DIY Chevron Lamp Shade

Hey howdy hey!  How are all of you this morning?  I am feeling fine as frog hairs split four ways.

Can you tell I am a little excited?  Yeah, I am…

Last week, I wanted to go yard saling but we really didn’t have the money so I decided to stay home and try to find a fun project to work on with stuff that I already had.  {Because, let’s face it – I have tons of junk treasures that have piled up in the shed!}

So, I decided to try and make my own chevron lamp shade with a lamp I already had.

Here is what I started with:  Both the shade and the lamp I found while shopping at Goodwill. {YAY!}

 

I started off by cutting pieces of paper down to the size I wanted my chevron pattern to be.

I’m not gonna lie…this took me forever and a billion years to figure out {slight exaggeration, of course}

 

But the hardest part for me was figuring out how to get the point on the end.  You know, to the “V” part?

Here is what I FINALLY figured out…

 

If you start taping at the bottom of your “V” instead of the top, it works SO.MUCH.BETTER.  With the first piece, you can just start taping and not really worry about getting it exactly right.  You will just cut off the excess once you get your other piece in place.

With the second piece, you need to line it up just right so that it makes the point you are wanting.  Then, simply trim off the excess from the other piece and voila, you have your beautiful “V”!

Simple enough, right?  Yeah, well it took me a good hour and a half to get it figured out and just right!  I am sure that they have a good tutorial online but I was determined to figure it out myself!  {I think I am finding out where my kid’s hard-headedness comes from!}

Now after a few hours we are finally ready to spray paint.

 

I forgot to take a picture of the spray painting process… sorry!  I think it is pretty self explanatory though!

 

Here is the finished product… {drum roll please}

 

I am pretty much in love with this lamp!  It makes me happy every time I go into the living room!

Have you ever tried spray painting a lamp shade?  It is so much fun!  Go grab a can and start spraying away!

I Live In A Sea Of White!

A few months ago, we decided to take the plunge and start painting our kitchen cabinets.  When we moved in, the kitchen and dining room was pretty much all brown.  The cabinets were a dark wood and the walls were paneling.

I knew I wanted to lighten up the Kitchen/Dining Room with some paint…eventually.  With two small kids and Dan’s super busy work schedule, it is hard to find time.  You know what I mean, right?… I have tried to paint by myself and it was NOT pretty.  :)

Here is what the kitchen cabinets looked like before we primed them:

 

 

And here are a few AFTER pictures.  They aren’t glamorous because all we have had time to do is prime them.

 

 

Like I said, not really glamorous but definitely lightened the room up! 

 

So yesterday was Dan’s day off and we decided to tackle priming the paneling in the Kitchen and Dining Room.  I have to say that if we ever get another house, I would love to not see an inch of paneling! {Watch like the entire house will be covered in paneling…ha!}

Here is what we started with…

 

 

 

 

Since we were painting paneling, we had to fill in all the cracks with a paint brush and then go back over it with a roller.  It was loads of fun! :) {I actually did enjoy it because I got to be with my hubby!}

 

I bet all of you are wondering what we did with our kids while we were painting… well, we put the piano in front of the doorway so they couldn’t get into the kitchen, turned on Curious George and gave them lots of toys to play with.  They were good but got really bored toward the end of our painting… poor babies!

{don’t you love Judson’s princess necklace!}

 

Anyway, here are the after {progress} pictures

 

 

 

So there you have it.  My kitchen is almost completely covered in white primer.  I feel a little lost in all the whiteness right now. LOL! 

One thing I love about undertaking big painting projects is that everything gets really clean!  I was able to clean all the baseboards and walls, sweep and mop under everything {Yeah, under the fridge was DISGUSTING!}, and dust all the furniture!  It was a good day! :)

For now, I am happy to have progress!  My hubby was so sweet to help me and work late into the night finishing up. 

Maybe next week on Dan’s day off, we can get some color on these walls!

What do you think? A lot brighter, huh?  Or are you a paneling lover?

This was my week!

This post is going to be just a mixture of random things that we have done this week.  We have had a lot going on and I wasn’t able to complete any projects that I was wanting to. Whaaaah!

I am okay with that though.  Sometimes it is just that way.  I am sure all of you have had weeks like that.  At least I hope you have.  Otherwise I am going to feel like a failure! :)

This week, all four of us got sick!  It started with Judson, then Dan & Kayla and now I have it too!

Here is my poor sick baby sleeping on the couch.

 

I was hoping to finish removing the “lovely” wallpaper in our bathroom & show you a big reveal today. 

But that didn’t happen…

The wallpaper in the bathroom had started to peel off so we decided to just pull it off and remove the glue later when we worked on the rest of the room.  Yeah, that wasn’t such a great idea.  The glue comes off in little tiny pieces and takes FOREVER to get it all off.  I spent over an hour on my hands and knees and only got this much done…

I also don’t own a wallpaper scorer so the vinegar water {which is a great wallpaper remover, btw} couldn’t get through the outer layer of wallpaper to get to the glue.  So, I decided to wait to do any more work until I could get one of those wallpaper scorer thingy-majigs!   At least I got a little done, right?

This week, we got to play in the little splash pool with Daddy!  The kids LOVED it and so did Daddy, I think!

 

I LOVE my kids!

 

We had to say goodbye to Aunt Bekah as she is working at the WILDS this summer.  We are sad to say goodbye again but so happy that she gets to work at the greatest camp ever! {ok, I am a little prejudice}

 

My silly boy playing with his new “tool set” toy. He likes the safety glasses.

