A Christmas Present

For Christmas this year, Celeste brightened the upstairs bathroom with a bit of art. A while ago, Evelin mentioned the idea of painting the inside of the bathroom door with a pattern similar to the one she had painted on her phone case; during Christmas break (and with some parent-supplied materials) she took up the challenge.

We refreshed the bathroom a few years ago (and I just replaced the sink hardware), but it's still defined by the original 1940 mint tiles. Despite this, using dark blue paint (Ralph Lauren Seven Seas) and Marimekko Blue Pieni Unikko shower curtain gives the space a nicer look. Celeste drew upon the Pieni Unikko pattern for her painting, working in a few similar flowers and added in a few shades of purple. Since she used acrylic paints, we figured things needed to be sealed, so two coats of varnish were added giving it a nice gloss.

Next up, I just ordered a cabinet bar pull (Hardware Resources Naples 624PC) that will replace the old towel bar that broke a while ago. The bar pull won't project out as far as a typical towel bar (about 1½ inches instead of 2¾ to 3 inches), letting us open the door fully. Mounting it will be a little difficult — I figure I'll have to sink the screws on the outside of the door, putty over them, and then repaint that side of things — but it should work well.

Today's Weather Forecast ...

Not really a change to the house, but I got an Ambient Weather WS-2902C personal weather station for Christmas. One 10-foot pole later and it's up and running in the backyard keeping track of wind and rain and (this time of year) cold. The house, retaining wall, and tree will have an impact on wind speed and direction measurements, but the temperatures, UV, and rain readings should be pretty accurate ... and most importantly, the signal is received strongly in the house. I might try adding an extension pole to get the sensor array up two or three more feet (it's currently about 7.4 feet above ground), but all in all the data looks good.