Paul Stephen's Blog: Date Night… and a Coffee Table?

So, it’s been no secret that as far as my dating life goes, it’s been kind of non-existent for most of this blog. Call it too busy when I was in school or too busy when I was launching a business or just being gun-shy, I’ve just not been very sure-footed in this part of my life. Or rather, I’ve been really unsure of how to handle it blog-wise. I feel like no matter how little or how often I might bring up such things, it’s always going to be clumsily done, and that makes me kind of self-conscious about it.

Also? Not all dudes can handle a line like, “Ok, let’s do dinner at my place? I have to build a coffee table first, but I’m also in the mood for pizza.”

best pizza ever at Antico

Or, “When was the last time you had a tetanus shot? Just curious. There might be a nail on the new rug in my living room and I can’t find it.”

Anyway, relationships can be a tricky situation to talk about when you put the rest of your life out on a blog. Not that I think I’m very important or that you guys care to gossip about a small-time DIY blogger (pshh, why, when the internet is overflowing with warmer tea), but I suppose it’s just that one can never be too careful when it’s someone else’s life you’re talking about, and I hate the idea of oversharing about a person whose permanence in my life is still new, ya know? And when the simple nature of DIY blogs is that most aren’t single like I am, I kind of have to figure out for myself where those boundaries are. In short: dating and DIY can be weird.

Also, being single automatically makes you sound like Taylor Swift if you start talking about every guy you date. And if a relationship goes poorly, blogging about your ex being a sociopath or his laughably tacky birthday gift can sound super off-topic (not that I’ve done that, coughcough).

But when you are literally building a coffee table not for yourself, but for the guy you’re dating to make it easier on nights when you’re both working on the computer (we both do freelance work at night sometimes, and selling my living room furniture has left little space for stashing coffee or food), it’s hard not to chuckle at myself that I’m building furniture for relationship reasons.

So, that’s how I spent part of my week. Building a coffee table for a boy. Ha.

coffee table underside

More on this later, though. Because I still need to route it, stain it, and it’s not even the permanent table I want in this room (but finding a piece with enough character will take time, and this was a decent use of scrap wood). All I can say for now is that it’s heavy and the reason you only saw part of the living room last week:

left side of living room with new rug

Also new this week: I did lots of updates to the blog’s homepage, and I’ve been working on getting the site more organized for you guys (more to come, just FYI… I’ve decided not to do a big new redesign launch but to just make tweaks as I go, so if for some reason something looks weird, try clearing your browser cache and it should refresh… or reach out to me if something is broken and I’ll get on it asap). I simultaneously hope that it will be both noticeably better and not noticeable at all.

Oh! And other news… I’m adding a contributor to the blog who used to work at the magazine for me (her introduction is on its way!) as well possibly adding some more recipes to the site… a handful of my own “lazy gal” recipes from when I studied abroad (fair warning: do NOT expect these to be complex or healthy), and some from the dude who will soon have his own coffee table.