Crazy for Kate Spade

Have y'all seen Kate Spade's line of technological accessories?  They are super cute! 

I indulged in the fun, diagonal striped iPad and iPhone cases.

I dig the surprise bright pop of pink inside.  

What's your screen saver?  Mine is always James, but I change out the pics. 

Have a great weekend!

Master Sitting Room Makeover

Don't ya just love to see spaces "before" and "after"?  Sometimes progress is really slow-going and very small changes happen along the way, almost imperceptible until you add it all up and suddenly you end up with a result you're really happy with.  Case in point, our sitting room.  Not that it's "done" but it sure has come a long way.  One of the bookshelves is still bare, but the other one is styled for the time being.  And the shelves under the windows have been given some life with books and plants.  Let's take a look!

BEFORE- pretty much a blank slate.  The framed photo over the television was a birthday gift to my husband of a New York bridge, but the dark black didn't fit in with the look I was going for.  Originally, I thought it fit that area perfectly, but later I kept thinking we really needed something round there to break up all the hard lines. 

DURING- The addition of the Martha Stewart mirror from Home Depot helped lighten up the space. 

NOW- The colorful books added personality and the Made By Girl LOVE print is much more appropriate here than it was in our half bath.  The plants are really thriving here.  I water them when they start to limp and it seems to be working.  

I keep James' little chair there because he uses it to read or watch t.v. 

I picked up some books at Half Price Books and chose them by color and subject matter.

Here's the view from the master bath.  Looking at this view has me wondering if we should add drapes here??  

And we've definitely changed up the tall bookshelves, beginning with painting the cabinets and lining the backside with fabric.  

BEFORE

NOW

I just used things we already had on hand to fill in the shelves.  I probably could still use a few more books . . . 

My girlfriend got this statue for us when James was born.  So sweet. 

The woven basket holds our remote controls and keeps them where we can find them, out of James' hands.  I think I found it at Crate & Barrel.  

I didn't have a good place for this large canvas print of James, so I decided to try it in the bookcase and I like it there.  He was just two months old in those photos.  

I tried to find a few interesting pieces to add to the shelves, including the woven vase from Michael's and a decorative ball from West Elm. 

And, again, more books from Half Price Books, except Bloom, by Kelle Hampton, which I devoured in two nights!

And I've decided to keep some magazines in here too since I frequently like to read a little before bed.  

Eventually, I think I'd like to change out the big leather chair, and I still need to style the other bookshelf, which currently remains empty.  And on my nagging "to do" list is lower the two photos over the leather chair.  BUT, isn't it nice to just enjoy what you've accomplished so far, helping turn a blank space into a room that you enjoy being in?  

* * * * * * * * *

Spa Water

Just for fun this weekend, I made some "spa" water, aka, water with fruit cut up in it and served up in a fancy container:)  Much to my husband's chagrin, there was no masseuse to accompany the water.  I found this glass jug at Target for $19.99 and picked it right up because it will be perfect for our summer sangria!

I sliced up one orange and one lemon and added it to ice and water from the fridge.  

Are you a fan of flavored water?  I typically like it straight up- like my iced tea, but this was fun for a change.  And, by the way, thank you so much for weighing in on the Vitamix blender.  I received a lot of feedback that I really appreciate.  

Our Master Bathroom

Hi guys!  I'm back from the weekend and ready to show you our master bathroom, which is a room in our home you haven't seen much of in the past.  The bath has a look similar to our kitchen, with white cabinets and Carrara marble countertops.  The main difference is our bathroom floor is tile, and in the kitchen we have bamboo hardwood.  Come on in, I'll show you around!

The sink area to the right is "hers" aka "mine" :)  The mirrors are framed in a simple, silver frame.  The large cabinet holds our towels on top and dirty clothes on the bottom.

Here's a closer look, with the lights turned on.  I like to keep the counters free of clutter, and you can see where I keep all my things in this post about what's inside my bathroom drawers. 

The glass containers were from Crate & Barrel.  We've got silver half-moon pulls on the drawers and round pulls on the doors.  I don't know where we got them, as our builder found them for us.  The floor mat is one of those super-absorbant and comfy mats from Target.  

The "his" and "hers" towels are from Pottery Barn and the small mirror is from Home Goods.  

