Stonehenge-where the demons dwell…

In case you aren’t familiar with this quote-it’s from one of my favorite movies, “Spinal Tap“. If you’ve never seen this movie, you probably should. Especially if you happen to love metal/hair bands from the 80’s, have ever been on tour with a band, or in a band, or perhaps married someone in a band.

I will warn you, it’s one of those “watch a couple of times to get it”, though.
The first time I saw it was way before I met Biceps, before I entered the world of bands, back-stages and men in tight pants. I watched it with my roommate at the time, freshly graduated from college, sitting on our khaki colored sofa in footie pajamas.
This is not how you watch Spinal Tap.
You must watch it after attending a ridiculous hair/metal show or after sweating all night while your son/daughter/friend’s band plays at the local pub. Or after being on tour with stinky guys for several years, sharing a hotel room with them and scrounging for dinner in the green room.
Then, it is funny.

Now on to the real reason of this post-Stonehenge is not as far away as you think.

 

You don’t have to fly across the big pond to check it out. You can do it right here in Rolla, Missouri.

 

This is an exact replica of the original. Of course, it’s not the full-sized Stonehenge, but you get the idea.

 

With the sun’s help, you can tell exactly the day, month and the moon’s positioning just by seeing where the sun ray lands on this rock.
Pretty cool.

&nbps;

What else is cool is when certain people (my father) insist on having their picture taken with said Stonehenge. And since he’s paying for gas back to St. Louis, I will oblige him. He’s pretty cool, too.

Guest Post at House of Hepworth’s

I am guest posting over at House of Hepworth’s today!

My sweet friend, Allison, who has held my hand through many a blogging quandary, asked me to highlight a few projects. Of course, I happily obliged.

House of Hepworths is amazing-Allison highlights her craft, DIY, renovation and decorating projects with great tutorials and a great attitude. I just know you will love her blog as much as I do!

Stop on by today and tell Allison hello. Make sure you head back on over to her blog every Thursday where she hosts her linky party, “Hookin’ up with the House of Hepworths”.

The Master Bathroom Remodel-Part Deux

You’ll want to check out the Master Bathroom-Part Uno before jumping into this. You need to be prepared. And if you really want to be prepared, check out what I did with the adjoining Master Bedroom.
So, go-I’ll wait for you. But please, do come back.

Yeah! You’re back-I am assuming you have done what you were told and aren’t being naughty at this point. However, if you are being naughty, I know the feeling…
This is what I started with-a green room with absolutely no appeal, nothing, nada. Boring.

And this is where I left you in the Master Bathroom-Part Uno. Biceps was on tour without me (very sad) and I was being sneaky and remodeling the bathroom. I changed the wall color from green to a deep gray. The concrete floor and both vanities had been stripped of their old concrete stain. I painted the countertops canary yellow using garage floor paint. All the difficult steps are finished-now, it’s time to decorate!

I found Harold (the horse) at an antique store in Jenks, Ok for $10. This was Harold’s first car ride. As you can see, Harold was very happy to come home with me.

Using Harold as inspiration, I began to amass several large and small frames-all of which I spray painted a high gloss white. I hung the empty glossy white frames on the gray bathroom walls, making them pop.

I found a chandelier at an antique shop for $15. For safety’s sake, I rewired it first. Armed with a can of gold spray paint, I repainted it and then antiqued it. I then watered down some leftover high-gloss black paint, and used a rag to rub the watered down black over the gold to antique it.
Next, I found a brother-in-law that came free with my marriage to my husband. He aided me in the electrical portion of my bathroom remodel. After determining the spot we wanted to hang the chandelier from, he went to work-cutting, wiring, and hanging.

I got to do the fun stuff associated with chandeliers-hanging sparkly crystals in the appropriate areas. I scavenged discarded chandeliers from other projects to come up with what you see here. Before hanging them, I first cleaned them with vinegar and water to really make them sparkle.

Since I was on my own when it came time to hang the frames, I needed a ladder, some dexterity and a lot of good balancing. And 911 ready on speed dial.

Harold witnessed me almost fall (more than once), but he just sat there and whinnied…jerk.

The three dimensional bird and branch motif that are hanging above the mirror, I snagged at our local flea market for a couple of bucks and spray painted them also high gloss white.

We’ll probably lay tile on the concrete floor at some point in the future, but for now, just the stain being gone is wonderful. If you hadn’t read in my earlier post, the “stain” decided not to stain the concrete and kept coming off in chunks and sticking to our little footsies.

Hope you enjoyed my new changes around my old house.
Harold (the horse) seems to be loving his new home, and so am I. I can hardly wait for Biceps to see it.

Fall time in Europe

Awhile back, Biceps and I saved our pennies and vacationed in Europe for an entire month. This morning, as I sat in my housecoat with coffee in hand, a slight rain drizzled outside. While the water splashed on my windows, I was reminded of the mornings in Europe we huddled together waiting for our train, usually snacking on some sort of pastry and wishing we had packed warmer clothes.
We wouldn’t trade those moments for the world.

This tiny little town of Hallstatt, Austria is less than 1,000 people and only accessible by boat. We flitted about in the off-season, unencumbered by the usual tourists-drinking coffee and hiking its mountains. It was quiet, to say the least-except for the occasional cow bell.

 

The path to Neuschwanstein Castle (Schloss) is lined with ever changing colors-which can be seen in great depth-if one is too cheap to pay for transportation up the mountain and decides to walk the 5 million miles on foot, uphill….

 

Simple. Beautiful. Fun to climb for the first 20 minutes, then prodded on with the promise of coffee for finishing the hike by a certain someone with a name that rhymes with Ticeps.

 

I wanted to rent a house and live here forever. But then I realized I wouldn’t be able to see my parent’s or Biceps parent’s or my brothers or my cats…..needless to say, no house was rented.
We were thankful to see Europe in the fall, the colors were vibrant, the tourists were sparse and the weather just cool enough to warrant a jacket a handful of coffee.
I would love to go back soon. I hope Biceps is reading this. Hint, hint…..