....doesn't EVERYONE?

 ...have their end tables on their coffee table on a Friday night?  

It all started the other day when Sonja decided to repaint the top of a table in her room...I started looking critically at my end tables....so out came the chalk paint this fine afternoon.  These tables are old, like me.  I bought them when I was a senior in high school, with my babysitting money.  By the time we were married, we also had classic 80's floral couch and loveseat, bought on payment plan, with babysitting money...all paid off by the time I graduated.  Yup, always me with the lofty goals.

The tables are pine, and were stained and polyurethaned, for years.  Then I discovered chalk paint.  They're gray for a while, but I like them white better.  They were getting stained, dingy, and needed refreshing...I was only going to do the tops, but...why not do the whole things?  They need a coat of varnish or wax when they dry all the way.

I decided in for a penny, in for a pound, may as well paint the lamps.

This is a "before". I found the pair of lamps a few years ago, wood and unfinished, brand new, at the thrift store for just a few dollars.  I haven't liked the gray chalk paint look for a while now...so I opened up the black chalk paint, and, oh no!  It was solidified.  So I cracked open the Sherwin Williams Urbane bronze in satin finish.  

Propped up on cans of crushed tomatoes, classy all the way.  They need another coat, but I like them.

Chocolate covered strawberries!  The chocolate has a few of the after-Christmas discounted chocolate Santas I bought for 32 cents each from Aldi, along with some white almond bark.   I did sample, and oh dear, yum.  

I went to the pool this morning, in the snow, and it was lovely.  I realized that my left hip hasn't been acting up at night the last few nights, hopefully the swimming is helping.  Sometimes just getting the blood moving, the muscles moving...it feels fantastic to go.

My son Joseph lives in a little house in town, with his wife, Bethany, their two pups, and their kitty cat.  I stopped to visit him after the pool, and it was downright wonderful to just sit and talk to him.  I brought him some cherries, a few strawberries, an orange, some Reeses' hearts, and a bag of pistachios.    

Charlotte Claire is on school break!  Yay!  Sonja isn't though.  Not sure what fun things we'll do. It's certainly not like the old days, when like ten kids were on school break!  But it's still Char's break, and we'll do some fun things.

Ah well, time to put that final coat on these tables....

Edited to say:  I don't publish anonymous comments, unless I know who you are, like my sister, ha.  So just leave a name!