They had a swan bed. A. SWAN. BED.

Back a few weeks when we actually had warmish weather in January, Cole and I hit up some Richmond sights. First, we went back to the Maymont estate. We visited this place, but missed out on a tour because they were closed on a Monday. On this Saturday visit, we got a 45-minute tour inside this home from the Gilded Age. James Henry, who made his money from investments in industry such as the railroad, and his wife, Sallie Dooley, lived here from 1893 to 1925. Without any children to pass the estate on to, they donated their wealth and made their place a museum. . . .

Great words from Dr. Seuss for someone who teaches little people.

This Christmas, I used my new hobby, calligraphy, to make art worth framing. Because this hobby of mine is only about a year old, it takes me a while to generate final images that worth framing.

First, I made a list of all the works of art I would need to make. I did this in September — like I said, this whole thing took me a while. Then, I started searching for quotes that fit each person. I would browse Pinterest or just general online searches. In some cases, I pulled from scripture that I had recently been studying. Cole also jumped in on this process. Together we weeded out super long phrases and zeroed in on one or two. . . .

Can you believe January is almost gone?

January was all over for me, which led me to using a simple background. The little framed image was a Christmas present for a friend, but I was pretty fond of it, so it appears in my desktop calendar. The black and white image, because a pink frame wasn't going to fly on my desktop, paired up well with some purple and gray boxes. . . .

Dad says hi to his mini-horse, Coal.

Kansas means visiting the animal farm at my parent's house. This is no joke. They have mini potbelly pigs, chickens, geese, peacocks, guinea fowl, llamas, donkeys, goats, dogs and more. On this freezing cold visit, I didn't photograph all the species. If you are looking to see those to, you can see them here, here or here. . . .

My family :)

I know, January is almost over, but with all the traveling and uprooting during the holiday, I didn't get a chance to sit down and upload my pictures, so merry Christmas from my family to yours. We made the long journey to the Black Hills to spend New Year's weekend with her to celebrate Christmas.

Once we arrive, we basically break in to games, games and more games. A favorite is UNO, but we played everything from Sequence to Funglish. Well, we did break from games to open presents, which is an event all by its self. That being said, I got some pretty awesome crafting/art additions, including, but not limited to, a doodle book, a purple blanket, tons of notecards, a clickable erase and a wax seal kit. That means I have many more craftventures to post in the future. . . .