Many sheets of sandpaper, wet snowflakes, and rich bites of German chocolate with hazelnuts later, it looks like January has come to an end.  It was a lovely month.  Don’t you think?  One thing that I always love about the beginning of February is the anticipation of warmer, lighter days to come.  I’m tired of the dark afternoons.

But I think I’ll look back to those cold days just once more.  It’s time for a recap of January – the best of the best.

1. Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell, authors of the fantastic book, Celebrate Green!, gave us some really cool green party ideas and tips in this personal interview.  My favorite is the centerpiece suggestion.

2. We got a peek into Joanne’s 20 square foot kitchen.  She offered loads of tips for making any kitchen work–ideas like using vertical space and organizing your space to fit your tasks.

3. Martin and I put together a tutorial on how to restore old furniture.  Our beat up wooden frames served as guinea pigs.

4. Then many of you shared great tips for cutting back on expenses in the comments of the popular post, How We Afford to Live in Europe.

5.  I got all gushy about family heirlooms and taking time to observe the world when I wrote Holding onto the Senses of Touch and Smell.

6. With a little glimpse into our European life, I showed you our water meters that measure water usage to the liter and our two-burner stove, asking if you’d go crazy with the meters like I do or live comfortably with the small oven like we seem to be doing.

7.  I don’t think I’ve ever added any children’s poetry to this list.  As many of you might know, I’m pretty bashful about my poetry.  Most of my family doesn’t even know I write it.  So *somehow* I got the courage to share two with you this month: I Want to Be Bubble Bath Soap and  When My Best Isn’t The Best. Whew!

Last month in my review, several of you pointed out a slip on my part.  I forgot to mention anything about our kitchen in my recap.  (HOW I did that, I have no idea.  It’s impossible to escape the sawdust.)  So let’s end with our kitchen overhaul, shall we?

8.  We ran into our first major problem with the kitchen remodel: the granite countertops didn’t fit at all.  Martin ended up cutting off a portion of one cabinet that we’d custom sized to hold our plates.  The counter was ready to show itself.  The plates are still homeless, as is absolutely everything else while we sand and varnish… sand and varnish…