Picture of the Day: Fruit for Sale in Hanoi

Hanoi, Vietnam
08.09.2011 

Refinishing My Bathtub

My last big task to finish in my bathroom was refinishing the outside of my old cast iron bathtub. The porcelain inside was in great condition but the outside was another matter. From afar it didn't look terrible but the paint was peeling a bit and the pale yellow color didn't match the bathroom's color scheme.

I looked up a bunch of things online about refinishing the outside of a bathtub and set to work. I covered the floor around the tub and used a stripper approved for indoor use to start removing the layers of paint. I had no idea how much paint was built up on the tub. Cream, yellow, green, peach... Just about any pastel color you could think of had graced the tub at one time or another. I kept applying stripper, waited for it to do its magic and then scrapped off yet another layer of paint. After I had most of the paint off I used my sander to get a smooth surface on the tub.

I was so excited when it was finally time to paint. After putting a coat of it on, however, I knew it was all wrong. The color was too bright and too blue to work well with my wall color. Frustrated, I headed to Lowe's with a sample of the wall color and of my original tub color choice to pick out something else. I found a color that was a bit more green hued and duskier, bought a quart in semi-gloss and returned home to try again.

Immediately I knew the second color was the perfect choice. After two coats I was really happy and eagerly pulled up the paper around the tub to clean up. Unfortunately, some of the stripper had dripped and soaked through the paper causing the finish on my floor to bubble up in a few places. I felt sick and couldn't believe that I had done this. I used a fine grit sandpaper to sand it off so you can't really see it anymore. I'm not sure if I should refinish my floor or if there is anything else I can do. If I do refinish it I'll wait until it gets warmer so I can have the windows open for ventilation. What would you do? Have you ever done anything like this? Do you have any suggestions about what I should do?

Anyway, apart from my floor mishap, I love how the tub turned out. It looks fresh and new and it ties into the rest of the bathroom so much better now. I just need to make my ceiling fan vent cover and I'll be all done with my bathroom to-do list.

If you are interested, check out the rest of my bathroom posts here: Bathroom Blog Posts

Picture of the Day: Tower Bridge in London

London, United Kingdom
11.21.2003 

Japanese Bath Salt Wall Art

One of the things on my list to get done in my bathroom was to hang some wall art around my window. As I've mentioned before I love my Japanese bath salts and since I think the packaging designs on them are cool, I thought that framing a few of them would be fun.

I bought four inexpensive 11" x 14" frames from Meijer and picked out four bath salts that had packaging in blue/green/teal colors that worked well together and I liked. I made a slit on the back of each package, careful to make sure I didn't cut the front, and poured the bath salts into plastic sandwich bags to save for later. I'm definitely not one to waste bath salts!

I cut pieces of white watercolor paper to the size of the frame openings and used double stick tape to attach the bath salt packaging to the paper. After slipping the papers into the frames and hanging them on the wall my project was complete. You can't really see it in the pictures but the texture of the watercolor paper makes a nice contrast with the shiny bath salt packages. This was a super easy way to add some personal wall art to my bathroom and it makes me smile to see them hanging up.

If you are interested, check out the rest of my bathroom posts here: Bathroom Blog Posts

Picture of the Day: Carving at Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei, Cambodia
08.19.2011 

Picture of the Day: Red Tube Coral on the Sankisan Maru

Sankisan Maru
Chuuk, Micronesia 
05.02.2008 

Sister Vacation: Beautiful Barbuda

After I moved back to the US from Japan and the end of April 2009 my sister, Missy, and I set about planning a trip so we could see each other. Since she lives in the Caribbean we like to meet up on different islands for sister vacations. It can be a challenge to find flights that line up for both of us and arrive around the same time, but we were able to find decent flights to Antigua for a few days around Fourth of July weekend.

Antigua is one island of the nation of Antigua and Barbuda and although we were planning on staying on and spending most of our time on Antigua I had my heart set on also visiting Barbuda for a day trip. I had seen some pictures of of the gorgeous white beaches with sprinklings of pink sand and didn't want to miss a chance to see them. The only way to get to Barbuda (without private transportation) is either by a puddle jumper flight or ferry from Antigua. I convinced Missy and we booked a roundtrip flight out the next morning, returning that night.

In the morning we boarded our tiny plane and it seemed that no sooner were we in the air than we were landing in Codrington, Barbuda's only town and where most of the island's 1500 people live. The airport consisted of a small landing strip surrounded by a fence and a tiny one room cinder block building that served as a check in area. Apart from my sister and I, the rest of the flight was full of about half a dozen British bird watchers who were on the island to see the Barbudan warbler which is endemic only to the island of Barbuda. The bird watchers were on a tour so they had transportation prearranged. There wasn't any other means of transportation at the airport so Missy and I made the short trip into town on foot.

