turns out getting out of your comfort zone can be kind of addictive

I did something out of my comfort zone last month.

Like way, way out.

And it was empowering.

And once I tell you what it was, you're going to laugh - laugh because most of you could have done it with one hand tied behind your back.  But that's ok.  I'm proud of me.

I repainted a wall sconce.

If you don't know what that is, it's ok.  I wouldn't have known what it was had it not been handed down to me.  When the sconce came into my possession in 2011, it looked like this:

And pre-painting, it looked like this:

Let me tell you something about this sconce.  It is sharp and it is heavy.  A lethal combination.  I know because I've almost been killed by it a few times.  And it meant that sanding it down was a bit like sanding down a porcupine.  A very deadly porcupine.

I used steel wool to sand it down, and I spray-painted it over the course of two days.

At first, I was disappointed.  It turned out a lot darker than I'd expected, and I wasn't sure I liked it.  But it's grown on me, and now I kind of love it.

It's darker than it looks in that picture, but you get the idea.  I've already considered repainting it a white weathered look, but then I remembered what it did to my hands and realized that I prefer when my hands don't look like raw meat.

Maybe someday.

For now, I just want to repaint everything else in our house.

No big deal.