets, but I probably won't. I have to consciously think about color moving forward, and I want to be precise.

If you can eyeball your stuff and estimate the right color, more power to you. But if you're a perfectionist and need a precise palette, here's a way to do it:

Step 1: Take a photo of the largest "thing" in your room. I'm going to make a color scheme for my living room, and everything is going to be centered around my sofa.

Step 2: Upload the photo here. This website will tell you the specific RGB/hex # of any image you upload. (There're apps on your phone that can do this, too, but I haven't found one that'll give you the hex #) Here's my couch-swatch:

Step 3: Copy the Hex # and paste it here. It'll give you all the popular color schemes--and if you hover over the other colors, you can find their info as well.

For my living room, I came up with this palette:

And now, the actually difficult part. Finding things in these colors...

Orange-Ginger Juice

I never want to juice an apple again, and I don't have to. I wanted to make orange-ginger juice, but got a little carried away. What I ended up with blew my mind: 

I'm really sensitive to the taste of ginger (most ginger-y drinks are really strong for me) so just added a pinch, and it was the perfect aftertaste. For me. Everybody else who had a sip said, word for word, "oh you can't taste the ginger at all!" 

So, you know, use your own proportions. Here are the specifics of what's in my blender:

• 2 oranges
• 15ish cherries, de-pitted
• 1/3 of a pineapple
• handful of cilantro
• pinch of ginger

Blend, strain, and you're good to go! As always, you don't need any sugar or water--the cherries are sweet enough to balance the tartness of the pineapple.

The Color Wheel

I'm determined to make my space a place I enjoy, so I decided to learn about interior design. When I decide to learn about something, I go 100%. I looked up textbooks from various interior design courses, found some free online courses, and started taking notes.

Literally.

Every book suggested I have a solid understanding of colors before moving forward, so I spent about four hours reading everything I could find about color theory. I've never taken an art class before (save for "elementary school paper mache madness" a.k.a. 5th grade) so I was at a "Colors for Dummies" starting point. But I feel much more confident making decisions about color for my apartment now. 

TigerColor is a great resource for learning about color schemes, because it not only explains how to group colors together, but also how to keep them from looking ugly. Apartment Therapy also explains color schemes really well! 

Choosing colors off a palette is more than knowing how far apart they are on the color wheel--you've gotta figure out how dark, how light, what undertones, where to use them, etc. etc. Look at photos of rooms you like and see what patterns you notice! (I'm drawn to analogous schemes, but I'm going to see if I can pull off the triad instead.)

Some other tips on using colors:

• If you don't know where to start, use the 60-30-10 rule: 60% of your room should include a dominant color (in low saturation), 30% of a secondary color, and 10% of an accent (in high saturation, if you want)
• Include black pieces like picture frames, throw pillows, or lampshades to make the other colors in your room more vibrant.
• Go dark-to-light vertically--the darkest pieces should be closest to the floor, and the lightest closest to the ceiling. 

Fun fact: Artists decided on blue, yellow, and red as primary colors because you can mix them to make all the other colors, but modern color theorists argue that magenta, cyan, and yellow are actually better primary colors because they give you the widest range of colors. (That's why we use them for printer ink.)

Cyan + Magenta = Blue

Magenta + Yellow = Red

(Nothing combines to make yellow.)