This vanity makeover is going to save me a lot of money!

This is a fun story today...
I saw this beautiful vintage gold frame at the thrift store last week. It had a lot of damage and I thought it was fixable but it was full price and frankly... I don't do full price, especially on things I hope I can fix. 
The vintage gold frame had a matted Claude Monet print in it called The Water Lily Pond. This painting always reminds me of the three year old class that did their own versions of this painting when I was teaching preschool. 
The rest of the story...

I was given this not so beautiful table...

A sad old cabinet gets a much needed make-over.
and a few tricks and lessons I learned along the way.

I have a favorite cement mannequin that I use to decorate my deck. 
Originally it was white and had a post and a stand.
Unfortunately, I've left it outside over the winter many times and this year it broke. 
The question now is... do I fix it or dump it? 

This lovely carved table was for sale in my shop...