breaking the habit

I am a procrastinator. I don't sit around and do nothing until the last minute, but I do start projects that aren't finished when I come up with another brilliant idea. I like to think of it as productive procrastination. The latest in my genius store is the dining room. It was a previously red walled room with not much else going on. I really love the color red, but nothing in my home shows that. I think a really intense person can pull off that color in their home because it really is nice. I just could not make it work! I started thinking of ways to brighten up the space while keeping it from becoming Plain Jane like the red was. I settled on a stencil from Royal Design Studios. I'd like to think that was the hardest part, the choosing and purchasing the products to paint. I watched all the videos and tips on how to get the paint looking super amazing with the stencil, but Lord have mercy, it just hasn't gone well. I got 2/3 of the way done with the room and let it sit for about a week and a half. I just wasn't feeling great and the last thing I wanted to do was to go through the taking out and cleaning up of all the supplies.

Yesterday I was struck with another project idea and thought I'd start planning it out. My dining room still isn't finished and when I looked over I saw the eye sore it would quickly become if I didn't get it together and finish the project. At dinner Nick mentioned that he'd be happy to take the kids out for a walk and get them into bed if I would start painting after we ate. He even offered to help. I love that man. Part of the problem with the project is that I can't paint until everyone is asleep and sometimes that means I don't put a brush to the wall until 9:00. I got to start at 6:30 last night and finished up almost all of the spots that needed going over. Hallelujah! The unfortunate side is the stencil leaked out of the edges. Every single time. I have to go in with a tiny brush and edge out every line. I have wanted to quit this project SO MANY TIMES! Seriously, I've thought about all the ways I could "accidentally" destroy all the work I've done so I could just paint over it all. I really don't have any idea why I decided this was a good idea, but I'm determined to break my habit of starting projects and putting them off while I start another.

I do love the way it's turning out. It's just been so painstakingly tedious.

I should also add that I started to paint all the doors in the basement black. One of them is done, one is half done, and one is white. I convinced myself I would wait until the weather is nice and take them outside to paint, so after the dining room I'll be finishing the doors. After that, I'm not touching a paint brush that doesn't have watercolor on the tip of it for a long time. I really want to start knitting. That's the project I wanted to start when the giant kick in the butt reminded me of my eyesore dining room. We are heading off on a little vacation in the next couple of months and I thought spending hours in the car would be perfectly counteracted by a knitting project. Silly me!