In the Land of Decoupage

I know I need to get back on track with posting. I've had a rough time of it for various reasons lately.  I'm still struggling - some days are better than others, for sure.  But at seven months into this adventure, I had been sure things would be different than they are...and that takes some reconciling in my mind and soul.  I had several down weekends where I simply didn't feel like doing anything.  But if there is anything for sure in my life, it's that I don't like to let myself wallow for too long.  Life's too short for that!

I set my mind on finishing up a table I was refinishing for my living room a couple weekends ago.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I had originally just stained and polyurethaned it but I was never really happy with it.  When I found a cool tutorial on decoupaging with book pages, I knew what my plan was.  I posted a note on Facebook, asking my friends to tell me their favorite words and had a great response.  I found a dictionary at a thrift store for $2 and was on my way!  I painted the shelves red and then tore out my friends' favorite words from the dictionary, arranged and decoupaged them onto the back area of each shelve.  Voila!  I am so please with how this one came out.  And I'm more than a little hooked on decoupaging - and the idea of decoupaging with book pages.

This weekend I went on some adventures.  I visited a pizza place in the next town over that National Geographic claims is the best pizza in the world.  My response?  It was pretty good.  (Take that with a grain of salt, however, as I am NOT what you'd call a pizza connoisseur  - by any stretch.)  I tried out a local barbecue place that was absolutely fantastic.  I conquered a mammoth to do list.  And I finished up my final two furniture projects (for the moment, at least!)

This was a nightstand I bought at a thrift shop back in February.  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it, so it took me a bit of time.  It has a retro, shabby chic kind of look about it. And I learned a lot about decoupaging furniture with fabric....

This was another table I picked up at the same thrift store.  There was really nothing to it - just bare plywood with some rusty metal legs.  I sanded the legs and sprayed them with a hammered copper and then decoupaged some map paper on the top.  I polyurethaned it and added some rubber "feet" to the bottom over the weekend (so the metal wouldn't damage the flooring, wherever this ends up.)

I'm happy with how they  turned out.  They are not perfect, by any means, but I'm learning a lot as I work with the different media and I know what I'll do differently with projects like these in the future.  Now the question is what do I do with them?  My place is very small and I really have no need for either.  I've been thinking of setting up an Etsy shop but the easier option may be to simply use Craigslist.  We shall see.