Dapper In The Crapper

Bathroom spaces I'm currently huminah huminah over.

::Total Glam::

::Floating Vanity::

::Perfection::

::Forma::

I smell a google sketchup drawing in the works.

A Cookie by Any Other Name

I’ve felt bad for Dolores lately. Without going into too much detail, I’ll simply say that she has been very busy at work lately.

I know that this blog is one of her little joys in life…and that when she has an extended period of “un-updating-i-ness” she feels bad. Seeing her exhausted from work is bad enough; I don’t want this blog stuff (which is supposed to be fun) exacerbating her situation. That is where I come in. I’m going to take it upon myself to contribute something to the blog right now. Give Dolores one less thing to worry about.

Here’s the problem; I have nothing to write about. Wait; never mind…just thought of something. Ok, this is a topic that has undoubtedly received a lot of attention over the past couple of years. No, I’m not talking about healthcare reform. I’m talking, of course, about all of this name changing activity taking place in the world of Girl Scout Cookies…most notably, the change from “Samoas” to “caramel delights”.

I can only assume that the name change was spurred on by some sort of Samoan Rights Activist, sick of his (or her) peoples’ legacy being linked to a chocolate, caramel and coconut concoction typically sold door to door by little girls in the suburbs. But really…is a cookie the worst thing that a nationality can be associated with? Let’s try out a little game of word association. I’ll type a Nationality…you pause for a second and think of an association and move on. Ok, ready?

WORD 01: Polish

WORD 02: Kazakhstanian

WORD 03: German

Ok, you probably thought of the words stupid, Borat and Nazis there. Comparatively…a cookie doesn’t seem so bad huh?

Granted, Caramel Delights is not such an awful name; it’s descriptive, it gets the job done…but at the end of the day, it just lacks personality. Imagine if Steve Jobs had decided to go with the name “Digital pocket music player” instead of “iPod”…I don’t think Apple would be where they are today. Additionally, one could argue that the name “Samoa” is, in fact, very descriptive. Think about it. Both of them are kind of brown, both of them are often round, both of them are striped and delicious. The name just makes sense.

Ok, I’m done. If anybody was offended by anything above…lighten up. I’m obviously joking. In all seriousness, I doubt the cookie (Samoa) and the people (Samoan) are even linked. The cookie’s name probably comes from something like a little kid mumbling the words “gimme sa moa” (give me some more). When his mother heard this, she probably exclaimed “that’s genius…we should call the cookies ‘samoas’…we’ll sell a million”. And you know what? She was right.

-Chris

And The Winner is.....

We would like to thank CSN web-based store cookware.com who hosted this week's fantastic Le Creuset free giveaway contest!

        

Now lets get down to business! The lucky winner is...

Contestant number 24...Diane! Congratulations Diane!! I hope you enjoy the lovely red Le Creuset item to go with your red kitchen. I will be emailing you the full deets shortly. 

Applause all around!

Blog Love

Oh my blog!!  A big thank you goes out to Kendall of Finesse Your Nest for featuring Humble Ablog as part of her weekly Wednesday series "Welcome to Newbie" where she introduces new and interesting bloggers to her peeps.

We were honored when Kendall contacted us and delivered the big news. She did an awesome job depicting the history of Humble Ablog and I just wanted to tell her thank you for all of her kind words. I encourage everyone to check out Finesse Your Nest. You will find an incredible gal who shares endless love for decorating and design and takes you into her beachy coastal retreat; her lovely home. 

Hop over to Finesse Your Nest and read our featured post. Don't forget to leave some comment love.

Thanks again Kendall! 

Master PEE

We are often asked, "What else are you doing to your home?" by friends and family, to which I declare, "We want to remodel the bathrooms." Yes both at the same time. 

Hearing that "s" at the end of the word "bathroom" takes some people by surprise; but to Chris and me it just makes sense to tackle both bathrooms at the same time... get it all over with. 

Bathrooms are a major mula renovation...but, we're going to have to do it eventually. Plus, maybe we can get it done a little cheaper while the economy is still in the toilet (pun intended).

Let me take you back to the July 2008 archives.

The picture doesn't do it justice...and mind you this is after a solid week of some sort of bleach cocktail and elbow grease attack, but our bathroom walls were covered in the silent killer; aka mold. The previous home owners never cracked open a window. NEVER. The entire house had the original (1953) casement windows and all but one of the crank handles were missing. Without a second thought, we replaced all the windows with energy efficient single and double hung windows courtesy of WinDor.

Ew cubed.

As you can see, I had already attempted to make the vanity "cute" by painting over the wooden mess with a blanket of snowy white paint.

To the far right you can see our cave like shower similar to the shower stall of Kasey's, over at Thrifty Little Blog before she expanded and beautified. 

Our next application of lipstick to the proverbial pig was removing the floating cabinet which was perviously above the toilet...though, it looked more like something that should be in the toilet. 

Did I mention this is our master bath? There is nothing master about it. The bathroom is in 100%* better shape than it was 18 months ago, but it needs more than a facelift; it needs a face transplant!

*ok...maybe 87%  ^_^

CLOSED: Giveaway Contest Hosted by CSN.com

The good people over at CSN web-based stores have given us the opportunity to giveaway a free Le Creuset item from cookware.com to one of our lucky readers!

 

As you may know, Le Creuset is the maker of some of the finest cookware items available today. The prestigious and colorful cast iron products are a homemakers BFF.  And since I've recently dipped my hands (and blog) into the cooking-from-scratch'osphere, I thought this giveaway fit the bill.

