To distress, or not to distress. . . .that is the question?

I have a beautiful piece of furniture that I just finished painting for my daughter's room. And I am having a reeeeally hard time deciding if I should distress it. After-all, I worked long and hard on this paint job I don't want to "mess" it up!

Originally this table was in our family home when I was a kid. When my parent's divorced my Dad ended up with this it. He was a pack a day smoker,{He recently quit smoking after 53 years!} and needless to say this table reaked of smoke. I wasn't even sure this beauty had any hope. But I decided it was a good piece to try out my refinishing skilz.   

I have painstakingly cleaned, stripped, sanded, primed and painted this piece. It has taken weeks,{there is never enough time in the day!}and I just don't know if the perfectionist in me will allow me to "mess" it up.

Here it is minus the hardware and the drop side pieces. . .if I decide to distress it, I need to do it before I add the poly coat. Which will be the final step!

McKenna is dying to have this in her room. . . .she wanted it like, yesterday. So What to do?

 

Have you ever distressed a piece, do you like how it turned out? Any tips or suggestions? Is a sanding block the best thing to use?

This was a fun piece, and I'm looove with the color, can't wait to get it completed and finally see it in her room!

                                                                  

Tell me it isn't so. . . .

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my BABY just started Kindergarten. But not only that, my MIDDLE child is a big first grader and my OLDEST is in his 2nd year of COLLEGE! Yikes, how did this happen?

THIS is why I wanted to start a blog. My sweet thangs are growing up way too fast and I want to make it stop.

Things I enjoy about my Son: Jordan Keith age 19. . .very soon to be the big 2 and 0!!!

The way we relate and the adult conversations we share

His handsomeness! He is smashing if I do say so myself

His heart, and how he wants to save the world and cares so much about others

Our Coffee dates

His love for History, writing, conspiracy theories and politics

The phone calls about unimportant things, or just to say hi

How he still cares about what I think

His head over heals love for his sisters

His hugs

His deep intellectual thoughts and conversations, even though it makes my head hurt

His beautiful dark brown eyes

How important family is to him

Things I enjoy about my sweet McKenna Jean: Age 6

The kindness of her heart, and how she worries about others.

Her joyous, full of life laugh.

When she tells me "You're the best Mom I ever had!" and I reply, "I'm the ONLY Mom you've ever had." and the just smiles and laughs because she doesn't "get it".

Her willingness to always help

The fact that she is a rule follower

Her artistic abilities {They did NOT come from her Momma!}

The lisp she now has because of her lack of teeth

How independent she is becoming
That she gets as excited as I do when it comes to DIY and decorating
The love she has for her family
How she always wants to have friends over, or to be going somewhere

  

Things I enjoy about my sweet Morgan Joella: Age 5

Her full of life personality

The fact that she still lets me carry her {After all, she is my baby}

Snuggle time with Mommy

That she is my prayer warrior, always going to prayer first in time of need

The fact that she loves PINK

Her magnetic personality

Our one-on-one time every afternoon while big Sis is in school

The sparkle in her eyes

The cute way that she mispronounces words {I secretly don't correct her because it's just precious}

Her little tiny voice

The fact that she never stops talking

How she falls asleep in 2.2 seconds
That she has her Mom's appreciation for a Sunday afternoon of "house" shopping and love for the parade of homes.

While writing this I noticed a similarity. All three of my children have a heart for others and love their family deeply. Yet at the same time they are so very different from one another. Thank you God for blessing me with each one of them.



Life Undocumented

On a total whim I decided to create this blog. I didn't let the fact that I really hadn't thought this through, or the fact that I have no idea what I'm going to blog about stop me. However, I do know that for a very long time I have had the desire to document our day to day life before it passes me by. I don't want to forget these precious times with my family.{Well, some I would rather never remember, but I won't blog about those!} I feel like I've missed so many blogging opportunities with my children, but the fact that I'm so behind is not a good reason to never begin!

I LOVE taking pictures and capturing my kiddos, it is one of my joys in life. Unfortunately I have thousands of photos that I have done absolutely nothing with, but at least I have them. Scrapbooking is really not my thing. Although I love the idea of it, I've never been really good at executing it. {I've taken that to mean I'm not very crafty, lol.} My digital photos are in a huge unorganized mess on our hard drive and it's too daunting to think about organizing. {If anyone has any ideas or tools for me to try share away!} I will love you forever if you do. . . .seriously.

So starting this blog is my attempt to no longer be "Life undocumented". My hope is that I will have something for myself and my children to look back on and see the fun times, craziness of life, and milestones we have experienced together.

Besides my family and photography, my other love is home decorating and most recently DIY projects around the home. Pinterest is my absolute obsession. I have found so many projects that I want to do, that most of the time I don't even know where to begin. The ideas are just swirling away in my head waiting for the time and money to make them happen. I'm thinking I'll share a few of those projects on here as well, but we will have to see how this blogger thing goes. :o)

Thanks for reading my first blog, kinda intimidating, but fun at the same time.