Rejuvenation

I'm breathing. The holidays passed in a whirlwind and now I can take a deep breath. Ahhh. The other day as I finished putting away the Christmas decorations my ten-year-old said, "The house looks empty." My feelings exactly. I decorate for fall in mid-September, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas and now we are back to "normal". I always have my front bay window decorated seasonally (darn should post a picture), but right now the rest of the house is bare until late January when we deck the halls for Valentine's Day.
I like the clean fresh feel right now.  We can now go into our pseudo hibernation as a family. The social calender is spotty, we only have Y basketball, which is way less of a time commitment than BASEBALL. We tend to hunker down and hang out in the basement next to the fire. I find that this is the time of year I get a lot of my projects done. Last year I tiled part of the bathroom, hung wainscoting, added crown molding etc. I hope to sit down in the next day or so and start plugging away at my 2012 To Do List. I head back to work on Wednesday, but until then I am purging, planning and of course relaxing. Here are a few projects I would like to remember from last year:

This was a dresser/buffet I picked up on Craigslist. I sanded it, painted it and then roughed it up. I traded my friend two round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines for it. She is a flight attendant so it was a win-win situation. Can't wait to use them! Where should we go? Any suggestions?

Last February when I did the mini-remodel on my daughter's bathroom I created this lady from a straw wreath I had hanging around. I wrapped it in some rope and then glued the shells on it. I believe I found all of the shells on here from various trips to the beach. The best ones are from our trip to Spain.

I had forgotten all about this piece. It is currently packed in a box, but will come back out soon. I may have to post it on Etsy. I can always make more!

I have been searching high and low for wooden spools so I can make more of these. I heart them...wait love them.

I tried to sell this several times this summer to no avail. I really didn't want to sell it, but I didn't have anywhere it would go in my house. My husband finally ended up taking it to his classroom where it currently holds his classroom prizes. The top is a chalkboard!

I am stoked to get moving on 2012 now. Ahhh.