February Part 4: New Arrivals

We had some big new arrivals to our family in February. 

First up, Michael made walnut end table for his room. He started with the beautiful top. 

He used his hand planes and hand tools to get the top super smooth. 

After he made the top, he got started on the legs. He used mortis and tendon joints on the legs, again using his hand tools. 

Notice the had drill he's using. 

Ta-dah!

For the finish, he used shellac. It turned out so nice!!

Sadly, Rachel grew out of her 1/2 violin, so we headed back to Summerhays to trade it in for a 3/4 sized violin. 

Rachel was very sad to part with her first violin. There were near tears, so I did a farewell photoshoot with it so she can always remember her very first violin. 

When my sewing machine broke, we decided to try to trade it in for a new one. Brian wanted to get me a nicer one since we got the most basic of the nicer machines back in 2010 when we bought the other one. They were having a sale on their floor models. I wanted to have a machine with a deeper neck, and embroidery was on my wish list. We found this used Luminaire 3 for a really good deal, and came home with it. They didn't want to trade in my old machine, but they did fix it for free. I have a ton of guilt over this machine, but I also really, really love it. It threads itself. It cuts its own threads. It has a ton of stitches, and it does embroidery. When Kirt and Julie came over for a visit, we showed them all the things that this machine can do, and it was incredibly reminiscent of the scene in Fiddler on the Roof where Motel the tailor shows off his "new arrival" sewing machine, and one of the townspeople asks, "New arrival? What is it a boy or a girl."

They let us try out the machine in the store by making this Wall-E design with it. 

Our smaller garage door bent and busted the windows on one of the days that it stormed (naturally). Brian boarded/taped up the windows, and we ordered new doors that were supposed to look just like our old ones. When they got them installed, I wanted to cry because the windows on them were much bigger and looked really terrible. They cost so much, and I hated them. Eventually, we came up with a solution where we moved the top panel down, and they look a lot better, but I still have a bit of regret about not shopping around more. The storm and February weather brought out some desperation. It's fine. They're insulated and will be really nice if we ever get another winter come November/December. 

I found this bird in Harmons, and it needed to come home with me. Do I have a problem? Yes, yes I do. I can't resist a cute, chubby bird. 

Thank goodness we got a decent tax return this year.