Craft-a-palooza

I was feeling so crafty yesterday. Have you ever seen something you really, really wanted in a store or magazine, enough so that you must have it, but it was just a leetle more than you wanted to spend? Hasn't everybody? :) Well, this happens to yours truly quite often, since we are on a somewhat limited budget... you know, what with a house payment and bills, and the whole needing to buy food and clothes for two kids thing. :) I am decorating my house for Christmas this week, and for some reason I had it absolutely in my mind that I MUST have a grouping of three golden Christmas trees for a certain spot. I've seen some at Target, and I know Pottery Barn has had some lovely ones too (looking at their catalog is probably when my desire began). I even checked at Wal-Mart and Big Lots, hoping to find some cheaper ones. However, everywhere I went it was the same-- to buy all three trees it was going to be at least $30-$40. I had so much other stuff to get that I couldn't justify such a splurge, especially on something that really was unnecessary. So, I got inspired by my cousin Steph spray-painting pinecones-- and after three cheap styrofoam cones, one 99-cent can of gold spray paint, a leftover gold garland from last year, some sequiny stars, and lots of hot glue.... here are the results:



Hooray! I love them! They are exactly what I had in mind. And, to top it off, I have that delicious sense of satisfaction in knowing that, through a little creativity and extra effort, I was able to save us money and still get what I wanted. Incidentally, the trees happen to be sitting on my new blue coffee table in that picture. This was the same story--I had looked everywhere for a coffee table, but eveything was either too big or too expensive. So I took myself to our Five-and-Dime Antique store downtown and found a charming little white coffee table for $45. It was badly in need of a spray painting, but other than that I LOVED it. It had that quaint and lovely unique air about it that you can only find in an antique. Three dollars worth of blue spray paint later, and this is what I have:

I love the design of the base-- it is so pretty. This table is one of my favorite pieces of furniture now!

Last week, before my family arrived, I was also able to finally sew some new pillows for our couch and wicker chair. The ones for the couch can kind of be seen in the background behind the coffee table (none of the pictures I took of them turned out), and here are the ones for the chair:

Don't you love this fabric? It is so pretty and vintage-y. Such lovely colors too. The only problem is that it is not a very heavy fabric, so it probably wasn't the best choice for pillows that get sat on, as it wrinkles up. Oh well. I just could not pass up this material.

I do love a good project! And I am thankful for my good friends, Hot Glue and Spray Paint-- where would I be without them?? :)