May Days

Hello!
I feel as though I haven't visited the online blogging universe in far too long.
It's been a doozy of a month, people.
First, my husband turned 41.  Hard to believe someone this handsome is soooo old!  Haha, just kidding, G. 

Hello Handsome!

Also, this week I will turn 41. 

For each of our birthdays, we took trips to Seattle to do our favorite things.  Mine is to stare at the water for long periods of time and to learn something. To this end, we walked all over the piers, saw the outdoor sculpture park and took the Seattle Underground tour. We stopped by the outlet mall on the way home. Amazing day.  For G, it was seeing a good movie (The Raid 2), eating at a great restaurant, and taking a spin through Pike Place Market.
As for 41, well, we are both healthy and happy.  Our families are also healthy and happy and there isn't much more that I could wish for.  

I've been working on a project for awhile.  I have done lots of painting in my life. Small stuff, birdhouses, signs, things of that nature. I decided to take an ugly piece of furniture and re-imagine it as something a little more beautiful. 

Ugly coffee table

This coffee table was my $15 Goodwill find last year.  It held stuff, but that's about it.  A dog chewed up one of the corners and scratched the surface something fierce.  So I stripped it and sanded it and leveled off that corner as best as I could. And added a bit of glue. 

Ready for paint

Then G and I went to the hardware store for some pretty colors. Enamel paint is better for furniture than acrylic so we got some wall paint from Ace. I have messed around with Scandinavian designs, but nothing on this scale.  Deep breath. 

The background 

I used several coats of paint on this.  The thinner layers soaked into the wood better. Then I stenciled a design and just sort of went for it over a period of a week. 

Detail of top

The design above is patterned twice on the top, with small flowers around each leg.  

Here is the finished piece.  G liked it so much that he voluntarily rearranged the living room to make space under a window.
Pretty, dramatic change, huh? 

So what have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!