Decorating in Narrow Spaces

When we built our guest bath upstairs, we had minimal options as to where the toilet and other plumbed fixtures would be located. The rough in was done when we bought the house and could not be undone. Little did I know how close the toilet would sit next to the wall or how the shower door would swing out and make it nearly impossible to hang anything on the wall behind it. {In the photo below, it’s hard to distinguish, but the front glass panel is the door hinged on the wall.}

Thankfully I discovered the simplistic beauty of frameless photo frames, especially used in multiples. This was so much better {and way cheaper} than multi-opening frames I’d looked at especially in regards to how far they sat off the wall.

These are maps of London that I printed from Graphics Fairy. They don’t stick out much more than the light switch in these frames.

On the wall by the toilet, I chose 6 of my favorite “travel” photos {2 of Portugal, 1 of our village in Germany, and 3 of Paris}. Again, these thin frames do not feel overpowering as you head to/fro the toilet as some other frames I tried out. Getting photos to fit European frame size didn’t work 100% as you can see a little of the back sticking out, but cutting down the back of the frames was not as fun as getting them up on the wall right away!

Some perspective…  We have a tall bathroom shelf next to the sink. {That’s the church in Wiesbaden on the back wall—amazing I got that shot with my old camera and all the others!}

And our sink hangs on the wall—no legs—so that allows the feeling of more space too.

More travel art on the other wall, but this time in wooden frames I got from the dollar store that I stained to match the shelving unit. Don’t look too close or you can see which one I cheated and used a paper background instead of a matte!

So thankful this bathroom has come together. It needed some life! I hope you’re encouraged to consider some out of the box framing options…pun intended!

Mother’s Day Cards

Last year we didn’t wait until the last minute and made some fun card for our moms. Everyone got to help! I saw the idea on Family Fun.

We let each girl color a basic house drawing. The we cut out the shape, the door and shutters (a little different from the Family Fun instructions).

We used current photos or took new ones, including our little bunny (behind the door)!

Our moms (the grandmothers) were very thankful for our bit of work!

Sights, Sweets and Sidewalks of Nazare

Yesterday, we took a family trip to Nazare, about 45 minutes north of our home. We’d heard great things about it, but had not been in our near 2 years of living here!

We started at the top. There is a elevator car that takes you up and down the hill. You can see the track on the far left of the cat. 

My husband checked things out while the girls rummaged for good shells.

I caught some great wave action photos—a first for me!

Not only was the scenery spectacular, the people were quite unique. To see traditional garb being worn along side current day fashion was really surprising. We took a pic of the lady selling nuts and her 7 skirts {the story goes that they would take off one for every day their sailor was out to sea fishing that week}, but she may have just been dressed up for a sale I think.

When we kept seeing other ladies in a version of that traditional dress, we realized this was the norm! 

My husband had to keep me from trying to take pictures of each of these ladies we saw--just something I didn’t expect to be a reality in “our” country!

Seems like this type of dress might no longer be seen past this generation—unless you’re a vendor!

Also, I had to show you some Portuguese sweets and not so sweet.

BIG meringues!

Lots of shredded candied egg yolk {that is NOT cheese}, filled with egg yolk pudding, or iced with egg yolk pastries along with some chocolate and apple items. A recent guest commented that one of these reminded him of a Twinkie but better!

Drying fish on racks on the sidewalk.

An old timer convertible with Alaska plates on the sidewalk—what?!!!  NOT normal to see in Portugal!

And lastly, what we picked up on the sidewalk! {next to a dumpster} All the parts were there except the obvious missing spindle. We’re not sure if we like it or think it needs a happy color of paint to make it less oppressive. Thoughts? 

Thanks for sharing our journey with us!

Fantastic Photography

We were thrilled to see how our family pics turned out by our friend Anna Thoreson. Definitely some framers there! (And worth stopping to post about in our FULL furlough schedule!)

She was a trooper rescheduling after a morning rain and fitting us in her busy schedule (you can see all the other lovely photos she's recently taken on her blog). Then she helped us get a picture/prayer card ready to send to our supporters. An amazing blessing!