So I have always dreamed of having a farm table and would occasionally look online for the perfect dining table even craigslist. I also found this awesome tutorial from Ana White. But it seemed like too much work and we didn’t really have that much room to build one.

So last week I was talking to Missa Lee about it at work. She immediately looked on craigslist and the first post she found was a woman who was selling a farm table that she made. It was perfectly priced and just the table we wanted! She and her husband made a similar table to the one from Restoration Hardware for $2,245.

I immediately emailed her and learned that she and her husband were building tables to raise money for their adoption in Congo. I really loved the table and it was a nice touch to it knowing where our money was going towards. We made plans to pick it up with my dad’s car. Really…my dad is amazing for helping us with getting the table. Thanks, dad!

We didn’t waste time once we got it into the house. The table was already sanded so all we had to do was stain it. But I kind of didn’t want to stain it. Tyler on the other hand wanted to. He convinced me to stain it…. more specifically the color, dark walnut.

I was nervous since I didn’t want it to be too dark. You know how it is…the longer you leave the stain on without wiping it, the darker the wood will get. We decided to start staining the bottom of the table so we had some room for error. I didn’t wait too long before wiping it off and it turns out it was too light and I didn’t like it. So we left the stain on for about 20 minutes or so.

Don’t let this picture convince you that Tyler did all of the staining. I did pretty much 85% of the work. I know his little game of being slow and watching football at the same time on TV. He knows I’m fast and focused so I ended up doing most of it.

Yikes! Look at how dark it looks with the stain on for a long time.

Wiping off the stain was Tyler’s job. :) The next morning we put fast-drying polyurethane (semi gloss) on the table. We did about 3 coats and that was it!

Now look at this beauty! Notice something else too?

The new rectangle hanging capiz that I got for Christmas!

Here’s what it looks like with the light off.

I just looove it! After my dad and Tyler got the pendant up, we realized that it was too high so they’re going to fix it later this week and add more rods that came with the package so it’ll be lower.

Seriously this is the best multi-purpose table! For eating, holding cards while playing card games, beer pong and ping pong! Want to come over now?

This is what it looked like before. That table has been moved to the formal dining room for a little hang out spot next to the foosball table.

And this is what it looks like now! The table was $265 and we only spent $35 on supplies (stain, brushes & tarp cover). Total cost of the project: $300!!

I still have my dad’s old school C9 lights that he gave me a few years ago. Last year I filled them up in a vase and this year I wanted to do something different.

Lately I have been obsessed with glitter so I thought why not?! So I bought Martha Stewart’s glittering glue & glitter from Michael’s for the project.

I used a paper plate to shake the excess of glitter off then waited until there was a lot of glitter to pour it back into the bottle. Now I want to sprinkle glitter on everything else in the house!

I wanted to hang these bulbs up in the family room. So I did it the easy way with tying them with hemp that I had in my closet from other projects.

I love it! It’s worth all the glitter that I got on myself and Cheerio, the pup! I still have a lot of more bulbs left that I’ll use around the house. Let’s hope I don’t go overboard with decorations for Tyler’s sake. :)

I found a photo of bats online {sorry, I can’t remember where now} and printed out a bunch of them. After cutting them, we put double-sided tape and put them in the hallway and on both sides of the front door.

It’s always a fun project when we save money by using the things we already have. I’m not a huge fan of going out to buy Halloween decorations just for the month. I need to save my money for Christmas decorations since that’s my favorite holiday anyways.

Mini pumpkins, Halloween subway art & candy corn. I hate candy corn so I’m fine with just using it as decoration or for others to eat.

Now all we need is for the weather to cool down. 100 degrees is NOT okay!