anthropologie inspired DIY lamp

Good afternoon!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful lazy Saturday :) I know I am! I have had another wonderful week... just thankful for the incredible friends I've been blessed with and enjoying these last few weeks of summer. School starts SO SOON! I cannot believe it but I am honestly really excited!

So for a long time I've been dying to make this lamp and last night I got the opportunity to! I had SO MUCH FUN! It was relatively easy and took about 3 hours. I know I said the pillow I last blogged about was my favorite project so far but.... I lied. THIS is definitely my new favorite project!!! I love it!

Here is the before picture. I bought this lamp for only $1.95 at a thrift store in Murfreesboro (Outreach Thift)!!! Such a great deal! AND it worked which made it even better.

and here's a better picture of just the lamp base. The lamp really wasn't that awful to begin with. It just really needed some sprucing up and some pizazz. So that's what I gave it!

and finally.... the after picture!!!! I love it!!! The shade is covered in burlap and has burlap ruffles hot glued to it. The lamp base is spray painted with Krylon's Blue Ocean Breeze spray paint.

Here's a close up picture of the burlap lamp shade.

I love love love it!!!

And there is my fabulous lamp! It was pretty easy! I followed this tutorial here for inspiration for my lamp and honestly kind of just copied their idea :) But hey, imitation is the highest form of flattery right? One thing I suggest from my experience is to follow their tutorial EXACTLY. Do EVERY step! It will make your life so much easier!

They didn't do a great job of explaining how to recover the lamp shade in the beginning so thankfully I found another fabulous video tutorial that explains exactly how to do it! You can find that tutorial here.

I ended up using about 2 yards of white burlap, 1/2 a can of Krylon spray paint, and about 15 glue sticks. Overall the project was pretty cheap too!

Price:

Lamp- $1.95 at a thrift store

Burlap- $7.44 for 2 yards at Joann's

Spray paint- $3.97 at Walmart

Hot glue gun, hot glue sticks, iron, scissors- I already had this all at home

So the total cost for my project was $13.36!! Not bad at all! I loved this project and I'm now kind of obsessed with recovering lamp shades and making new lamps. I'm already looking for new lamp ideas! :)

Well I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day! Hopefully I'll be crafting more this week and posting another craft soon :) Love you guys!



joy, erin condren, and my DIY pillow

Hi friends!
First, let me just tell yall, I had a FABULOUS week! When Nehemiah 8:10 says, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."....he wasn't joking! I have felt so much joy this week that is unwavering and completely God given. LOVE IT! :)

I took the Elementary Education Content Knowledge PRAXIS today and I think I did very well! So, I'll let yall know how I did once I find out! I find out on August 12th. Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words! It means the world to me.

Another fun and exciting thing I did this week (well, in my opinion) was purchase a NEW PLANNER for the new school year!!! Let me tell you, it was QUITE the decision and debate on my part. Thankfully, I had a couple of friends at work to help me decide! I finally decided on the "2011-2012 LIFE Planner" from www.erincondren.com ...oh my goodness these planners are ADORABLE. Favorite parts include: you can choose your own colors and design for the front cover and she also PERSONALIZES it for you! I also love how it has a "morning, day, and night" section for each day. AND  it is 18 months so it will last me until December 2012. Which is GREAT! This will help bring my organization to a whole new level! EXCITED!!! My planner will look like this:

It will have this print.... with...

THESE colors! Yellow and grey of course :) Those are my favorite! Then it will have my full name on the front alternated in grey, yellow, and grey. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!

If you would like to purchase an Erin Condren planner you can do so here. Not going to lie to you guys, they're really expensive for a planner. However, I found a $10 dollar off coupon that made the price better! AND I'm going to share the coupon with all of you :) The code is "WELCOME10". Just use that at check out and your purchase will be 10 dollars cheaper!

I've also been super busy today CRAFTING!!! Ahhhhh! I have been waiting for SO LONG to finally be able to craft again. So I also have a DIY project to share with you guys! EXCITING! 

So not long ago I went thrifting in Nashville (at Music City Thirft on Nolensville) and I found this awesome pillow that was in great condition! It was very cute but just needed an extra kick! So I remembered those rolled flowers I made a couple of posts ago and thought why not put one on a pillow?! So that's exactly what I did :)

Here is one of the BEFORE images. This is the front... it is more of a Tiffany's blue although you can't really tell from the picture!

 

Here is the back of the pillow. Brown and white polka dots :) SO cute! I debated for the longest time which side to decorate and I decided on the blue side since that would match my room stuff better.

and here is the AFTER picture! It is a white rolled flower with a rhinestone in the middle. For some reason the flower looks light pink, but it is white!

Another picture of the pillow :) I am SO proud of it!

