A Year in Review: 2013

Today is the last day of the year, so what better day than today to reflect on the past year? I will break down my reflections by month. Ready, go.

January: Not much of significance, except that I remember the first day of 2013...we went to see how the house was coming along.  It was a holiday, it was snowing and temperatures were in the single digits, so we thought for sure no one would be working. Wrong.  There they were, working away. That was neat.

February: We closed on our new house! I finally felt like an adult, and have felt even more so since then. We are just at a different place in our life now, simply because we have the responsibility of owning a home.

March: We moved in to our new home, and I turned 25.  25! The age my mom was when she had me.  Scary. For my birthday Ben & I had dinner, and the next weekend I went out with girls from work because Ben was traveling. (Shocker).  That was one of the best birthdays, we had SO much fun. Paid dearly the next day. =P  The end of March was also our first large family gathering. We had 12 people over for Easter weekend.  It was an absolute blast, I'll never forget how we drank margaritas BEFORE dinner and then forgot half the food. Ahh good times good times.  =)

April: Mom, Dad & I traveled to Alabama (a state I had never been to) to watch the IndyCar race.  Much fun was had, even if Mom took a snooze. During the race.  Haha.  We really did make a bunch of great memories.

May: May was a BIG month, as usual.  Dad & I started off the month by running a half marathon. It was absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done, but definitely something I can be proud of forever. I traveled with my parents some in May, going to Ohio and West Virginia to see family, which is always fun.  The biggest part of May was when Ben's driver got the pole for the Indy 500.  Major life accomplishment, and something Ben can always be proud of! Of course, the end of the month was the actual Indy 500. I went with my Mom, Dad & sister, and we had a great time, despite the fact that it was actually chilly and a little rainy.

June: The highlight of June had to be traveling with Dad to Texas for the IndyCar race there.  We flew out on a Saturday morning, meeting up at the Dallas airport. We went to the racetrack right away and spent the day there, which ended in a 4th place finish for ECR at the race.  It was a really fun day, one that I will remember forever. Of course it was awesome to spend time with Dad, and we've decided to make it a yearly tradition.  We flew home Sunday morning. It was a quick but awesome trip!

July: I threw a bridal shower for my dear friend Amanda. It was such a challenge because the shower itself was in Louisville but I did all the food and planning in Indy, but I loved every minute of it.  I've thrown a ton of showers in my life, and sometimes I wish I could make a business out of throwing showers and wedding planning (maybe I should just be a wedding planner?) because I love it and I've done it so much. Amanda's shower was a smashing success.

August: I decided to go part-time at work, for a couple different reasons.  It was definitely the right thing to do.  I also traveled to Columbus, Oh to see some newly-engaged friends and watch yet another IndyCar race.  Again, great memories. :)

September: I spent most of September enjoying my extra 20 hours/week that I wasn't working.  Did a lot of crafting and cooking!

October: I quit my job completely.  We traveled to Disney World with my parents to see my sister for a week.  What an AWESOME trip that was.  I'll have to chronicle it on a Throwback Thursday.  We had a blast, and it was fantastic to see my sissy! We also got to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters for the first time.  That was fun!

November: We traveled to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten on the Freedom of the Seas.  Again, an amazing and memory-filled trip that I will have to blog about soon! November was also Thanksgiving. We traveled to Cincinnati to be with Ben's family.  It was a fun time, but I was a bit sad to not be with my parents at all during the weekend. They were up in Cleveland with my Grandma though, so it was good for all.

December: We got a puppy! (Blog coming soon!) We also celebrated our first Christmas in our new house.  We had a fantastic time.  My parents and in-laws came for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Then, last weekend, we had 23 people over! Our largest gathering yet, and it was a smashing success!


Overall, I have to say that 2013 was a really good year.  It amazes me how many firsts we had, even though we are headed into our 3rd year of marriage. We traveled so much and got to see so many things.  We got to experience the joys of entertaining in our new house, and and we were blessed to spend time with the people that mean the most to us.  2014 has a lot to live up to, but I can't wait to see what comes our way! Peace out 2013!

Updating the Dining Table

Almost 7 weeks ago, I quit my job and it was SO liberating. That's not what this post is about though, I'll save that for another time.  This post is about the first thing I decided to do with my newly acquired free time!

