From Dumpster to Darling

What happens when you have 17 people staying in one home over Labor Day weekend? You find any excuse you can to get out for a bit. Where do my sisters and I end up? The dump. We are such classy girls I tell ya. I'm not really sure how we even got there. I mean, I thought we were going to Michael's for some beads and somehow we ended up at a public dump. It might have been my idea to stop there. I'm not sure. Anyway, we pull up and someone is hauling off their trash so to not look like a complete nut job, I get out of my car and throw away the remains of one lonely Wendy's cup left from the drive. Come on now, who comes to the dump to throw away one cup? I don't think I fooled anyone, but I was just trying to look out for the fam. I really was. My dad is a restaurant owner in town and I can just see someone coming up to him saying, "David, I think I saw your daughters at the dump on Saturday diggin' through the trash." You can't sneak anything by in a small town. Anyway, after they emptied their truck, we storm in like crazy ladies on Black Friday. It was crazy how much stuff was out there in great condition. There was a gorg spindle bed that had I had the room to bring it back, it would have been mine. A velvet settee too. I managed to bring back a few gems though.

Can you believe that in this

and this

I found this?


It didn't look nearly this charming when I loaded it up and it didn't coincidentally have my house number on it either. Imagine that! The stool was sturdy, just dirty and only took a coat of paint to spruce up. I actually taped off the seat and gave it a coat of Krylon's Italian Olive spray paint making sure to leave a bit of the wood grain showing through. Then once it dried, I gave the top a coat of Dark Walnut stain.

The planter that was a cooking pot in a previous life was nasty. Like call in the HAZMAT team kind of nasty. It had layers and layers and more layers of sticky ooey gooey grease all over it. I cleaned it with 409 the best I could and it still wasn't cutting it so I got out the trusty ole sanding block and got it clean. A coat of Brushed Nickel Spray Paint and it was good as new.





The mums. Be still my heart. I ♥ mums almost as much as tulips. Mums are like the tulip of fall. You know football, cool nights and changing leaves are coming when you start seeing them everywhere. I must say that the mums don't always love me so much though. Something about they like need water or something to stay alive. I'm not sure.



I love how this turned out. $7.00 for the mums and I have a cute entryway into our side door.

So, have you started decorating for fall yet?