Happy New Year!!!

It’s pretty customary for DIY bloggers to write an end-of-year post that sums up all their accomplishments for the past year.  Or so it seems.  This is my first New Year as a blogger.  And I’m afraid my list of DIY “accomplishments” reads pretty much like this…  I started, but never finished _________.  Yeah, that’s how I roll.  Like a cube.  But let’s get this thing started, shall we?

January

I started blogging on the 15th because it was a warm day and I was blow drying my front door.  No really.  You’ll just have to read my very 1st post if you don’t believe me.

I also started a huge undertaking in my laundry room.  Well, I “finished” an undertaking I started a few years ago.  It’s almost completely finished now, except I still haven’t found a clothes drying rack system I love.  I did manage to write 6 posts about it so far and I will finish it up one of these days.

I also blogged about my basement renovation, which, other than replacing some ceiling tiles is otherwise finished.  I just never finished taking pictures.  You know what it is?  The basement is messy!  I’d have to clean it to take pictures and I’m way too busy with the 50 other projects I’ve started since then to clean the basement.  One day I’ll take some pictures for you.

February

  February is Smart Jr’s birthday and I made her this basketball cake.

I also coached her rec basketball team this season, which is hysterical, because even though I’m a tall chic, I’ve NEVER played basketball.  I did however sit on the side of the court while my BFF played with George Clooney and a couple of Yankees.   I worked at a gym in Manhattan right out of grad school.  The guys thought it was hysterical that I didn’t know their names.  It wasn’t Derek Jeter, I can tell you that.  Same thing with Mariska Hargitay.  I was her personal trainer when SVU had been on for about a year.  I had NO IDEA who she was until she made me go home and watch her show.  She was a riot.  Anyway… what else?  I scored an awesome deal on a new dining table and chairs.

Smart Jr and I went on the Young House Love Thrift Shop Challenge.  I got my first blog comment from that post.  We’d actually never heard of Macklemore at the time.  But now love him and went to a concert at Madison Square Garden last month.  It was awesome!!

March

I hadn’t finished the laundry room, but why not dive head first into a staircase renovation.  Now this one I actually finished, but I never posted the big reveal.  Something for you to look forward to I guess.

I also F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. painted the two side tables I’ve had for a few years.  I used the same metallic paint I used on the wall in the living room.  I really do love how they turned out, so I guess they were worth the wait.

My birthday is in March and I celebrated by taking myself to Hobby Lobby for the first time.  Then I threw a hugely successful {wink} Jake and the Neverland Pirates party for my little guy that I booked ONE whole day in advance.  It’s actually one of my most popular posts!

April

I started working in the yard and was actually pretty good about posting every week about it.  Go figure.  We got a boat load of strawberries this year!

Oh and look, I was still working on the laundry room and the staircase.

May

One of my favorite memories of the year was in May… digging up two giant tree-like shrubs from a friend’s house and moving them to my house.  Hey, I love me some Photina plants!  They are doing awesome by the way.  You’d never know some crazy couple moved them to our yard fully grown.  And they’re EVERGREEN!  Love me some winter interest in the yard!

I also installed a flagstone patio in under 3 hours while hubs took Smart Jr to a LAX game.  I installed another patio later in the summer and took a video, but guess what???  I never posted it.  Do you sense a pattern here?

Oh and hubby and I started our deck renovation project and had high hopes to have it finished for our annual Memorial Day party.  Didn’t happen.  We did get the railings in but there were no slats, so it was a big danger zone.  Luckily it’s usually just a bunch of dads standing around the grill up there and none of them fell.  So it’s all good.  I must have got bored with the deck because I only worked on it haphazardly until October, when we finished it up for our annual Halloween party/Lulu’s birthday.  And I didn’t even start blogging about the deck because, for once, I was going to try to wait until I was all finished.  Might not be the best strategy for me either.  🙁

June

According to the blog I did nothing but garden.  But I did write about my crazy striped basement stairs.

I also shared a little of our yard history.

July

Ha! July was the start of my epic used swing set saga.  There are still pieces sitting in my yard, but I did complete the melding of our existing swing set and the swing beam from the “new” used one.  I wrote a bunch of posts about it: here, here, here, and here.  The final reveal is still yet to come.  Wow.  I suck.

Smart Jr went to camp, we had an overnight pet turtle, and I told you about my favorite place to get compost.

August

We took our big trip to Nova Scotia for my college friend’s wedding.  We had an awesome time and are thinking about going back again this summer.  If not, definitely next summer.

Especially now that we have our “new” vintage Shasta travel trailer.  We bought it off Craigslist the day after we got home from our trip.  I haven’t even started work on it, but I work best under pressure and a nice to trip to Nova Scotia would definitely be motivating!

When the garage got so freakin out of control cluttered, I built this snazzy pallet shelf and room divider.  I must say, it does do a pretty good job keeping our junk away from my tool area.

September

Back to school!  I celebrated by buying myself some new tools.  Smart Jr started middle school, Lulu’s in half-day kindergarten and the little man is in Pre-K.  I pick him up at 11:20am which gives me a little over 2 hours to get anything done.  I also started a Daisy Girl Scout troop for Lulu.  She calls me the coach.  My girls play a lot of sports.  Field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter, and LAX in the spring.  I played none of these.

 

I also dealt with the ongoing flooding issues and nonsense with my neighbor and the town.  What a pain in my butt!

And I made a camera bag, but it’s one of my least popular posts.  🙁

October

I started designing a surf shack loft bed for my son’s room.  The bed itself was pretty straightforward, but I had to order raffia skirt material from Amazon a total of 5 times, just to get two matching pieces.  The bed is totally finished now, but I’m holding out until I have the room completely finished before I do the big reveal.  I think it will be a good one year blogiversary post.

His old bed was converted into a play car in the basement.  The kids freakin love that thing.

Our anniversary is on the 14th and we celebrated by doing something so spectacular that I don’t even remember.  We aren’t big into celebrating anniversaries.  But we did celebrate the birth of my newest nephew, he’s such a cutie!  I also celebrated the rebirth of my kitchen canisters, which got nice organized labels.

And I installed my very first carpet.  (I’ve done demo before.)

One of my favorite things is the Jake and the Never Land Pirate costume I made for my little man.  Guess when I made it?  Of course, the night before Halloween when all the other slacker moms are making their kids costumes.

 

November

I started dabbling in the world of WordPress and switched my blog over from blogger a few weeks later.  I love using the Genesis Framework for WordPress and only wish I had started with it sooner.  It’s a little depressing that my old website still gets more traffic than this one, but I keep trying to tell myself it’s only been a month.

We took a last-minute family trip to Washington DC and I wrote a super detailed post about it.  The highlight for Lulu was our stop at the American Girl Store.

While Smart Jr was away for the weekend on a youth group trip, I surprised her by redoing her room.  I actually completed the chevron wall in half a day.  Me!  Can you believe it?!

My grandmother came for a visit and I made her a bed in my office.  It was finished enough for her to sleep on, but won’t be completely finished until I get the bookshelves in there built too.

 

December

I started to work on the office built-ins and they’re coming along nicely, but of course they’re not finished.  I was up until 3am this morning painting them.  And I have big plans to go to Home Depot {and the gym} to buy trim after I finish writing this post.

I didn’t get my act together to post all my Christmas projects BEFORE Christmas, but really the 12 Days of Christmas don’t start until Christmas day anyway.  My 12-post series will carry me into the new year.  Check them out HERE.

And that’s about it.  I hope you have a happy and blessed NEW YEAR!!

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