Coffee table redo and crisis (narrowly) averted

Good news first:

This pretty lady just got a new look. 

I've been wanting to change up the coffee table recently and after nine days of toddler invasion, I had my excuse. (NO, Daniel, I didn't redo it just because of the Hadster :) he just gave me an excuse)

I still like the all black look, but this piece needed some touch up. It was painted 4 years ago and was showing the wear and tear that a well used coffee table gets. 

I'm an off and on fan of the distressed look. This distress was au naturale though... and it wasn't pretty.

I used the sample jar of Gobi Desert Behr paint that I got from the Shop and Hop that I did a few months ago. I skipped painting the top for now because I wanted to see what the black looked like.

Yeah, I painted in my living room.. don't judge... it gets worse further down :)

I really liked it like this but I still wanted to try out the "glazed" look. I didn't have any glaze but I did have wood stain. I have seen Gail at My Repurposed Life do this once. (If you've not seen Gail's blog, you are MISSING OUT!) 

So, I broke out the stain, got a rag and an old paintbrush and started applying the stain in small sections and wiping it off. 

Yes, I am still sitting in my carpeted living room for this... (take back your gasp! The carpet in here is horrible and we plan to rip it up and lay flooring that we salvaged from Dustin's great grandparents--- one of these days...)

So, what do you think? I'm happy with it. Once I got it done, I had Dustin help me flip it over. Then, I went over some places and "dry brushed" what stain was left in the brush in areas where I thought it needed to be darker. 

Then, in a moment of "I didn't think this through well..." I emailed Gail about it setting up. Stain is supposed to soak into wood. I was nervous about it being tacky for life. But, she said that it should cure and suggested waiting until then if I want to spray poly it for some added protection.

I promise, I will spray poly outside. :)

I thought about slightly distressing it, but I think I'll wait until it starts getting beat up on its own. 

I am going to paint the top black again. It needs another coat again for some touch ups. 

What do you think? Any suggestions? 

And in not so good news....

There really was some chicken drama this afternoon. Dustin went out to check on them around 6 to only find one of 8 birds. There were feathers everywhere. After a search, 5 were found hiding out in the woods. While he was out on a search and out talking to neighbors, another showed up, missing all her tail feathers and soaking wet. She's ok, but has some really raw places on her. One is still missing. The culprit is a male boxer who lives a few houses away through the woods. He was near the yard when Dustin was out there. When he tried to talk to the owners, the dog wouldn't let him near the yard. So.... it looks like the ladies aren't going to be allowed to run free.. in our OWN yard during the day anymore. I don't mind when dogs aren't tied or confined as long as they are easy going and just want to eat our scraps! This dog has been here a few times and just seems mean. (and I'm not a boxer hater.. I adore the two I know) But, I am not a fan of mean dogs-- who is?  He's caused some other trouble in the neighborhood as well. Luckily, only one of the ladies is missing. We hadn't seen him in our yard for a month or so, so we thought he was fenced in finally. Wrong-o. The hurt one is spending the night in Ellie's dog cage in the garage. He's been putting antibiotic on her. We're keeping her away from the rest for a while because chickens are mean little things and will peck an injured one to death. Hopefully, she can join the rest of them soon.

Never a dull moment!