Hello October, Goodbye October

I can’t believe we are in our last days of October already. Last time I posted something here was back in September. I am failing miserably to keep stuff here up to date. Life has been busy for this sleep deprived momma!

This month has always been my favourite out of the 12. And Fall is my favourite season of all! We are so fortunate in Canada to have 4 distinct seasons. Where we are particularly, Winter means white and cold, while the wet season of Spring means the blooming of beautiful flowers such as tulips, daffodils and cherry blossoms. Summer on the other hand usually means swimsuits and sunburns for us who live close to the beach. And Fall… Fall is when the colours of the leaves turn vibrant red, orange and yellow. It is a beautiful sight! If Lorelai Gilmore of Gilmore Girls can smell the coming of the snow, I can smell Fall in the air and it’s usually just before my birthday or around there.

Deep red, bright orange, cheery yellow, chocolate brown, dark green… these are just some of the beautiful colours I feast on when I look outside during this time of the year. And these are the same colours I try to bring indoors when I set up my decorations for our church.

Here’s a sample of the window decoration I made for our church during the first week of October. Hint: For a budget-friendly decor, use organic materials whenever possible. Decorating doesn’t need to be costly! 

My recent project that took longer than I anticipated was repurposing this antique solid wood dresser.

I bought it primarily because it fits between the 2 Ikea shelves we have that I have been using as cupboards for all our dinnerware. This dresser came with a mirror that the owner took down for us when we came and saw it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to save a photo of the ad but it looked very similar to this one when the mirror was still attached to the dresser.

I knew that I would repurpose this antique dresser into a buffet table, so I didn’t bother asking my husband to attach the mirror back to it. The 2 bottom drawers were a little bit tricky to open. The lady who sold me this piece mentioned that already. I was a little disappointed about that, but it didn’t stop me from buying it. My husband loaded it in our van and we took it home right away. It sat in our dining room for months. The 2 bottom drawers have been my craft supply storage.

After weeks of working on it, what seems to be an endless cycle of sanding, painting, applying top coats and sanding in between had paid off! And this is what it looks now…

No more dark stain! And no more sticky drawers!

I also lined the inside of the drawers with a printed liner I bought at the dollar store.

In the process of waiting for the many coats of paints and top coats to dry, I made hundreds of hair accessories to add to my next craft shows in time for Christmas shopping (and still in the process of finishing putting labels on a lot of them!)

And some hair accessory sets that would be a perfect Christmas gift for little girls!

I hope this post inspires you to unleash your creative geniuses!

Happy crafting and repurposing everyone!

<3 Zhi