Mid January

This month is flying by. January is a fun one for us. Anniversary, two birthdays. So this week is going to be lovely. Bill and I celebrate nine years on Wednesday. Love him! Can't believe it's been that long and yet it feels like no time at all! We started dating a decade ago next month. Wow! Best decade of my life hands down. Then next Sunday is Spencer's and my birthday. There is something special about sharing your birthday with a child, and especially my oldest. It's fun. He's an easy one to please this year. He wants to go to IKEA for his birthday and have chocolate cake and we'll see what else he comes up with this week. We're taking advantage of today's holiday to make that IKEA trip a bit early. It's two hours away down in Atlanta or Charlotte if we want to go the other way. 

And as for this last week, it's been a fun one. 

 Genevieve was gifted a hand me down leotard and skirt from a friend. She's dying to start ballet. She's been wearing it ever since they got home from church yesterday. I really need to get on the ball making that happen.

 I tried to get a picture of my newfound way curlier hair. I tried not combing it after I got out of the shower and the results were fabulous. Wild, riotous curls. I tried to get a shot, but  my hair isn't that curly right by my face, so you can't see the curls going crazy in the back. But I like the picture, so success anyway! Apparently I've been forgoing super curls for years because I ran a wide-toothed comb through them before scrunching. One less thing to worry about in the morning, ha!

 Oh Chloe. You are always on the kitchen table. She loves apples, but only if they aren't cut up. She'll eat a goodly portion of an entire apple, which impresses me from an 18 month-old.

Aaron sat on the table in this beautiful half lotus pose like it was the most comfortable way to sit. He was happy to recreate it for me so I could get a picture. 

 And last but not least, the amazing results I got from my nightstand redo. This is what it looked like after I had stripped off the last finish it had, an ebony stain that just looked like black paint and had bubbled when I originally did it, but I didn't feel like redoing it. So we've had those for eight years that way. I stripped it months ago and left it in my carport and finally got around to redoing the finish this week after I discovered a new method I wanted to try. It turned out AMAZING! Bill is pining after me finishing his now, which I will do as soon as I can stand standing outside sanding and stripping the finish on his. I only have to strip the top of his, thank goodness. It's kind of a messy process. I only have to sand the base since I paint over the top and it just needs to be smooth. I'm so pleased with how this turned out. This was my second build ever and I always liked the nightstand but the finish was always lackluster. I didn't have the refinishing skills back then, but now that I do I'm delighted to get more use out of these things. They were the first project I made where I thought wow, I could really make beautiful furniture at home for a fraction of the store price, not just passable stuff to get us by. It's probably a big reason I kept building furniture and can do so many cooler things today. As you can tell, I'm just really pleased. It's always fun to find a new finishing method that turns out so awesome.