Truthiness: Stencil Edition

Truthiness is one of my favorite words.  And I don't use it nearly enough.  I'm sure my friend Stephen Colbert is disappointed that it is not a more regular part of my vocabulary (Me and Steve - we're totally BFFs)

But BOY do I need to use it today... Sit back as I regale you with the story of Amanda vs. Stencil.

I'll start with this...

THAT is where 2 hours of work, a trip to find a new stencil brush (or 4) and half a roll of paper towels got me. A blank white wall.  A whole lotta nothin.  I'll explain in a minute.

Whoof.  I knew it was going to be hard work, but guuuuurrrrrrllll (and guy too), it's WAY harder than I thought.  Like pull-my-hair-out hard.

My perfectionist side had a meltdown yesterday as I pulled the first stencil off and saw the fuzzy edges and drips of paint on some of the herringbones (I don't think that's a word, but go with it for me!)

Then my practical side kicked in and I thought, "Hey, it's actually not too bad for a first try!"

But eventually, Ms. Perfectionist won the battle.  I went to bed disappointed in my work and a tad bit totally ready to call it quits.

7 hours later, my tune had changed. It's amazing what a night of sleep can do for me (no matter how restless or low-blood-sugar-filled).  As I was walking in to work this morning, I just decided I'm going to make it work.  Fuzzy edges ain't gonna get me down!   Yes, it's probably going to take me a week or more to get it done with an hour here and there.  But I DO love how it looks already, and I know once it's done I will be happy I did it.

When I got home, I looked at the work I HAD done yesterday and decided it wasn't a good place to start.  So, I went back to a blank slate and painted over what I will now refer to as the "stencil test run."

If you come to my house and it's not done, don't be surprised.  you come and it IS done, better believe you're going to be getting an art museum-esque tour of that wall in all of it's glory.

I imagine it will be one of those projects that I work on here and there until it's done.  After all, there's no real rush.  And I don't want to take the joy out of the process either!  Because when I sat down today and tried again, I truly enjoyed myself.

And here is what I ended up with:

Is it perfect? No. There is still some bleeding and spots that I will have to touch up.  But that's cool with me.

So there - that's my truthiness.  And I'm stickin to it.

PS...apologies for the poor photo quality...late night painting and those darn boob lights makes picture taking difficult!