Before and After: Dollar Store Squirrels

Halloween is here and the stores are already preparing for the Winter/Christmas season!  So much so, that when I called this place to schedule my daughter's Halloween pics, the receptionist suggested that I bring her Christmas outfit to change into as well.  Huh?  What?  I haven't even bought that yet!  Who takes Christmas pics in October?  

Ok, back to decor talk!

I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge holiday-specific decorator, so you know I just love that fall decor will cover both the Halloween and Thanksgiving months.  If I'm lucky, a few of my decor choices might fit into my winter/Christmas decor as well.  For some reason, I've been stuck on squirrels lately and happen to like these...

                        Johnathan Adler                                                                                 source

 Particularly this cute duo from Z Galleries!  These are $18 BUCKS each! 

I was recently at the dollar store and saw a pair of similar squirrel figurines. They were brown and heavy and a whole $17 BUCKS each cheaper!

~happy dance~
I remember fleeingly thinking that they would make a cool paperweight or bookend, but I regretedly didn't buy them.  Guilt got the best of me though and I went back!  Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take "before" pics.  Bummer!  I even went back to the dollar store to buy two more, but they were out.   

Anyway...

I turned them into these.

 Painted them white with my homemade chalkpaint.  Not too bad for $2 Bucks!!