The Lamp Re-Vamp HIS & HERS

When I found out that this month's Create With Me project at Ucreate was lamps I was so excited.  The CSI Project is also lamps.  I've had two of these lamps for a while now and I just haven't been motivated to do anything with them.  My friend Missy sold them to me at a yard sale (and by sold I mean she gave them to me, she's nice like that) a while ago.  I thought I wanted to use them in my living room so I started to paint them black but then I changed my mind and they sat.

I used the tutorials HERE as a starting point for my inspiration and this is the end result

His & Hers lamps for the kids rooms!  Jackson's theme is dinosaurs and Maggie's is birds.

How I did HIS:

I removed the outside fabric of the shade and used it to trace the proper shape onto grey fabric.  Once I had my fabric cut out I stenciled a "j" onto the fabric and free hand painted the dinosaur.  After letting the paint dry I then hot glued the fabric onto the frame, pulling as tightly as I could.  I finished it off by coating the whole thing in Mod Podge I felt it protected the fabric a little better and would be easier to clean.  I also felt like it helped tighten up any loose patches once the Mod Podge dried and shrank the fabric.  I then hot glued a little piece of ribbon in the inside to cover my seams. 

I may decide to paint the base red in the future but for now I like the blue. 

Looking for more of Baby Jack's decorations? You'll find them here:

Shag Rug

Wall Hanging

How I did HERS:

I removed all of the fabric from the shade and wrapped the top and bottom rings in sisal, using hot glue to secure it in place.  I then wrapped the entire shade horizontally in sisal again using hot glue to secure it in place.  The sisal gave it the nature feel that her decorations have but I also wanted to give it a little birdie so I cut out a tiny bird shape from fabric, sewed it and stuffed it and hung it from a chain to create a faux lamp chain look.

Looking for more of Mags' decorations?  You'll find them here:

Birdie Quilt

Bird Tree

Hope you feel inspired to do your own lamp makeover. 

It feels good to have them finished and it really ads a little something special to their room.

Thanks Kari @ Ucreate and The CSI Project for the extra push I needed to get these done!

 

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Birdie Quilt

I've shown you a few things I've made to decorate Baby Jack's (side of the) room HERE and HERE but I haven't shown you anything I've made for Maggie.  Well, I guess that's not entirely true, I did end up putting the birdie tree in there after we did the Birdie Baby Shower a few months ago.  Anyway, I guess I better show you some of her stuff to.  Maggie's room is decorated in browns, pinks and greens.  All sorts of patterns, shades, prints, etc.  And there are little birds everywhere because she's my little Magpie.

I am no quilter by any means.  I don't have the skills or the patience, but I did want to try so here is my first and only quilt (thus far).

   

I appliqued a little birdie to each square.  Each bird has a different kind of ribbon for their legs.  I just placed two pieces of ribbon that I tied in knots at the bottom for feet and then secured the applique with a zig zag stitch.

I pieced all the squares together and then used what I think is called the tie method to secure it all in place.  I used brown embroidery thread to secure a button (brown, green and pink) and then tied it in a knot leaving a little thread showing out of the button.  The quilt top was made using pieces of fabric from my personal stash.

Here's the whole thing...

For the back I wanted to incorporate some of the patterns from the front in a fun way.  But here's the "what were you thinking?" moment - instead of appliqueing the strips on like I did with the birds on the front, I cut out holes in the brown fabric and then pieced the strips in.  Why?  That was so much harder!  Consequently it made the fabric not lay as nicely but after washing it doesn't make much of a difference.

But I don't want to dwell on the negative so let's just look at the cute little birdies on the front again shall we?

Love those birdies!

I think I'm ready to tackle a dino quilt next!

Birdie Baby Shower

Mindi is Adding to Her Nest!

My friend Mindi is having another baby girl so Jill, Mary, Amy and I put together a bird themed baby shower for her and little Kaitlin.

Mary's famous strawberry doughnut kabobs.

This salsa is to die for. 

Like the white platters and basket?  John got them for me. 

 They form a tower if you set them up that way.  I love them!

We were going to use the baby's breath to make a garland but we ended up liking the little nest we made instead.  I love this drink tower (or whatever you call it) of Jill's it's so pretty!  I want one!

No party is complete without some completely adorable cupcakes from Amy. 

Amy and Mary spent the morning decorating these beautiful, delicious treats.

Some eggs I made using some Styrofoam eggs I got from G.G. Cutts. 

I just twisted, and wrapped and glued fabric onto them and laid them in a nest of raffia.

Baby birds waiting to be eaten be fed.

This was the main centerpiece that I created.  The tornado and storms weren't all bad - I was able to go to a neighbors yard and collect a bunch of these beautiful dark branches.  I then sewed and stuffed little bird ornaments using fabric scraps and hung them from the branches.  This now sits in Maggie's room and goes with the bird theme I have for her decorations.

Mindi opened presents (my goodness I forgot how cute baby girl clothes are!) and each of the guests got to take home a delicious chocolate dipped cookie that Jill made and put in a cute little package.  Baby showers are so much fun!



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