Too many choices

I'm not good with having too many choices. I don't like restaurant menus--too many distracting images and too many delicious things to read and get confused by. Everything sounds good to me and it doesn't seem to matter what I order, i always end up coveting the dish that the person next to me ordered.

My niece and I want to do an experiment where I commit to not ordering my own food in any restaurant. This is how it will work: When the server asks us for our order I will say to him or her, "I would like you to order for me." I'll give the server a couple of parameters, such as letting them know how hungry I am, whether I might enjoy a large salad or whether I'm in the mood for chicken, that kind of thing. Then I will shut up and eat whatever I am served and like it.

If you get overwhelmed by too many choices, you might understand this idea, and you might understand why it is sometimes difficult for me to get moving on a particular project.

This jewelry box has been sitting on my dresser for more than a year. When I bought it at a thrift store I had every intention of re-working it with paint and decoupage.

BTW, I LOVE to decoupage! (See how easily I get distracted?!)

A couple years ago I did decoupage projects for everyone's Christmas gifts.

Here's the tray I did for my mom using a French toile wallpaper. It was a wooden bed tray I bought at a thrift store for $3. I took the legs off of it, painted it black, shabby chic'd it up a little, put some nice pewter-finish drawer handles on the sides, applied the wallpaper and then layers and layers of matte-finish acrylic polyurethane. Now it's the centerpiece of my mother's living room--a $3 item from a thrift store and some leftover wallpaper! [NOTE: I used acrylic polyurethane instead of Mod Podge cuz it's more durable and I knew mom would put drinks on it.]

Anyway, I need to get going on the jewelry box project, but I can't decide which direction I'm going in. Should I paint it black and use something like the French toile?

I was thinking about black paint and leopard print paper for the decoupage but I haven't been able to locate any cheap (READ: FREE) paper for that idea.

I always comb thrift store book piles for coffee table books and other picture books to use for decoupaging. Coffee table books have big glossy color pictures that are great for re-use in decoupage or even for framing for wall art. Right now I have some TIME/LIFE books on modern art, including a book on the impressionists and one on contemporary American painters. I also have a big sailboat book, a book on national parks, and a picture book on gardening.

So now I'm thinking maybe a garden theme where I paint the jewelry box a nice bright color and then use pics of annuals and perennials to cover the sides and top.

What do you think?