 

 

Yesterday, I went on a baking spree for Dan’s work.  They are having a big sales push/customer appreciation thing and needed me to bake some things for their special day.   I was going to make more than this but was feeling so poorly that I had to stop. 

 

Last night, I just collapsed and left this mess…

 

Yeah, this is what I have to do today.  Along with a mountain of laundry.  Being sick can make you feel like you are behind on everything.  Oh, well…here I go! 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Braided Rope Hair Tutorial

Hello to everyone!  So sorry that I was MIA last week.  I have had a whirlwind of things happen in the past couple weeks.  Nothing major of course but just normal stuff that most families deal with. 

Anyhoo, I am back and excited to show you a hair-how-to!  It is obvious that braids and twists are coming back into style these days.  I mean, I have seen so many adorable ideas lately that I have been itching to try them out for myself. 

I am trying to grow my daughter’s bangs out and I get tired of just pulling them back into a bow or bobby pin.  I like to change it up and get creative! 

My sister actually showed me how to do a cute little braided rope in order to pull Kayla’s hair out of her face and still look adorable! :)

 

I will try to explain this as clearly as I can! :)  Here we go…

1. Part you hair how you normally would.  {Kayla’s part is on the left}

2. Grab a piece of hair from the opposite side of the majority of your hair {Sorry if that sounds confusing.  Hopefully the picture will help! In the picture the piece of hair is to the right of Kayla’s part}

3. Grab another piece of hair beside the piece you just grabbed.  Take the first piece of hair and put it behind the second piece. 

4. Grab a 3rd piece of hair and add it to the 1st piece. {Again, check picture if it is confusing} 

5. Wrap the 2nd piece around the 1st and 3rd pieces you combined. 

6. Grab another piece of hair and combine it with the 2nd piece of hair.

7. Continue to “wrap” and add more hair always to the piece behind the other.

When you are done, secure the ends with a small elastic or bobby pins.   It should look something like this:

If you want, you can add a bow or just leave it like it is.   You can also pull it all up or leave it down like Kayla’s here:

And that it it.  Pretty easy if you can understand my instructions.  

I want to say a BIG “THANK YOU” to my baby girl for letting me use her as a model!  She is a sweetheart!

I have even tried this braided rope on my own hair.  I really like how it turned out.

 

Well, that’s it for today.  I would love to see pictures if you try this braided rope. 

Four Years!

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our FOURTH anniversary! 

 

I can’t believe it has been four years already!  In some ways it feels like just yesterday.

In those FOUR years, we have added two sweet additions!

 

On September 9, 2009 @ 12:15 am we welcomed Kayla Grace into our family!

 

And 18 moths later, on March 2, 2011 we welcomed Judson Daniel into the family!

 

I can’t imagine what our lives would be like without our two little blessings. 

 

Anyway, we had a wonderful anniversary.  We weren’t able to go anywhere this year so we just sent the kids to Grampa and Gramma’s house on Wednesday night and enjoyed some time alone in our own house!

Here are some of highlights of our fun day:

Wednesday night we watched “Dial M for Murder” while drinking some Root Beer Floats. 

It was so much fun to watch a movie all the way through without any interruptions from kiddos!

Since we didn’t have a lot of money, I decided to get a little creative with my gifts this year!

First, I bought 4 helium balloons and tied notes to the strings of each of them.

I decided to write him notes about some of my favorite things that have happened over the four years of our marriage!  It was really fun to get creative and to remember some of our fun times together!

 

Then, I hid little notes all over the house!  Some of them looked like this:

{Reese’s Pieces}

 

{Gum}

 

It was really fun!  I enjoyed seeing his face when he found another one! :)   I also wrote all over the mirror in the bathroom with a dry erase marker!

When I came home on Wednesday night, I found these beautiful roses on the counter with a sweet card!

Aren’t they beautiful?!  There are 24 red and white roses.  Every time I walk past them they make me smile!

On Thursday afternoon, we went on a motorcycle ride to a beautiful state park.  I haven’t been on this bike that Dan has and it was really fun to ride together!

We enjoyed walking around the lake and seeing fish and beautiful, peaceful scenery!

 

Then in the evening we went to Maggiano’s for dinner!  We have never been there before and it was really yummy and had a fun atmosphere too! 

We ordered the Marco’s meal for two which came with an appetizer, two pasta dishes and one dessert.  It also included two pasta dishes to take home.  We have TONS of left-over food that I just threw into the freezer for later meals!

 

All in all it was a SUPER-FANTASTIC day and I LOVED every minute of it!

Weight Watcher’s Lemon Cake Recipe

As many of you know, I am on Weight Watchers.  It is simply the BEST diet  lifestyle EVER!!! 

I have lost 10 pounds so far and have about 15 more that I want to lose!

It is such a great way to lose weight and maintain a normal lifestyle.  I LOVE it!

I also am a SWEETS lover so I have been on the look out for weight watcher dessert recipes.

I saw this recipe on pinterest but it wasn’t linked to any website and the points they listed were wrong! :(

I figured out the points, made it and LOVED it!!!!!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Lemon Cake Mix          
• 20 ounces of Diet 7Up                
• 1 Container of Light Cool Whip

 

Just mix the 20 ounces (2 1/2 cups) of 7UP with the cake mix.  {You can just use a spoon}

 

Pour into a greased 9 by 13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes!

Allow the cake to cool and then top with cool whip!

 

 

It is only 4 points if you get 12 pieces and 3.5 points if you get 15 pieces.

This cake taste SO YUMMY cold.   I have a hard time waiting for it to cool in the fridge but TRUST ME it is worth it!

Seriously, stop what you are doing and go make it RIGHT NOW!