I have recently discovered a new and lovely beverage. After much consideration, I decided to cut back on my carbonation intake. And by cut back, I do not mean eliminate. You all want me to remain happy and lovely, right? Yes, I thought so.

One of my good friends mentioned that she tried Crystal Light Wild Strawberry Energy and really liked it. In hopes of finding something delicious to supplement my downgraded diet soda intake, I took myself to Target on my lunch break and picked up a box. Such a pretty little box.

The individual Crystal Light packets are recommended for a 16oz bottle of water, but I always find them too sweet, so I dumped it in my giant SmartWater bottle and finished it within an hour or so. Not only was I down on my carbonation, I’m drinking more water. Win, win.

As I continued on with my workday I noticed that my hands were moving at an incredible pace. I have never typed this fast! I zipped around the office performing at a level that remains unparalleled in the history of Nicole. Intrigued, I examined the box more closely. Interesting.

Each individual packet contains 120mg of caffeine. Lets keep in mind that a can of Diet Coke has around 45mg and a Redbull has 80mg. This seemingly innocuous little packet has 120mg of caffeine - the equivalent of THREE DIET COKES. No wonder I was loving life so much, I was practically on speed.

A big high-five to everyone at Crystal Light for truly making water worth drinking again.

Cheers!

- Nicole

This is the purchase that started it all:

I  have loved this Anthropologie shower curtain for ages. My friend, Melanie, has this in her New York apartment and I think it’s such a fresh, happy addition to a bathroom. I saw it on sale at the Salt Lake store and decided it was too good of a deal to pass up. It did not occur to me at the time, that anything I saved on the curtain was about to be spent ten times over as I equipped myself with tape, primer, rollers, brushes and my lovely “tropical lagoon” paint.

Lets take a moment to remember the old bathroom…

Not so cute.

Remember how I said that I wasn’t going to paint the ceiling because that was a tall-person job? Well it turns out that taping the ceiling is also a tall-person job. I feel as though I should receive an honorary diploma from an acrobatic school for the maneuvers I performed in order to tape the corner above the tub. As it turns out, our kitchen chairs do NOT fit inside the bathtub. I was on my tippy toes for a good hour straight, clinging to the tile wall with one hand and taping with the other.

It was all worth it in the end. The bathroom is brighter and seems bigger, which is awesome. I didn’t think it was possible to have a smaller bathroom than the one i had in DC, but I was wrong. That doesn’t matter anymore, because the bathroom is so cute now I can hardly stand it. It’s my favorite room in the house. In fact, i like it so much I’ve considered sleeping in the tub.

The care-for instructions on the curtain told me I couldn’t iron or put it in the dryer, so I’m impatiently waiting for the wrinkles to fall out. And if that means taking longer, hotter, more steam-producing showers for the next little while, so be it. I am willing to make that sacrifice.

I like how the new color combination works with the floor tiles now. Rather serendipitous don’t you think?

All in all, it was a fun project. I love how a fresh coat of paint can drastically change the look and feel of a room for a relatively small price. Just a little stretching and and a lot of tippy toes!

Something I have learned over and over about myself is that I am a project person. I always need to have something going on. I’ve finally settled into Salt Lake and unpacked all of my boxes. My half marathon was last weekend, so my training has come to an end. What now? It’s time for a little home renovation, of course.

Last night I started The Great Bathroom Deconstruction Extravaganza. Anything that involves me using screw drivers or any other type of tool is considered an extravaganza. The best part of this event was when my roommate came home to find me, and the bathroom, covered in primer and I was like - Surprise!!!! You have to shower downstairs tomorrow! (Sorry about that Nat, you are a good sport.)

I wanted to document the project from start to finish, and luckily remembered right before I started priming, but after I had taped and removed the outlet cover and light fixture. (See? It’s totally an extravaganza.)

Yes, that is a very red wall. So is this one:

Aside from that one time when I stepped in the paint tray, everything went extremely well. The dark red required a couple coats of primer, but I finished at a reasonable hour last night.

You’ll notice that I didn’t tape around the ceiling and part of the window frame. The reason for this is because whoever painted the red had either not used tape at all or didn’t tape very well. Had I taped, as I typically do, it would have resulted in a nice quarter inch of red creeping up the ceiling. Not very pretty.

I considered painting the ceiling, but quickly realized that this was a job for a tall person. As I am a medium-to-short person, I  decided to save that project for a medium-to-tall person at later date. Goodbye red!

So now it’s on to the fun part! Currently there is a can of deliciously perfect aqua paint waiting in my car. It’s called Tropical Lagoon. I expect hear calypso music every time I walk past the bathroom hereon out.

… finished product coming soon!