Coffee Table Makeover & Making The Best of What You Have

These adorable wooden pumpkins were a gift from my wonderful Aunt Bev who I call Granny. Add a couple books about autumn, gifts from my mother-in-law Mona, a spiced cider-scented candle and my little bird friend and you have a pleasant little seasonal scene!

After a little decorating I tortured myself by visiting my favorite website of lust, anthropologie.com. Why do I always find myself drooling over their beautiful things? Why don't I just skip going into the store when I'm near one and visiting their website? Because their stuff is the most wonderful, awesome and gorgeous stuff around, that's why! After almost an hour of browsing I was feeling pretty sorry for myself because of course I can't afford $200 for a cardigan or $600 for a purse.. Suddenly I had a revelation! I had bookmarked my favorite stuff and as I was looking at them again to see if we could squeeze in one of these items into our budget next month (keep dreaming Ashley!) when it hit me. I could totally make ALL of this stuff!!! I'm going to do it. I'm going to get crafty and thrifty and share what I do with all of you so look for it soon:) Here's all my bookmarked items and my ideas for making my cheap versions!

Isn't this sooo cute?! I'm going to go to Target or a thrift store or something and find a nicely fitting cardigan. I am going to tailor the bottom and the arms to resemble Anthropologie's and get some fabric or a scarf to add this beautiful detail along the neck. I bunch of big buttons at the bottom and it will look pretty neat, don't you think?

This would be so easy to replicate. I'll be keeping my eyes open for a plain yellow scarf. I think it would be pretty easy to find knitted flower patterns and I have yarns in similar colors. Wouldn't this be a cute Thanksgiving day scarf?

I LOVE this lamp!! I'm going to talk to Matt about this one, but I'm sure we could find something to cut some thrift store teacups and teapots and some super-glue to secure them together and attach them to one of our old lamps. This would be really cute with teacups with yellow flowers on them!

Again, I'll have to talk to Matt but I think we could pull this off too! Wouldn't this be absolutely amazing in our kitchen? :D

 I want to find a navy wrap cardigan or sweater dress and add some ruffle to the neckline. Some embroidery stitches in the front and knitting daisies attached and violà! I think this is so pretty.

Now that I have learned to embroidery I want to take on some beautiful kitchen towels like these darling ones. I could find some subtle paisley-patterned fabric and sew some towels with hooks and hang them on my rolling-pin hanger!

I can't wait to get started! Anyone else have any other good ideas for cute stuff that can be reinvented for cheaper?

Weekend With The Folks

On Friday Matt and I headed north to stay with my parents for the weekend. On our way we stopped and had dinner with my beautiful cousin Sasha:) On Saturday we went with my parents to Redding to the Sun Dial Bridge, gardens, and the Turtle Bay Museum. It was so beautiful and so much fun! Saturday night my baby brother and his sweet, gorgeous girlfriend Amy came and we all had dinner and caught up. It was so nice to be with family. I don't get to see them all too too often. This morning we had brunch with my best friend Andrea and her boyfriend Gus at this amazing new place in Chico. I had the best rosemary bread ever:) Andrea and Gus are so hilarious and so much fun to be around. Andrea and I used to be roommates and now we live too far apart and see each other way too infrequently. We drove back from Chico and stopped by Matt's parents! It was the perfect, relaxing weekend. I took a ton of pictures in Redding so I hope you all enjoy!

The bridge lights up at night. I want to come back and stay to see it lit up. It is such a fascinating place.

This was too cool:)

Silly girl.

Isn't he a cute newt:)

This exhibit was totally gross so I didn't take a bunch of pictures.

All of these are pictures of art made entirely of legos. This was my favorite thing to see! Everything was soooo cool, and it was all really big. You can't tell in the pictures but there wasn't a piece of art the was smaller than like 3 feet or so and most were much, much taller.