As we made our way down a road that was in the process of being paved, past the small cinder block homes in various states of repair, my sister whispered to me, "Where in the world did you take me?" Truth be told, Codrington was not so impressive and the beautiful beaches I saw in the photos were nowhere in sight.

Town was pretty desolate with everyone inside escaping the heat. We made our way to the public dock and found the bird watchers waiting for a ride across Codrington Lagoon to Lighthouse Bay Resort where they were headed for lunch. We talked to some locals and worked out hitching a ride on the bird watcher's boat for a small fee.

As much as we were disappointed when we arrived in Codrington, we were delighted arriving at Lighthouse Bay. It was a gorgeous, small resort set on a beautiful strip of beach. We sat on a lovely covered patio enjoying a delicious lunch, feeling like we were in paradise. Before the bird watchers took off in their boat to see the warblers (they were shocked we weren't planning to see them) we negotiated a time with the boatman to pick us up later in the afternoon.

After the bird watchers had gone, no one else was left on the terrace and the resort manager came by to chat. Finding out that Missy was also in the hospitality industry he offered to show us around Lighthouse Bay. With only nine suites the resort was quite intimate and the rooms were gorgeous (he showed us a vacant one). Even with it being the off season, staying there would only be a dream for my sister and I with the smallest suites costing over a thousand dollars per night.

The manager kindly let Missy and I leave our backpacks at the resort and we set off walking down the beach. I have been to many beaches in many countries but I can honestly say that this was the most beautiful, pristine beach I have ever seen. The white sand stretched for miles with scatterings of pink sand from broken shells dotting the beach. The Caribbean waves gently rolled ashore in gorgeous shades of bright turquoise. We saw a few small rays swimming in the shallow water and found a conch shell that had washed ashore, embedding itself in the sand. Missy pointed out to me the spot on the top of the shell where a sea creature had cracked a hole in it to get the conch out. We spent hours walking along the beach and didn't see another soul the whole time. It was incredible.

Tired out from the walking and being in the sun, Missy and I headed back to the resort. We spent our remaining time until the boatman was supposed to come back enjoying sipping on Carib beer while reading in lounge chairs on the beach. All too soon the boat picked us up and dropped us off back in Codrington.

We walked back to the airport and while checking in we bumped into two of the bird watchers. They had learned from their local guide that while you have to check in for your flight ridiculously early, you only had to be back at the airport just before the flight. The pair were at the airport checking in for their group and then they were going back to a nearby beach bar where the rest of the bird watchers were hanging out. There was room in their van so they invited us to join them.

We had a lovely time chatting with the bird watchers and watching the sun sink low in the sky at the beach bar. Several of them even showed us shots of the Barbudan warbler that they had taken on their camera. The bar had paddle boards suspended from the ceiling for visitors to sign so we all left little messages before we had to head back to the airport for good.

We got to the airport just before our plane landed. Within a few minutes the arriving passengers had disembarked and we were on the flight heading back to Antigua. Our time in Barbuda was short but memorable and nothing at all like what we had expected. What a fabulous day!

Postscript: I am still kicking myself in the bum that I never took a picture of the Codrington airport. If you are curious what it looks like I found a picture of in online here: Codrington Airport

Picture of the Day: Coastline Along the Great Ocean Road

Victoria, Australia
01.02.2009 

Picture of the Day: Château d'Amboise in the Loire Valley

Amboise, France
11.25.2003 

Scrapbook Layout: Enlightened

Over the past few years I've barely done any scrapbooking but I am trying to motivate myself to get back into it a bit. Hilary's comment on my Picture of the Day Post about the Fruit Juice Stand in San Pedro made me decide to finally get a layout done last night.

I had these pictures from Todaiji in Nara, Japan that I thought were fun so I decided to scrapbook the story behind them. I liked the tealish patina that the Buddha has developed over the years so I decided to use teal as an accent color. I wanted to keep things simple on the layout and focus on the pictures so I just matted my large photo, added a sticker title and drew a line to outline my smaller picture and journaling.

The journaling reads, "At the Daibustuden at Todaiji there is a special column off to the side of the great Buddha. It's said that if you are able to pass through the hole cut out at the bottom you'll achieve enlightenment. Despite being the only foreigner and one of the only adults in line (the opening is quite tiny) when my turn came I did it and was able to squeeze through. August 2010"