A little project

Last week I finished a small project that's been waiting on my "someday" list for um... 2 years.  ?   Can that be right?

I wish I had taken a before picture so you could appreciate the transformation.
You'll have to imagine a pretty beat up wooden dresser that had been very well used for many years.

I bought two of them, one for each of my boys, so I could take a before picture of the other one  - but it's so buried in the garage I can't even get to it for a picture ...  That's sad.   I hope it doesn't take me another 2 years to finish the second one... but it might.

Anyway - Here's what it looks like finished and in place in George's room.  I spent some time cleaning that room out again this weekend.  Oh how I LOVE to take 2 or 3 big bins of clutter to Goodwill!

 
It's nice to have somewhere to put the clothing now.  My old system (piles in the closet ) was not working.
The dressers I bought from a friend for $20.00 each, and the red paint was from the reject pile at the hardware store.  Somebody didn't like it I guess, but I think it's the perfect red.  $2.00.  So the whole dresser
cost me $22.00 and 2 hours of a little sanding/regluing/and painting.  And I lined the drawers with contact paper.  So that's another $1.00 or something.  Not bad, I think.

Now - here's the next "before" picture for you.

 A new project found at the local park.  I don't know who left it there, but I do know who found it.  Me.
And it's going to be awesome.

Someday :)

This Moment: Happy Blog Anniversary!

Hello!

Today happens to be, much to my surprise, my 1 year blog anniversary!   I can't believe I've been here for a year, it sure went by quickly!  So I'm cheating (and I can because it's my anniversary!) and including a series of shots (since they are all related) for 

This Moment:

Entitled: "Let's take a nice picture of the Lego House we just spent hours working on together!"

Linking up with Soulemama.

Counting Days

Hi.

I wanted to make a priority of posting at least something here on my blog this week.  I have not
forgotten about the blog - I feel best when I'm here regularly, writing, and posting what's going on in our family.
But it's not always possible.

I very often lately am finding myself thinking 'oh - I can't wait to share this on the blog' - and then a week goes
by and it never happens.

And that's OK.

One of the ways i'm attempting to deal with the stress of Christmas, is to let go of expectations.

For instance, My Grand Advent Calendar Plan was to knit 24 little mittens, and then fill them with goodies before the 1st.
By the 28th of November I had 6 mittens done.  And realizing that my time to work on knitting mittens was exactly 45 minutes to an hour after I get home from working the evening shift and before nodding off at night - that meant that I needed to produce at least 9 mittens each of the remaining nights, and at the speed of  roughly 7 minutes per mitten (and I'm rounding up with my time here).
I am a fast knitter, i think, but I am not a robot or a machine.

I had a long talk with myself and we determined my mitten making dreams were actually tipping all the way over from ambitious to fully delusional.

So I headed straight to our winter mitten/scarf/hat bin, and then when that still wasn't making my magic number of "24" I got out the paper and staples and made some mittens the quick and easy way.  Walah!

Our Finished Advent Calendar.
Whew!
I got to bed around 11:00 - 11:45.  Maybe 12:15 at the latest.

I didn't have the smoothest of mornings, consequently, but the calendar is finished and that's what's important.
I think.

And in other news, a handful of other little happy things this morning, because I haven't done this in a while:

1.  The first egg.  I think it's a "Deb".  But it might be a "Celia"... It's definitely NOT a "Lill" who turned out to be a rooster.

2.  Clementines.  Oh boy - do I love them.

3.  Egg Nog.  Yep - I love that too.

4.  New books at the library.

5.  Thursdays.  (My last night of work for the week)

6.  And these new little guys.  It's a new series George is working on.  They are everywhere.
He actually calls them his "little guys"

7.  A small attempt at greater organizational living:  a new mail/library book/key station right inside the front door.

8.  Lastly - my new shoes - a nice new pair of black leather mary janes.  :)

How about you?  Any crazy holiday projects you've finished, abandoned, or modified in order to save
your sanity?
What happy little things are you finding this week?