I know, I'll put this song on repeat over and over again until I start feeling inspired...
The biggest change for us - one that has been making us quite a bit busier than usual - is that I've signed Lily up for some dance, drama and music classes. She has ballet on Monday, music on Tuesday, drama on Wednesday, princess class on Thursday, tap on Friday and tumbling on Saturday.
I know that sounds like a lot. But the classes are just learning about movement and having fun with music, which is right up Lily's alley. I swore this would be about fun and not about pressure and expectations. Plus, since I decided to have preschool at home, I want to give Lily opportunities to socialize and make friends. To say nothing of the fact that it is really fun watching her in all her classes. She loves them and she really loves her teacher, Miss Alexandra.
Here are a few videos from some of her classes. They are all from her first week and most, if not all, of them require you to be a die-hard Lily fan to watch. So, without further ado, I present the fabulously amazing, Miss Lily
First ballet class
First tap class
I didn't get videos of all the classes, because I, apparently, suck as a mother. And please don't mind the choking sounds you hear in the background. That's just me struggling to silence my laughter.
Lily is loving all of her classes and tells me all morning long that we need to hurry because she's going to be late if we don't leave soon. It warms my heart to see her having so much fun and making friends with the other kids.
I've also been busy doing things to settle into our new house. I got the bright idea to hunt through craigslist and thrift stores and antique shops for all the furniture I needed and re-do it all myself. It has been fun, but time consuming. I've been enormously happy with the end results of all my spiffy new furniture, though. I'm not finished, but here is a quick sneak peak at some of my projects. I started off dilligently taking before, during and after shots. But soon I forgot all about the "before" and "during" shots, so you are left with only the "after".
This fabulous Havertys desk came with drawers, but I had already removed them by the time I thought to take a before picture and was feeling too lazy to put them back on for the shot. I scored it from craigslist for $35 and found a bill of sale tucked behind one of the drawers from 1986 from the first Havertys store in Atlanta. It is made from reclaimed piano wood and, even though it was a bit wilted around the edges, i was sure I could restore some of its old luster.
I still have more to do on it. I have to glue down that back piece and touch up some of the paint. But I am very happy with the end result. (ps: I know you can't see it well in this shot, but I only had my super-zoom lens on me at the time so I couldn't get the entire thing in the picture)
These great birch tables (two end tables and a coffee table) also came from a craigslist search. I scored them for $40 from an older woman who was going into a nursing home and trying to sell a house filled with great furniture from the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately, I found her after most of the furniture had been sold. But I was thrilled to get these tables. Her husband, who worked for a woodworking company in Jacksonville in the 50s, made these tables for her. They were in great condition and it was obvious she loved them very much.
I really debated with myself over what to do with them. A big part of me wanted to keep them as they were, since there was so much sentiment behind them. But after having them in my living room for two weeks, I just wasn't happy with the look. So I sanded them down and painted them black. I am in love with them.
This is one of the projects I forgot to take "before" pictures of. I got this chair from my mother-in-law as well. It is over 100 years old and is quite lovely. I considered reupholstering the seat, since the leather is rather fragile at this point. But it looked so good with the black so I haven't done so. I suppose if it rips or anything in the future, I will revisit the idea. But for now, I love how it looks.
I've also done a bit of paiting. I've been picking up little things, like candlesticks, old lamps and picture frames, at thriftstores and the like and giving them a bit of new life as well. I've been searching everywhere for the right thing to put in the middle of my mantle. I have a picture in my head of how I'd like it to look, but I haven't found anything I really love. So in the meantime, I'll just pretty it up with bright flowers and dream of the day when it actually looks the way I want it to.
I've done many other projects, but I will leave those for another day. The house is coming along quite nicely. I am eager to finish it so I can start on our garden. I dream of picking vegetables from our garden for dinner each night. In the meantime, I'll enjoy making this house our own and running after the bug. We start up preschool again on Monday and she is so excited. Last year we only did one hour a day, but this year I think she can handle 2.5 hours. It should be a fun year.
