Something Fishy

I have been ever so crafty lately. Oh, yes. Crafty. I do not particularly excel at what the old-fashioned might quaintly call "handicrafts," but I, Ashley Marie, have completed a craft.

It started on Christmas Eve (I'm a slow crafter). My dear husband gave me one of those adult coloring books (a "tropical world" one) and a fancy-pants set of colored pencils. It was a great gift, because it turns out that I really do love coloring! Perhaps not at Charlotte levels, but I certainly enjoy it.

Being someone who naturally complicates such simple tasks as coloring, I decided to make my coloring productive and rework an old table in Lorelei's room.

I selected a picture of six tropical fish. I try to stay away from themes when decorating, because themes are cutesy and obnoxious, but Lorelei has a deep love of seahorses, which tends to make her soft-hearted toward underwater creatures. Her room is brinking on an ocean life theme, so I figured the fish thing would fit in.

I used the colors of her room--blues, reds, and pinks--and little by little plugged away at my fishy coloring. Most of it was completed while "helping" Charlotte practice her violin. I try not to hover, but she wants me in the same room. And I need a task to keep me from literally watching over her shoulder. (Also, one can still say "slow down" or "listen to your tone" or "snowflake instead of snowball on that string!" from across the room while coloring.)

Slowly, slowly.

Finally, I finished. Lorelei was elated (she had been closely monitoring my progress). From Lorelei's room I took the old table I'd had since grad school (according to the Marshalls price tag on the bottom, I paid $12.99 for it in 2005) and painted it a color that said "wagon red" but came out with hints of coral. Well, coral is one of my most favorite colors, so yippee.

Fish.

The original.

Two coats of paint done. A chalk finish so far.

Finally, after oh so carefully cutting out the fish picture, I used some decoupage lacquer to stick the sucker onto the table. I learned some tough lessons (paper bubbles when wet, paper is fragile, colored pencils CAN draw on top of gloss and cover ripping errors) but managed to fix every issue one way or another. I put layer upon layer of lacquer on the table. Apparently it takes 28 days to fully cure, but eventually it was ready to move into Lorelei's room.

Final product.

Ta da! The table back in its rightful spot. Lorelei loves it.

This was a fun little project to do, and Lorelei knew for months that I was making something special, just for her.