This is possibly my favorite DIY project yet. I followed the rolled flower tutorial here and it was SUPER easy! The only thing I did different to put it on the pillow was I actually made the flower on the pillow instead of making the flower in my hand and then hot gluing it to the pillow once I was done. Does that make sense? I hope so! Then at the end, I just hot glued a rhinestone in the middle! It was so easy... no sewing involved... just hot glue and an old tshirt I had in my drawer!

Price:

Pillow- $2.98

Fabric- FREE (old tshirt I had)

Materials- FREE (I already had hot glue, hot glue gun, scissors, rhinestone)

So in total this only cost me $2.98 and it is so cute! I love love love this pillow and cannot wait to use it in my apartment this coming semester :)

I hope you guys had a great week and are working on some wonderful projects! Let me know what you've been working on-- I LOVE hearing about other people's work! If you have questions about any of my projects, feel free to let me know and I will answer them! I know they can be confusing :) Love you all and thanks for reading!

summer scholars

Good evening friends!
So Summer Scholars is over, but what an incredible 10 days it was!! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see previous post). I'm really getting into these photo collages... so like my last post, here is a photo collage of how I spent my time at Summer Scholars!

As you can see by my pictures, we had the greatest time!!! I am still so thankful that I had the opportunity to be a counselor. I had no idea I was going to get so close to the amazing Summer Scholars or my fellow Summer Scholars counselors. It was the best experience I've had so far this summer and my heart is just so full right now! :)

I take the PRAXIS: Content Knowledge this Saturday which I'm kind of stressing out about. I just haven't had much time to study and big tests stress me out like this anyway. BUT right now I'm just trying to remember this:



I just need to remember that God has an incredible plan for my life and he will go before me and take care of me so my heart should not be troubled. I'm so glad God cares about me and loves me like that! He is such a great provider and father! But if yall don't mind, I would appreciate your prayers for peace in my life!

Love you guys so much! Thanks for keeping up with my life :) I promise the next post will be a DIY project I've been working on that I'm SUPER excited about!!! Love!



something different

Hello friends!
I am so incredibly sorry it has been forever since I blogged. I've been crafting but I've been doing things that have already been featured on the blog... nothing new... YET! But just keep checking back and there should be some new craft projects coming soon :)

I'm writing this blog post just to give an update on my life. Although craft projects are more fun, I feel it's necessary to update on my life happenings as well! After all... this blog is about "crafts, life lessons, and love" so I intend to do just that.

This past weekend for the 4th of July I went to DISNEY WORLD!!! It was such an amazing trip and Disney is definitely the BEST place for 4th of July fireworks! I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to go. Here is a quick recap of my trip in pictures:

learn how to make photo collages like this here

Starting this past Friday (7/8) through next Sunday (7/17), I am a counselor for our Lipscomb Admissions summer camp called "Summer Scholars". Basically 37 rising high school seniors are on Lipscomb's campus taking a college class while also hanging out with Admissions and doing all kinds of fun things around Nashville. It is so much FUN! I can't believe I get paid to do this. Like this Saturday, we are going canoeing!!! How awesome right?! We will also be going to a Sounds baseball game, having a luau, going to Deer Run, eating Sweet Cece's, and exploring downtown Nashville. What a great job I have!!! I'm so thankful!

AND to continue on with the good news.... I found out my Reading Across the Curriculum PRAXIS scores today and....... I PASSED!!!!! And not to toot my own horn or anything but I passed with flying colors! I was SO excited and may have shed a few tears :) I'm so thankful I no longer have to worry about that! 1 PRAXIS test down, 3 to go! I take another one on July 23rd called "Content Knowledge" so I'll let yall know how I did on that one too!

Now for the life lesson part of my post. There have been a few changes in my life recently in which I can only trust God in and pray He knows what he's doing in my life. So much good has been brought so far and I am feeling better than ever! God has really been teaching me through all of this to rely on HIM because who else is an always constant in my life and cares this much about me?! No one! He is the ultimate lover of my soul and it's in Him that I find peace and love. I'm genuinely falling in love with God and it is the neatest feeling that I could never describe to you but wish I could. I'm so thankful for this place I am at in my life and I just pray that God's will be done.

I just got done reading Max Lucado's "A Love Worth Giving" and it was the most incredible book I have ever read. I DEFINITELY recommend it if you have a hard time loving people. One quote that stuck out to me the most throughout the book was, "There are seasons when God allows us to feel the frality of human love so we'll appreciate the strength of his love."  Like I mentioned before, God is the ultimate lover of my soul and showers me with constant unconditional love. In this season of my life, I'm learning to live in that love and show that love to other people and it is really changing my life. Praise God!

Well there's my update! Hopefully I will be able to get back to crafting soon, as there are many things I can't wait to attempt and show yall! I hope you all have an incredibly blessed week. Thanks for reading :) Love!