a sweet perk

I got the sweetest gift this week.

As a speech-language pathologist, one of the best parts of my job is supervising and mentoring interns. Once a future SLP graduates with their master's degree, they have to complete a 9 month internship under supervision of a seasoned veteran.  

(I'm well seasoned, slightly overdone :)  

Working with interns is one of my favorite parts of my job and 

I have been blessed to work with some of the most amazing young SLPs.

As many of you know, the current school year is coming to a close and so is the internship of two interns I had the privilege of working with this year

...and they happen to be roommates and friends.

This week, I walked into my therapy room and in my chair was a gift bag and this sweet little thing:

It's a vintage metal shelf rack in all it's chippiness.  

It has tiny little painted details...

...and nice little curves.

It's painted a perfect shade of cream

and chipped in all the right places.

I hung it in my master bath and added some fresh hand towels, washcloths

and new and vintage bath accessories.

My intern, Sydney, gave it to me along with some chocolates (my favorite thing) 

and a collection of sticky notes, labels and notepads 

as a thank you for the support I gave her this year.  

Sydney told me this was a little chipped and I could certainly paint it but after seeing my blog, 

she figured I wouldn't want to do that...and she's right! (she's brilliant by the way)

It's perfect just the way it is.

Thanks Sydney!!!!!

(and special thanks Sydney's mom!  :)

rockin' industrial towel rack

I find myself going a little more industrial these days.  

Industrial seems to fit well with my cottage-ish style. 

In the main bathroom downstairs, I've been on the lookout for a new towel rack

and I found one!

Get a load of this great towel rack.  

I didn't even have to stencil numbers on it. It came with them already.

They're actually a bit raised and some of the white paint is a bit worn.

It has 5 industrial metal double hooks so it can hold 10 towels.  

Since we would never have 10 towels on it at once, I'm on the lookout

now for some type of bag or basket or other container to hang on it.

Isn't that cool?

The hooks slide so they can be close together

or far apart.  

It looks awesome with the artwork my son did when he was 10.

I've never shown the rest of the bathroom. 

Here's our huge "G" on the wall and reflected in the mirror.

We painted the builder's basic white cabinets a satin black and added nickel knobs.

We replaced the white toilet seat with a shiny black one.  

I highly recommend it if you have boys.  It actually looks clean between cleanings.

I've had this old vintage medicine cabinet for awhile and it works perfectly in here.

There is no other medicine cabinet so it's functional too.  I have a collection of old locks

on top along with an old iron car and a classic book, "How to be a Rockstar" that matches it all.

This used to be my son's bathroom when his bedroom was downstairs.  

He's a musician so we incorporated that a bit into the space.

So, where did I get the cool towel rack to fit my industrial cottage rockin' bathroom?

I didn't have to go far.

I shopped my own antique booth.  I know, that's not a way to make a profit, huh?

Actually, I shopped my pal Jennie's stuff in our booth.  I bought it from her.

laundry basket addendum

I'm looking through the new Pottery Barn catalog, not to buy but for ideas, and in the corner of one of the pages I think I see my laundry basket I posted about a couple of weeks ago.  If you look at the actual catalog, you can see more of it.  This photo only shows a tease but I think it's definitely the same basket.  That's exciting to me because I am not an interior designer (I know you already figured that out) and not even a real decorator.  I've never been ahead of the decorating curve or up on the current trends.  So, to see something I bought months ago in the new Pottery barn catalog is so much fun.  My husband and son kind of laughed when I brought it home (it's quite a large basket) and Jennie's husband had an apprehensive grin on his face when she brought her's home.  But now look!  It's an accessory in Pottery Barn!  

Pottery Barn Photo: look close in the bottom right corner

this is mine :)