Piano Facelift

I am so excited to finally be able to say that I am done with this project!  Someone at my church was giving away a free spinet piano,so my husband and I had to check it out.

 It had been horribly abused at one time - there was water damage all over every surface of the piano from condensation from drinks being left on the piano, the veneer was peeling, and there were scratches all over its surface.  However, the piano had a great sound to it and despite the keys being yellowed and chipped, they are still playable. I knew that it would be a lot of work to give this piano a facelift, but that it would be totally worth it.

I am so happy with how it turned out! Just check out the before and after pictures to see what kind of difference it made just to give this piano a fresh coat of paint and some TLC. I'll be posting the tutorial for this soon, so be sure to check back to see how you can give an old piano a facelift, too.

2 Months! Ella and family updates

Today is Ella's two month birthday anniversary! I can't believe its come this quick.

She's now the size of the normal newborn (about 8 lbs, 7 oz) and roughly 19 inches long. She's still at the bottom of her age group for height and weight, but at least she's growing and healthy!

Ella in her first Christmas stocking! Isn't her smile adorable?!
She thought that the sound of the clicking camera as I took pictures of her was hilarious!

Its been so fun to watch her develop from a little newborn into a more alert baby. Right now, she can lift and support her head pretty well on her own, and can sit in a Bumbo chair with a bit of assistance. She also loves to stand (although she can't stand by herself yet) and push her feet off of things. Her legs are so strong for being so tiny! She definitely gets a lot of attention from family with that skill. She has also begun smiling, although it is kind of random when she does. So far, these are the things that have made her smile/laugh:

• When Cameron talks to her with a serious face
• When I shake a bag of cereal
• When I jiggle her lips with my finger
• (Sometimes) tickling her tummy
• (Sometimes) when she sees me after being with daddy or grandma for a long time
• The clicking of my camera when I take pictures of her (my favorite)

I'm hoping this list gets longer as she gets older. 

Sometimes I think that she looks like a little bald old man (with a mullet). When she was born, she had longer hair in the back and shorter hair on top that covered her head, but the hair on top has somehow fallen out. She also has a bit of a bald spot right on the very back of her head on the left. Her hair is coming in thicker now.. I can't wait until its long enough to put little bows in (what mom doesn't want to put cute little bows in their kids' hair?).


On a side note: Cameron and I have graduated from college, and moved up to Washington. We've been here for a couple of weeks now. He's been applying for a ton of jobs, and there might be a lead on one working for a cellphone company. He loves technology and spends most of his time researching whats new. He also has a few leads on tutoring jobs teaching anatomy and physiology. We're trying to save up some money before he starts dental school in the fall before we start living off of student loans and racking up the debt (eeek). I won't be working and will instead be staying home with little miss being a full-time mom. Yesterday was our first day with not having to go back to school for classes, and it has been somewhat of a reality shock for us. For me especially, I feel bored and need to find something to keep my mind active and busy! (Hence, blogging). I am going to challenge myself to a new post at least once a week.