Watch Out 2013, I'm Comin' Atcha!!

That's right 2013, you better watch out because I have your number and I plan on owning you!! You are going to be a great year! Don't you forget it, or try to run astray, because I have so much planned...so you're gonna be a busy and successful year!!! No back talking, it's happening so you best just hush!

I'm so pumped, can you tell? I just can't wait to get moving!!

If you're willing to take the trip with me, lets reflect back on 2012...

*insert Wayne and Garth doing the "flash back" hands and sound*

At the beginning of the year I took some time off because I was utilizing a gift from my maternal Grandmother who passed away in 2011. This is her holding my now 7 year old son. She lived on the other side of the states so I'm so glad that we had this time for her to meet him. Who knows when we would be back to see her again.... Unfortunately she became ill and we never got a chance to visit before she passed.

Thanks to her generosity, I paid some bills, took care of an extensive amount of hail damage on my truck (like over 200 dents and almost $3k worth of damage) bought my Canon T3 and put some money into my business.

After all that was settled I finished up my annual "thanks for being awesome" Christmas gift for Barb at Knack. I painted her a union jack chest and made this display shelf out of a left over drawer. I was so excited because I knew that many more wee pieces of furniture would be sent to her and this would be the perfect item to display them in.

Then my friend C and I got together and made plans for her 1930's dining room. Since I started working on furniture I would drool over her set every time I came to her house so I was stoked that she finally decided it was time for a makeover. Even though it's taken longer than I expected (I have one last piece to go, which is the china cabinet) each piece turned out AMAZING. I have received the best compliments on the yellow table and the matching chairs, but the blogosphere lost it (in a good way) when they saw the orange buffet. It was featured all over the place, pinned like crazy on Pinterest and just adored by the masses. That made me feel SUPER special and made C quite happy.

When I first initially started my journey with her furniture I planned to whip right on through it, but life jumped in the way a few times and stalled me out. In March we lost our Pop, which is my husbands maternal Grandfather, to a stroke. Losing him tore our hearts in two. This is Pop with our kids 7 years ago.

Right after Pop passed at the hospital we went outside and I looked up and saw this heart shaped cloud, and before it blew away I snapped a pic of it. 

We love you too Pop.

I got back to work on C's furniture, but when summer came we decided it was time that we move on from Collinsville, IL and move back home to Missouri. So we bought our first home in St. Charles. It was hard saying goodbye to our rented home because it's where my dream of restyling furniture started, but bigger and better things called to us and in the end we are happier that we own now.

My good friend T, who I've known since the early 90's and who was our real estate agent, was pregnant through our whole house buying experience. In fact, I hadn't seen T since probably the late 90's and thanks to Facebook we reconnected. I was so ecstatic because I hadn't seen her in years and it was like time stood still and we were the same goofy kids from back then. After we moved in T wanted me to restyle a wardrobe for her baby Tallulah. It turned out very pretty and little Tallulah made her wonderful appearance the day after Christmas!!! She's B-E-A-yooootiful!!!

And as if the year couldn't have got any better, I was blessed to meet and work with a new customer Ms. L!! She had another 1930's set for me to work on plus other projects that are still up and coming!! This was the first piece completed of the set, a mini-buffet!

So throughout the year I had: hardships, losses, wins, re-connections, laughs, fun with friends, frowns, a few tears of frustration, a few days I didn't want to get out of bed, a few days where the bed couldn't hold me, aches and pains, excitement, feeling humbled, struggles, successes, praises, blessings in disguise... but even though there were so many ups and downs I'm still here. I'm still pushing on, persevering and determined to succeed and grow. 

I hope you enjoyed my walk through time. There was so much more I could add, but I'm sure you're groggy eyed by now. haha! I hope you stick with me through my journey in 2013, because like I said at the top of this post I'M GOING TO OWN IT. 

Have a safe and fun New Years and I'll see ya on the flip side!!\