earring time!

She's been talking about getting her ears pierced intermittenly, and then that talk intensified last week.  I suspect some kids came back from Christmas break with pierced ears, and it lit the spark in her! We had her wait a week, but she still wanted those ears pierced, so we headed to the tattoo parlor to get on the wait list.

Except, we had to go back home.  Because unlike Claires or Afterthoughts (remember that store?!), a regulated tatoo parlor requires a passport and birth certificate!  So we grabbed them, and headed back.  The hubs and I preferred a tattoo parlor for piercing because they use a real needle (not just a sharp piercing earring), and the piercing itself is more precise.  

The piercer asked her if she was ready - she was!

Nervous girl

It was so quick!  Britton picked out these "diamond" earrings, and before I could blink, she had an earring in her left ear, then her right.

Her recovery has been easy so far!  Her ears were sore the day of the day after, but now that we're a couple of days out, Britton's ears feel fine.  She washes the piercings with soap, and she should be able to change up her earrings in two months.  She's ready to find the perfect pair of cat earrings!

barrett: 55 months old

Check out this big kid!  Barrett is loving all things LEGO Ninjago right now.  We finally saw the movie this weekend, and Barrett has grabbed any LEGO Ninjago book he could find at the library.  And he received some LEGO sets for Christmas, and it seems every day he's pulling them apart and finding a new way to put it all back together again.  

Barrett has reignited his love affair with hot dogs.  Let me tell you, Barrett's eating has been hit or miss lately - he's starving one minute, will only eat cereal the next minute, and then refuses to eat altogether in between.  So, if he shows interest in any food, I'll throw as much of it at him as I can!  

Likes:  ramen noodles, soccer, PJ Masks, playing with his '"tiny Tonkas" trucks

Dislikes:  eating what's for dinner

DIY "vintage" wooden sign

We were recently in Buck-ees (a Texas gas station staple, with a home decor section!) and I saw these awesome vintage wooden signs, that looked like they had been found in some old barn or basement.  Of course, they probably aren't old signs, but in fact new ones made to look old.  And as much as I loved the signs, I couldn't stomach the prices!  I had that lightbulb moment, where I thought, "Hey, I could probably make that!"  And if I failed, I'd trash the whole thing and never speak of it.  But the sign actually turned out well, and I thought I'd share it.  This totally reminds me of the time my sister and I saw a sign in Rappahannock or thereabouts that said "Antiques Made Daily."  Seriously, you can't make antiques!  But a little fake vintage never hurt.

First I painted a spruce board (20 inches by 6 feet) with chalk paint left over from Britton's desk, and I traced the large letters around stencils.  I then hand-painted the letters white.  

I added dark grey shading to the letters to make them stand out more.  The smaller words below the large title were stenciled, but not shaded - they were too small (1.5 inches)!  I added yellow hearts between the smaller words as a color accent.

Then once the entire sign was painted, I "distressed" the finish by sanding it down.  My first coat of paint was a paint and primer in one, to stop the knots from bleeding through the paint. So when I sanded the chalk paint, it showed the white paint below.

Ready for more distressing!  Here is the sign sanded, and ready for some antique wax.  The wax can be a bit much, and I didn't want to completely change the colors on the sign (the wax would darken the colors), so I dry-brushed it on, and quickly wiped off the excess.  I think I struck a nice balance.

The hubs added some d-rings on the back, and then hung the sign in our foyer.  I love it!  Fun fact - "McLintock" is a John Wayne western movie (where he plays George Washington McLintock), and the hubs suggested it when I was trying to come up with a business name that didn't necessarily need to be a real business.  I liked the look of it when I mocked up the stenciling, so the name stuck!  I figured, if I can fake "old vintage sign found in a barn" then I could also fake the name, right?

101 months old

It's back to school for this bunch tomorrow, and while I am not looking forward to getting up early for work, I'm thankful that I won't be here to corral these kids out of their warm beds!  It's freezing here this week, and we are being forced back into normal routines, and dang it all, we all just need another two weeks of pajamas until noon and craft projects.

Britton has really fallen in love with reading.  We finished the Harry Potter series!!!  And we've moved on to the "Cursed Child" book now, and it's the last one I think, because I don't know if I can do all the Fantastic Beasts books too.  Britton is starting a new book club at school in a couple of weeks - "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"!  

Likes:  reading, going to the library, wrestling with Barrett, attacking the boxing dummy she got for Christmas

Dislikes:  getting out of her pajamas