I will be green with envy towards the lucky reader whom receives one of these:

::Baking Dish::

Or this easy pourer; perfect when making Rich Buttermilk Waffles (fluffy and worth it!)

::Batter Bowl::

A perfect stir fry hot off the stove in this sunny Dijon Wok. 

::Wok Dish::

Finish the night off with a peanut buttercup fit for the jolly green giant. 

::Tart Dishes::

To win* one of these beauties, simply leave a comment below and tell me which Le Creuset item on cookware.com tickles your fancy. 

A winner will be chosen by random and announced this Friday January 29th. Good luck!

*And remember just in case you win, it's important that I have a way to contact you via your profile/blog/or including your email address with your comment.

Show Me Your Digits!

Ever since we moved into our new home a year and half ago, I've been on the hunt for some snazzy digits, house numbers that is. Currently our home can be identified a couple of ways; 1 being the faded curbside painted numbers that are masqueraded by unexplainable greenery...and the other being the daytona blue 350z parked on the driveway.

I really didn't want those plain jane numbers I've seen at the local home improvement retailers; not my cup of tea. But when I came across these drapper house numbers over at www.moremailboxes.com, I was busting out the 'Carlton Dance.' 

With a variety of colors to choose from (not to mention their spiffy names) you can choose from stainless steal to Bougainvillea Pink! Or my personal fav, Bonita Blue. 

And considering all the rain us Los Angelenos are getting, these numbers will never rust! 

All-u-min-ee-um

You know, installing mini-blinds is a lot harder than it looks. As you may recall, we ordered two Bali horizontal blinds about 3 weeks ago at JCPenny. A week after the purchase, they were sitting pretty on our porch. Oh man were we pumped to see the brushed aluminum slats in the flesh. As always, I fished for the instructional sheet and read thoroughly, step by step; easy peasy! And then, the "wtf" moment entered the room.

Chris: "Where's all the hardware?"

Me: "Um, in the box labeled hardware."

I dumped the said contents on the table.

Chris: "Why do we only have two brackets and eight nails?"

Me: "I-don't-know."

Chris: "Maybe each blind only needs one bracket?"

Me: "I don't think one bracket will solely support a 95" long blind"

Chris: "wtf"

I phone customer service and to my surprise, pressing 1 option was specifically for missing hardware issues. Five minutes later, our missing hardware were on its way.

To make a long story short, it took us a total of, oooh 1 hr to install two measly blinds. And of course a few "extra" holes kindly made an unexpected appearance.

A couple of suggestions and tips for any future inside mount blind installer. 

1. Use a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw that will be used to tighten the brackets. In our case, the screw smoothly made its way through the drywall but once it hit the wood, oooh child, was it rough! Three drill bits tries plus 4 stripped nail heads later and we were golden. Getting the first two brackets secured took about 40 minutes. The final three took 5 minutes.
2. The template attached to the instructions sheet was a lifesaver! It precisely helped us mark the spots with no hassle.
3. Make sure the 3rd and middle bracket is not aligned to any of the string grabbers. We learned this will prevent the slats from opening and closing, hence the 4 punctured holes up above. Seems like information that should have been pretty upfront in the instructions.
4. Your forearms and shoulders will get a nice workout. In no time you'll be sporting guns akin to those of Taylor Lautner's. Ok, I may be embellishing a bit.

Other than that, I would say our blinds fit nicely in our new room. 

  

::open::

::closed::

I don't think Uncle Kitty approves. Her window peeping time has come to a halt.

p.s. We still have to taken down the curtain rod which means more spackling and tackling. Sigh.

Not Your GrandDad's Library

Half way into January, and I have yet to (physically) tackle ANY of my projected goals for the year. I have semi-truck loads of ideas running around in my head, from paint colors to fabric and furniture placements...all in my head...not even in google sketchup! Wait a minute! I kind of fibbed there. We did receive our hundreds of Lego pieces for our scandalous Lego Project but the inner 7yr old in us came out and we've been playing (when we should be working) with them.

Aside from our Lego Project, I will be confronting "Oscar's" room. Let me share a snapshot of his doorknob.

You can only imagine what's inside. Seriously, what kind of person needs a doorknob like that?! Guess what the code is? Ready......420....dude.

I will elaborate more in future posts. 

Since today's post is a snooze, I will leave you with this video, written and produced (even the music)... and staring Mr. Humble Ablog...aka Chris. He and the media crew at his employer (a library) are developing a series of goofy videos to be shown throughout the campus. This is their pilot of sorts. Enjoy.

[In my best Ricky Gervais impersonation] Are you having a laugh?

Frugal Fridays: One-Dollar Bins

I've noticed recently that more stores are beginning to carry the $1.00 knick knack bins near the cash registers. It's hard to resist the colorful magnetic paper pads, holiday accessories or the AA battery 4 pack. Each for a buck? Done deal! I pretty much hit the jackpot yesterday while pursuing the Michael's dollar bins. Retro coasters.

I'd say that's $3 well spent for 18 drink coasters! I chuckled when I read "sassy kitchen" or something of that nature labeled on the bin. I passed up the retro aprons, recipe cards and thermo mug...it was tough to turn the other cheek but I knew I didn't need them. Chris thought they were a little too sexist, especially for Michael's sake, but the retro chick in me couldn't resist. Now, all I need is a coffee table (still can't believe I've never owned one!). Bring it on condensation! 

Anyone else hit the jackpot in the $1.00 nifty knick knacks bins recently?