Do You DIY?

Danika Herrick of Gorgeous Shiny Things does.  Here she gives a tutorial on a DIY Chiang Mai Dragon mural.  

And here she shows not only all of the slip covering she did herself, but in the background you can see the DIY amazing wall she painted.  She has a whole section of her blog where you can see all of her DIYs.  Oh, and one of them is a DIY de Gournay wall.  So yes.  She's a DIY goddess.

I met Linda, of My Crafty Home Life, when she won one of my prints in a giveaway.  She posted about this DIY custom frame, and I was impressed.  I started following her and saw that she can do upholstery, crown molding, carpentry, gardening,  and the list could go on and on.  It's fun and interesting for me to visit her blog daily to discover the new skill/knowledge/ability that she has that I hadn't known of.

Here's a glamourous IKEA hack from Sadie+Stella.  One of the talented Lindsays was obsessing over a dome lamp and just decided to make her own.

And have you seen this?  Janell Beals posted this DIY tray on Isabella & Max.  She has so many incredible DIY projects on both Isabella & Max and House of Fifty.

These are four of the many talented DIY goddesses all over the blogosphere.  It's easy for someone like me to be deceived, deluded, encouraged to believe I could DIY, too.  I've been working on my daughter's room and decided that a tray on each of her nightstands in green would provide a helpful pop of color.  I shopped all over online and couldn't find a plain green tray that was the right size.

I saw this tray at IKEA for 9.99 and the size was perfect.  In only came in white, but that wasn't a problem.  How many DIYs have I seen where spray paint was involved?  The tutorials show how easy it is.  It looks like anyone could do a spray paint project.

Except for me, apparently.  Here's one of the trays after I finished.  No need to do a tutorial or share materials, since the trays were a giant fail.  It looks okay in this photo, but look at the one below.

The crater in the paint is where I picked out a dead bug.  All of the particles you can see in the paint represent the horrible allergens of Dallas.  Which leads me to a couple of questions for the DIYers.  Do you spray paint outside?  If not, do you have some kind of respirator?  Or, do you not have wind where you live?  Or bugs?  

So while I'm obviously a DIY disaster, I'm thinking I may also be a slow learner.  Because this project looks so easy..... and I need some things to put on those trays.

What about you?  Do you DIY?  If you have any fail stories, I'd especially love to hear : )