Stocking up!

New hobbies are incredibly expensive and time consuming! The problem with me, okay it isn't a problem per say but when I decide I want to try something I go all in. For instance sewing, I have sewn off and on over the years and I am more then a novice at this craft but still a long ways from being an expert, well since I  sewed I had to have a serger (Anniversary Gift). I like to make cards and do paper crafts so I bought a Cuttlebug and well since I had one of those I needed a Cricut Expression (also an Anniversary Gift) and lets not forget to mention the time my Abigail was  5 months old and I just had to have her wear bows and headbands. Yes, I had to go out and buy every e-book tutorial on how to make bows.. Do you see where I am going with this??? So here I am trying my hand at being a DIY'er and it started off easy enough (have I met me?) I heard about Annie Sloan's chalk paint and really wanted to try it out. I went to pick up Old White and Paris Grey and walked out with 2 additional colors. Now I found a really sturdy vintage desk on Craigslist but it is in great shape and I worried about messing it up, so I had to find a practice piece. That steal of a desk turned into a side table (which I actually sold !)  that side table turned into 2 chairs (1 finished), those chairs turned into a secretary desk (still shaking my head at that purchase, I may just give it away),  the secretary turned into a table, and well that table turned into 4 more chairs (1 is primed and it is sticky, what's up with that?).
Now each one of these items were purchased through craigslist and the most I paid for a single item was $25 or less. The little hiccup in my budget was that I had absolutely nothing, nada, zip, zilch, with regards to supplies. We rent, not much fixing up and painting going on here. So off I went since having blogs upon blogs of inspiration, Craigslist furniture and no supplies just wouldn't do. Yeah, supplies really add up especially since I had to buy an air compressor and pneumatic upholstery staple gun. (Did I mention, I jump in feet first, head first, etc.) I do have to preface the fact that I have really bad wrists and I gave it a valiant effort to use a manual and electric staple gun but I literally ended up with my wrists in my braces and Motrin for 3 days. I wonder if we could write those off as preventative medical expenses? Okay I digress, so I am armed with supplies and then there is the table fiasco (mentioned in another post, but bad stain job, stain weeping back up etc.) , which by the way has turned around nicely thanks to a nice man at Rockler Woodworking Store. I ended up taking the leaf of the table to this store and he told me hope was not lost. I just had to put on my "big girl panties" (okay he didn't say that!) but what he did say made me happy and I will post all about it in my Table reveal post.

So, I am not quite sure where this post came from, oh wait I remember now. So I am working on this table and I have 4 chairs. Hubby is really loving the progress on the table and asked how many chairs I have, well he wants 6 chairs and not mismatched. He said check Craigslist and if I find chairs in a set then we could just dump the table (I snickered at that!). This was actually music to my ears because I had my eye on a beautiful table and chair set on Craiglist for over a week, the table is very similar to Miss Mustard Seed's new dining table and the chairs were all cane back chairs. I had no money in my budget to buy this set with all my other furniture purchaseses but it was a good lesson, wait until it's just perfect, not because it's cheap.  When I saw the add for this table I really kicked myself because it was a beauiful table and was a full set whereas my table (it is a nice table) and the 4 little chairs is are not. The kicker, this set cost only $20 more, again I saw it as a lesson learned. With hubby giving the go ahead and look at Craigslist (he may block this site in the future!), I immediately checked and the table was still posted, I made contact and it is still available and they will sell it for $75 which is now $5 less then my original set. I am going to look at it tomorrow and most likely buy it. I will also be  faced with a dilemma. If this table is indeed nicer then the oak table I have pretty much poured my crafting heart and soul into, what do I do? I still have a ways to go on the current table, poly coating and painting the base. Maybe I will sell that one when it is finished. All I know is that I have never worked this hard physically, man it is hard work refinishing a table. I actually sweat (Carol Seaver "I do not sweat! I glissen!" Mike Seaver exit's room "Glissen like a pig!!" Carol Seaver Growing Pains..) when I am working but I truly have enjoyed it and when I wake up in the morning I look forward to finding time to work on these things. I will update on the new table and chairs as well as the old "new" table!