On my husband's side is a large wall clock from Target.  I like being able to easily see the time while we're getting ready for work in the morning.  

He doesn't keep his side quite as clear as mine, so I removed his stuff for the photo:) 

We have a large soaking tub, that, can you believe, I've never used!  Again, I don't know the source, but I'll ask our builder and report back. 

You can see in this closeup that our "hot" and "cold" pieces came off of the handles and need to be reglued.  It's one of those things on the to-do list that hasn't gotten done. 

The house next door to us is a one story, but there is a gorgeous view of some very tall magnolia trees out the window. 

The shower is also tiled with glass doors.  There are two shower heads and a little place to sit, although it's really just used to hold our shower stuff.  Our towels hang on hooks opposite the shower.  In the picture below, you can see the doors to both of our closets. 

The toilet is also behind closed doors, but I didn't take a photo of it.  I should have, I love our toilet paper holder!  It looks kinda like this, but one side just lifts up when you need to change it.  So easy!

I should also mention that we have the kind of toilet seat that is slow to close, so it doesn't slam down, when you lower the seat.  I highly recommend these too.  

Our walls are painted with Sherwin Williams A New Gray. The cabinets and trim are Sherwin Williams Divine White.  It's a softer white, but not bright white.

 I hope you enjoyed getting a peek into our bathroom!  

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I'm linking up with Sarah (Thrifty Decor Chick)

For all of you who like seeing "What's in her bag?" come check out the contents of my purse at 

Three Pink Dots.  Thanks so much for having me Lauren!  If you're not a current follower of her blog, I'm sure she'd love to have you:) 

Having just finished Robert Caro's magnificent The Passage to Power, I have two questions:

(1) Absent LBJ, would we have civil rights laws even now?

(2) Absent LBJ's awful personality traits, would we have civil rights laws even now?

To Boskin and Cogan: California does not attract non-taxpayers (earlier post corrected)

I was listening to an industry type give a speech on the woes facing California, and heard him state that a "Stanford study" show that while 10 million people had migrated here since 1985, only 150,000 people more paid taxes.  This made absolutely no sense to me, so when I got home, I did a little Googling, and found an ob-ed from Michael Boskin and John Cogan that said:

From the mid-1980s to 2005, California's population grew by 10 million, while Medicaid recipients soared by seven million; tax filers paying income taxes rose by just 150,000; and the prison population swelled by 115,000.

The 150,000 number made no sense to me, so I went to the IRS SOI tax stats page to see what was up.  The data there go back to 1997, and in any event, I am not sure what year the authors mean by "mid-1980s."

So here are the data (download the spreadsheets and go to line 94 for 1997 and 108 for 2009)--from 1997 until 2009, the number of individual tax returns with taxable income in California fell  from 10.8 million to 10.3 million, suggesting that California was a land attracting non-taxpayers.  But the number of individual tax returns with taxable income nationally fell from 98.5 million in 1997 to 91.0 million in 2009, or by more in percentage terms than California.  The reasons for these declines are the rise of the Earned Income Tax Credit (which is good) and a reduction in incomes at the bottom of the income distribution (which is bad).

I do need to figure out where to get data from the middle 1980s, but going back to the late 90s seems more relevant at this point.  In any event, context matters.

Top MAY Posts and June Preview

Bring on summer, right?!  Here's a brief look back at what we were up to in May in case you missed it. 

I started off the month with efforts at eating healthier foods.  I'm happy to say we're still at it, but, yes, there is still some of this. 

I shared what a typical Saturday looks like around here.  I wasn't too surprised to hear that my Saturdays are a lot like yours. 

I added a cowhide rug to our living room and a colorful striped rug to our kitchen.  I'm still digging the look of both of these rugs.  

I took a third stab at updating our "mantle" for Spring.  I found that mirror for just $30 at HomeGoods!

My office became a multi-functional as a sewing room too.  

And finally, we made some progress on our master bedroom, but as always, it's a work in progress.

So, what's up for June?  We'll be planning a backyard BBQ, preparing for Father's Day, sharing our Guest Room, and Master Bathroom.  And hopefully, there'll be lots of trips to the pool and keeping cool with ice cream!   Summer in Houston is HOT!