Halloween, Stitches, DIY, and Craigslist

A fun day at the pumpkin patch/petting zoo chasing the turkey. It kept fluffing itself up trying to look all big and impressive. Cute.

Little man kept peeking into hubby's face and laughing. I sure have two handsome fellas.

Little sis was allowed to walk with big sis in the Halloween parade at school. Big sis wanted the "real Cinderella do" and said that everyone at school thought she was the real Cinderella, because she had the same hair, except her friend knew that it was her because the real one doesn't wear glasses. :)

Little man was a basketball player for Halloween, courtesy of my sister Mary.

First stitches: running at recess and tripped over a boy's leg, headfirst into the pavement. Ouch.

I finally realized (don't know why it took me so long) that if I want my decor to look and be the style I want it to, I am going to have to be a little more proactive about it. I kept thinking that years down the road when we have the money, I could then start purchasing all the antiques and other decor items that I have been pining after. So lately I have become a little obsessed about tackling projects myself. Here are a few of the projects I have been working on (and items I have found on Craigslist).

I got this bench at a yard sale for 5.oo and decided to try my hand at a first redo paint project and distressing job.

These gold frames I got on clearance at Home Goods. I love the look of antique gold frames but they are hard to come by in decent condition and at a good price, so I decided to try a little antiquing myself. The one on the left is the one undone.

Sorry about the sideways pic. I love the look of these lamps but when pricing them discovered that they were way more expensive then I was willing to pay (cheapest was 60.00 at Target, and that was a deal), so I decided to make 2 of them on my own. Cost me 30.00 a piece. Why are lamps so expensive?

Found this beauty on Craigslist. Not only did I love the style, but when I went to pick it up, I found out that it had been in the family for 20 years, and was the father's grandmother's dresser before that. It had the original stamp on the back and so I looked it up and found out it came from a company based in San Fran that was in business from the late 1800's to the 1930's. NICE!

This old thing also came from Craigslist for FREE (it is obviously in pretty rough shape). The man said that it was from the 1920's and he just didn't have the heart to throw it away. On a bit of a whim, hubby and I decided to take it off his hands and have a go at our first reupholstery project. We priced out how much it would cost to have it done professionally and were given an estimate at both places for 1200.00. We calculated out the costs and figure we can do it for under 300.00. Now if it turns out is the question. :)