D.I.Y.

I need your help.

I've been looking for an end table, and with my budget and free time I wanted to do a DIY project. I've been looking at D.I. and Craigslist for any good stuff. Well the last time I went to D.I. it was super busy (the smells, the crying...) and I found an end table I really liked. But AJ wasn't there, and I wanted his opinion. So I took pictures of it with my phone and headed to the check-out line with some cool bottles I found...

Every single line had the cashier on their intercom asking for help. I was getting SO antsy, and I kept pulling my phone out and looking at those end table pictures while I was waiting. Then I made a "screw this!" sound and ran back to grab the table. I didn't want to risk someone else taking it. I looked like a doofus carrying the thing back up front, and I got some funny looks. After I paid for my stuff, I asked the cashier "you can return furniture right?" "Uh, no."

So without further ado, I present my end table that I can't return, but it's okay because together we are going to turn this thing into a real beauty.

I like the shape of it, and it's sturdy, and the doors work great. I don't really know what's up with those handles, but they'll be replaced. I think the way it's designed could match our little Ikea bookcase.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to paint it. The wood on it doesn't strike me as something I'd feel bad covering up. I've been thinking I could paint it to match our black bookcase, but then everything might start being black, black, black. Our sofas our blackish brown, but you know, pretty much black.
I'm wondering if I should do a 2-tone thing, like maybe the deeper areas could be a cool color. Green and black? Leave the wood and add another color? I've been digging yellows lately...Red? White? Turquoise? I've been afraid of color for too long, and I need to be brave this time. I'm definitely not doing hot pink, but something classy looking.

What do you guys think?

I also want to paint this mirror.
Any suggestions? It's big, and I'm not sure where I'll put it, but the frame is actually plastic or something, so I have no desire to keep the fake brownness of it. My aunt gave it to me and I figured I could pull something off.

These next pictures are for my mom especially. I keep forgetting to show the artwork I made. I decided I need to have cool looking stuff on my walls. There's only so many pictures of AJ and I that I can put up before the place starts looking like a shrine to our relationship. Eww right? So I decided if I don't have cool art, I should just make some. In my opinion, anyone can do something abstract and call it art, frame it, and put it on your wall. But for heaven's sake, I'm an artist, you'd think I could put something interesting looking on my wall. So that's what I did.

This is just a start. I think it would be cool to be able to cover the whole wall eventually. The planes one on the left turned out kinda dorky, but I'll replace that some time. The square ones are all representing the different seasons. I made the red one in the middle purely to just have those colors on my wall. And the alphabet one was fun. I saw something like this online that you can buy, so I pulled out my alphabet stencils and did one myself. It's totally off-center but whatever.
If I made it, then I won't feel bad replacing it someday right? I just needed to get something on that wall! Only 15 more walls to go!

And to finish things off, here's a recent picture of a humorous moment of my life. Somehow Grizzly got that hanger around him, and he climbed the stairs like that, banging the hanger against the walls. When I finally found where the noise was coming from I had to get a picture.

His little old man face will be gone soon...he's getting his first hair cut sometime in the near future!