The Life of a Pumpkin.... And a Window Frame

 This is our buffet in our eating area. It has lots of storage inside and was given to us by my grandmother when we first got married. It used to have bookshelves on top of it but she kept those and I like it open anyway. There are a few things I am super proud of on this buffet right now.

My decoupaged pumpkin. This little pumpkin is from goodwill originally and was maybe $1? It was an ugly textured orange with a green stem and leaf. My original plan was to spray paint it silver, which I did, but didn't like because of the texture. So it sat in a box being all lonely since last fall. Then this year I decided to try again at making it over and this is what came out. I got the idea from this post. However, I didn't have a book that I wanted to tear up and I didn't want to go buy a book to tear up and I don't like having random words in my house anyway, so I typed up a list of words that are fallish and that I liked and cut them up and started decoupaging away. This is one craft I actually like because you can be random and there are no rules and you don't have to do the same thing over and over again. I don't much care for repetitive crafts... 

Here are the words I used: 

After I crafted my little fingers off and let it dry I still felt like it needed something more. It was too white and not cozy enough. So I mixed stain with water and rubbed it on with a paper towel. 

Here it is afterwards: 

Love it :) This poor pumpkin has been through a lot, but I think she is finally finished :) 

And then, the window frame mirror. 

I love Pottery Barn. For inspiration. For quality. And sometimes their sales at the outlet. But generally it is a bit too pricey for me. They have these gorgeous window frame inspired mirrors, but I'm pretty sure you're starting somewhere around $200.00 or more. So last winter I went to Shaun's parents family farm and found an old frame in the chicken house... Not being used, just propped against the wall begging for love. :) It's been sitting in our garage waiting to be worked on for almost a year now. Well I finally got around to it. 

Here's the before. 

 You saw the after in my first photo. Here's a closer view of some of the distressing: 

And guess what the tally was? $8.33. Yup. Eight dollars and thirty three cents. First I hosed it down really well and removed the glass. Then I painted it with leftover chalk board paint. Then I sanded the edges of the frames. I was nervous about this part but if anything I wish I would have sanded more. Then I gave it a coat of dark stain (that was also leftover from another project) which made it shiny and made the wood showing through a rich brown color. Shaun put the mirrors in for me. 

Eventually I would like to hang it from the wall, right now it is just propped. But I absolutely love it. 

The $8.33 we spent on it was for the mirrors, which our good friends the Zooks picked up for us. They were cut to size to fit into each individual opening. 

It is so fun to find inexpensive ways to re-create things you see and love but can't afford.