The Bathroom of Natural History

Like many homes built in the early 90's, we have a tiny, dark windowless hole in our house known as a hall bathroom.
Here's how it looked when we bought it, ugly shower curtain and all:

Yeaaah. That had to change. But...to what?
I remember it clearly: I was driving home one evening, and thinking about the new house. It suddenly struck me that our tiny dark hall bath could be transformed into a natural history museum in miniature. The details all fell into place quickly. Even more exciting, we kept finding things the old lady had left behind that could be used as exhibits.
So, without any further ado, let me take you on a tour of The Bathroom of Natural History.
Every museum needs a sign. We have one, too:

Come on in!

On the vanity, we have a live exhibit. Fancy goldfish! Sciency.



Scroll your eyes upward, and behold one of the many things left behind: a real deer antler.
Dead! Real! Bugs!

A display shelf with various fancy polished rocks, and the world's largest (?) dandelion.

Open the medicine cabinet for more exhibits...


There's still so much I want to do with this room. But first, I am going to need a lot more exhibits. And labels. Lots and lots of labels.

Collecting specimens for the Bathroom of Natural History begins!

I went a little nuts with an unexpected check today, and acquired the first of hopefully many specimens for the Bathroom of Natural History. Have I mentioned this project yet? No? Well, here's the scoop:
THE BATHROOM OF NATURAL HISTORY!
Take a human who loves natural history museums more than art galleries. Take a boring hall bathroom. Paint the walls a museum-y green, and the ceiling deep blue. Condense a natural history museum into it.
Ever since I had the idea a few weeks ago, I've been keeping my eyes open for possible exhibits. So far I've found some great cut & polished rocks, a small antler, and letters for the door.
And then, today, we had our first insect acquisitions:

That's a moth! A MOTH! Can you even believe it?

The listing called this bug "METALLIC RASPBERRY PISTACHIO GREEN POLKA DOTS". How was I supposed to resist that?
And finally, the piece de resistance:

A cicada! Oh, how I love cicadas. We don't have them in California, to my eternal disappointment. Well, now we do, I guess!
(all photos by Real Butterfly Gifts. Which is a great little shop, if you're in the bug buying business.)
I have such plans for this tiny room. Since it's a guest bathroom, it won't actually be used a ton, so I figure we've got some display wiggle room, and far less humidity than the average bathroom.
Tiny fish tank...add a dash of taxidermy...constellations on the ceiling...maybe some pressed plants...fossils?...little tags labeling everything...
(And I should mention that like any museum, we are accepting your kind donations. Heh. Because that's what museums do!)
Expect more photos in the near future. We're moving in this Sunday!