Re-purposed Lamp Shades

We have had plain, boring, white lamp shades on our bedside table lamps since we got them, going on 3 years ago.  A brilliant idea came across my path on Pinterest, and after looking at the tutorial, I decided that I could totally handle this project.  The original is pinned here.  It will take you to this lady's blog with instructions on how to do this.  Basically, you sew a million strips of fabric (I used bleached muslin) with a wide stitch down the middle, pull the thread once you are done to create the ruffle, tie it off, and hot glue around and around until the shade is covered (hopefully better than I did, since I burned the fire outta my fingers about 10 times).  Since my shades were already white, I didn't have to cover them first, if yours are a dark or different color from your fabric, you may want to cover them with the same fabric first.  Here is what our lamps looked like before:

After sewing and sewing, and ruffling and ruffling, you are ready to glue.  This was the most time consuming step, but still it only took me about 2 hours (it will probably take more experienced sewers less time than this as I am still pretty new to sewing).  And be careful when pulling your thread to ruffle, work with little sections at a time, and don't pull too hard.  I broke two strips and had to start over on them, it's really aggravating.  My pile of ruffles and the shades ready to go:

And, the finished product!  I was so happy with how they turned out, and they just bring a little bit of frill to our bedroom without being too much for J.

I will show pictures of them on the lamps and in our bedroom as soon as it is all finished and put back together!

Happenings and Going-Ons

Well it has been busy around here!  Last week, we had Ashley, Matt, Austin, and Alaina here with us.  It was a fun week and we always love having our family here!  Alaina and I did some shopping and finally tried out the new Popeye's in town one day.  Neither of us had ever eaten at one, and I have heard that they are pretty tasty, and I agree!  It's yummy and the staff lives up to the reputation that they are all about southern hospitality.  Afterwards, we checked out the Rugged Wearhouse and Old Navy.  Alaina got some really cute stuff and we were able to pick up a few pairs of shorts and a pair of jeans on sale for Austin.  On one rainy day, Ashley and I ventured out on a makeup hunt.  We were on the search for a certain type of foundation by Smashbox.  It is super wonderful, but kinda pricey.  We found it at the PX for 10 bucks cheaper than department stores.  Score!  Then on to Ulta (after a quick lunch break at the Chick-fil-a), where they were running a special that if you spent 17.50 on their name brand makeup, then you get a free gift.  It was amazing, best free gift I've ever gotten out of one of these promos.  It had tons of goodies in it, and you could pick from 3 different colors.  Ash and I both got the purple, as we felt they had the best color combos.

Then, on Friday, us girls went to see "The Vow".  SO cute.  I love Rachel McAdams.  She is probably my favorite actress.  And she didn't disappoint, once again.  I have been wanting to see this movies for months, so it was a fun afternoon.  We did lots of baking, movie nights, a competitive game of UNO was held with Jason being the wiener, I mean winner, lots of PS3 gaming for the guys, and a Valentine's dinner of chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for Ashley, Matt, Austin, and Alaina while Jason and I went to dinner out.  We decided to try our luck at going out to dinner (we haven't done this in a long time) for Valentine's Day.  We drove out to Wallace to eat at the Mad Boar, it's a local restaurant with local food, and has an Irish feel.  We love it, and were pleased to find out that we only had a 10 minute wait to be seated.  The food was delish and the company was even better.  We traded gifts at dinner as well.  Jason had surprised me with roses and the biggest balloon I have ever seen when he came home from work, and then at dinner he presented me with this:

If you know me well, you know that I looove skeleton keys.  I have always wanted some kind of open hearts piece, so this was perfect.  Honey knows me well:)  He got a big box of Godiva chocolates and truffles and a new PS3 remote that has the digital camouflage print on it.  It was a wonderful day.

Then, the weekend after they left, J and I went to Lowe's.  A homeowner's favorite and most dreaded place. This time we were shopping for lumber to make our new headboard.  We got a new king bed a few weeks ago (after I had my shin kicked twice in one week), and after some shopping around, got a little frustrated at the price of headboards and bed frames.  So, after more research, I came across a beautiful DIY headboard on Pinterest.  It's pinned here.  Follow the link from there to get the plans, shopping list, dimensions, and everything else you need to make it.  This lady is amazing, she shows you how to make about anything yourself, and gives you detailed lists, pictures, and layouts on how to do it.  So, Jason and our neighbor, Bruce got to work putting it together, it took about 2-3 hours, and it is ahh-may-zing!  It's in the process of being painted now, but here it is put together and getting the nail holes puttied over.

My man is so talented.  I love it!  We are painting it a creamy white, like the cabinets in our guest bath.  It is called Crumb Cookie by Olympic.  It's the perfect color, not too white, not too off-white.  

Remember I said J was going to paint my new rifle pink?  Well, once we got to the store to look at colors, I decided on a teal/aqua color.  It's a little darker than it looks in the picture, but the teal against the black reminds me of the Carolina Panthers colors, and so it worked out perfectly!  It think it looks wonderful, and I'm so excited to have a pretty gun (pretty and gun...doesn't sound like they should go together, huh?).  Whatcha think?!

And, we started our master bedroom makeover yesterday.  I think we have lost our minds.  We are refinishing the walls and painting them a new neutral, installing baseboards, and painting furniture.  This will be a process, but I will post pictures along the way.  We got some new bedding as well, it really lightens up the room and makes it feel inviting and cottage like.  I can't wait to show y'all when it's finished!  

Oh!  And I got some new finger nail polishes, and I love them all!  I'm very into neutrals right now, but I gotta have a bright pop in there too.

(left to right) Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Petal Pusher, Essie Cute as a Button, and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Wet Cement.  Oh, and the color on my nails in the previous post is OPI in You Don't Know Jacques.  I am finding that OPI is the longest lasting polish so far, the Insta-Dry stuff is pretty and I love the brush, but it doesn't hold up nearly as well.  The Hard as Nails is pretty good too, it lasted almost as long as the OPI.  I haven't tried the new Essie one yet, I'll have to let you know on that one.

Ok, I'll be back soon with my newly re-purposed, plain white lamp shades. 

Target Practice

This past weekend, I decided (with no opposition) that we needed to do some shooting.  Here in the south, that is a favorite pastime, and a weekend filler.  My sugar britches bought me a .45 last year when we moved out to the middle of nowhere, in the woods.  It makes me feel better to have something for home defense besides an alarm.  After all, like I said, we are out in the country.  And the po-po's wouldn't get here before the burglar killed me and made off with my stuff.  So... I will take matters into my own hands if that day ever comes (praying it never does!).  Anyways, it's a powerful gun, and so I like to shoot it every so often so I don't get rusty.  Oh, and I learned to shoot the .22 as well.  I'd never shot that one before, and I refused to shoot the shotgun again.  Last time, my shoulder hurt for 3 days (I'm a weenie, my 70-something grandmother shot it like a champ, she's hardcore). 

Guns, Clips & Ammo ready to go.

Jason with the Taurus.  He shot me under the table.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he is trained to do this stuff.  Still, my competitve side still comes out, and I don't like losing.  Especially that badly.

His target...all shots in the black.  I got 4 in the black, mine is underneath his.

Like my pink ear protection muffs?  Me too, they were in my stocking from Santa this year:)

  

Having a scope is awesome!  J said this gun could be mine now.  He's going to sand the wood down and paint it pink.  I like it!

My target for the .22.  I did much better with a scope.  I actually got 2 in the red!  But, again, J did better :p  He said, "What do you expect?  I just got off the range!"  So.

My sessy man concentrating.

Wish I could say this was mine;o)  I'll be shooting that many in the red soon enough.