Decorating tips from....

Bass Pro Shop???? You wouldn't think that Ironman would take pictures of the men's restroom of the restaurant inside Bass Pro Shop in Alabama.... But he DID!! And worse, he still had pics of the Denham restroom and sent me both bathrooms to compare the decor. Apparently, he would like either a room or a patio decorated in this "island Caribbean" decor...

The Alabama Bass Pro Shop's restroom is better than Denham Springs... The lights appear to be hung from ACTUAL trees.... Seriously, this is amazing bathroom artwork....





The Denham Springs restroom is sub par in comparison... Clearly, either the artist did not have a clear vision of the project, or the Denham store cheaped out on bathroom artwork....



I told Ironman as soon as we have a home either on an island or in the Caribbean, he can have as many rooms as he wants decorated like the mensroom at Bass Pro!

Silly me! I left the camera in the car when we went into Bass Pro. Not thinking it was a camera worthy "event". Clearly I was proven wrong when Annie Oakley Avery stepped up to the shooting game.





Since I am on the topic of men's bizarre behavior... Indulge me.. I have a little story to tell....

Before Christmas, I visited a friend (she will remain nameless to protect the guilty husband). She was baking DEE-licious cookies. She knew from the get go, I would be NO HELP in cookie production, I'm way better at cookie tasting. But I didn't want to be a total slacker, so to help somewhat, I cleaned out her pantry. You have to understand - I LOVE cleaning out refrigerators and pantries. The contents are usually astounding. I clean out Ashley's fridge about every other month. If I didn't do this, she would have macaroni and cheese from 2008 and not to mention the expired food she moved from the post-Katrina apartment! I digress...

So let me itemize some of my favorite ditties found in said friend's pantry...

4 partially used bags of powdered sugar - NOTE: buy powdered sugar, put it into a plastic canister... don't buy again until canister is empty...


Expired items dating back to 2005 - NOTE: When the Thanksgiving food drive rolls around at school - this is the perfect time to send those random unused unexpired items...


5 bags of candy, trail mix and other "hunting" food - completely open and brick hard from the "elements" - NOTE: Hunting food is NOT allowed in the house after the "hunt"

And now for the absolute blue ribbon winner.....

Cans and cans of SPAM!!! Not expired, and apparently a staple, not for innocent friend, but for hunter husband for Sunday morning breakfasts... So since I had to leave those dreaded cans in place, at least now gathered together and stacked neatly... I have to share a special SPAM recipe found in Robert Fulghum's "Uh-Oh"...


Fulghum credits "The White Trash Cookbook" for this one...

RACK OF SPAM

Butterfly a SPAM loaf (try not to vomit a little in your mouth)
This means slice it is sections without cutting all the way through...

Then bend the SPAM open so you can stick pieces of pineapple between them (the pineapple is better if it was found in the back of the fridge and has grown "hair")

For garnish, top it off with peanut butter and a few maraschino cherries

Stick in microwave for around 4 minutes

Eat with saltines and milk - right out of the carton
(I know everyone is copying this right now for your recipe boxes...)

So "hunter man" enjoy next Sunday morning...

If you are still with me, thank you, and I'll get on to "prettier" things...


MY stop yesterday was to a lss in Montgomery called Distinctive Scrapbooks.
http://www.dscraps.com/
I was enthralled with the work of Cathia LaForge, a Belgium scrapbooker spending a year in AL. She will be teaching at DS and their were samples of her layouts. I was in love! If I were closer, I would take all of her classes! I poked around the internet and although I couldn't find a blog, I did find 2 of her layouts on the Prima site...






And here is a 30x30 canvas she created (although I do love the colors on Lacey Champagne's canvas even better (http://laceylynn.wordpress.com/page/2/):




If anyone is a better blog stalker than me (um.... Angel...), please let me know if you find her blog, email, home addy, whatever...

I only allowed the car to be unpacked into the garage. I am leisurely washing clothes and putting things away IN THE CORRECT PLACE - such a strange concept after vacation! It was so nice to wake up in our own house this morning... I think I hear the dryer... Better get back to it...