Our dining room table was a wonderful hand-me-down from a dear family friend.  I was so grateful for this thing, and I still am.  It went with me into my first apartment in college, my 2 off campus houses, and my first post-college apartment.  Then it went with me into our first apartment as married people, then our second, and then into our brand new home, where it remains today.  

Needless to say, this table has some memories!  

Some of the memories/highlights that stick out in my mind about this table are:

~Eating "family dinners" around it with my amazing roommates on Deer Park.  We would invite all the S.O.'s over, cook something easy-like tacos or spaghetti-and sit around it while we ate, talked, and mostly laughed. Those were some fun times. 

~Again on Deer Park-we used this table for various drinking games on our Thursday Theme Nights..those were AMAZING nights, and some of my favorite memories of college.

~When I lived at River Oak after college with one of my best buddies and her then-toddler, we had some more "family dinners" and I remember that AB had her own little table in the corner, because she was just a little too short to sit at the table.  While I was sanding, I found some stamps, (in various animal/princess shapes), on the base. I think I can guess where those came from. :)

~After we were married, the table became the one place (in our apartments) where almost everyone could sit for a meal.  (Unless of course there were more than 4 people).  I remember having our parents and various friends over for dinner, and we always ate at the table.  These were the days when I learned to love cooking and entertaining.  

~Since moving into our house, we have had the table in 2 spots. Sometimes with all the leaves, sometimes without, but it's awesome to have options!  Either way, I am still enjoying putting a meal on it. In the last 10 months, we have had lots of people over for dinner, lots of breakfasts with our families, and Mom & I carved pumpkins here this year.

While all those memories were being made, the table took some abuse.  Plus, it no longer matched the decor.  We looked at other tables at Ikea, and almost bought one, but alas, it didn't fit in the car. Nor did it quite fit our particular budget that day.  It doesn't matter though, the point is we didn't buy it, and now I know why!

I'm not sure where the idea to update it came from.  Probably Pinterest.  I'd been talking about updating a lot of the pieces in our house, because hardly any of them match each other, much less the walls and decor.  The table seemed like a good place to start. There really wasn't much to lose. (Plus it's one of the few things in our house made of real wood that would sand down the right way.) I looked up some tutorials, bought a hand sander and some stain, and got to work!

My first step was sanding down the entire thing, all the way down to the grain. I didn't want any stain or lacquer left, because I needed the new stain to take and stick.  I started on a sunny Sunday, and by the end of the day, this is what I had: 

I sanded one leaf, and left the other for the next day.

I spent the next 3 (maybe 4) days sanding the other leaf, the rest of the top, the base, and the legs.  The best thing for this was the discovery that the entire thing comes apart..the legs & top come off the base, and the top can be pulled apart.  It would have sucked way more if they didn't.  All in all, the sanding wasn't bad.  There was a small issue with the fact that the base is wavy/curvy...but I managed, and only got super frustrated once, right at the end.  I'd been working for several hours, and the sander was driving me nuts.  I couldn't look at it anymore, so I made Ben finish the last little bit. :)

Here are all the pieces sanded down. (See those rings in the base? Those were a pain!)

After sanding, it was time for the fun part! I put on 2 coats of stain-which took roughly 2 days, (I used Rustoleum in Ebony), and 3 coats of polyurethane on top of that. (Which took another day). All I did was follow the directions on the cans as far as time between coats, painting with the grain, etc. I used a rag with the stain, to wipe of excess and even it out a little bit.  The picture below is after 2 coats of stain, before the polyurethane. Also, let me just say I froze during this process. It was in the 20's outside, which means the garage was in the 40s.  I wore 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, gloves and a hat.  It worked though, I just turned on some Christmas music and went to town! =D

You can kind of tell in the picture, but I am one MESSY painter. (Mom-I know you are shocked).  Luckily I knew this already, so I had a drop cloth that took up the entire area I was working in.  

The can said to let it cure for 7 days.  I finished up on Thursday before we left for vacation on Saturday, so I left everything where it was while we were gone.  We did put the top back on the base, and the leaves on some boxes so the bottom of all the pieces would dry.  When we returned from our vacation, we moved the table back into the house! This had to be done slowly, but we did it, and this is the final product!

I am really happy with the way it turned out.  I still don't know what to do about the chairs (I have no desire to try to sand them, way too intricate), but I'll figure it out soon. I wasn't sure if I could handle something so crafty, but I think it went great! Even Ben said he thought it was out of my reach, but he likes it too!  

I am super inspired to try some other pieces now, but I think I'll wait until spring. :)