Lamp Makeover

I have been meaning to post this for a while, but never made the time for it. Now that we are traveling all week, I figured it would be a good time to post it.

Our apartment building has a "free" area in the lobby where people put things they don't want. There was something different there almost every day. While Andy and I were trying to live a minimalist lifestyle, we were sometimes tempted by the consistent free stuff. We did actually get some pretty cool stuff though. (Like: 2 suit jackets for Andy, a brand new in-apartment compost bin (sold new for $50!), dog toys, an awesome bottle opener, cleaning supplies...etc.)

One day this broken lamp was sitting in the free area. I passed by it thinking, 'who's going to take that, it's broken'. Later in the day Andy came home with none other than the free broken lamp. I laughed at him and told him to take it back, but he said no. He thought it was a good lamp for our guest bedroom and thought that I could fix it up. Sure enough, he was right. I put my creative cap on and fixed it right up!

First, I glued the top back together. After waiting an hour for the glue to set (and hanging the lamp out our window so the sun would dry the glue) it didn't work. So I resorted to option two, staples. The staples worked wonders. After that I pained the base of the lamp black to cover some marks. Then I pained over the staples on the top and bottom of the lamp. Last, I did a random brush stroke design. It is not the best design, but it adds a bit of interesting texture and took no time.

Voila! There's my free lamp makeover. I love that Andy has confidence in my creative fixing skills.

Large Wall Art - DIY

I have seen this giant wall picture DIY a few times on pinterest so I finally decided to try it out. We have been living in our apartment for over three months now and our walls have been bare and empty. It is not like me to leave the walls like that. Usually art is one of the first things to go up when we move into a place. For some reason not this time though. I guess moving felt too surreal, like we weren't actually living here but passing through.

These are all the materials you will need. Ask for 'architect prints' at an office store.

 

So it was high time that I put our art up. Our art didn't feel right in this apartment though, we needed something new...something more California-like. So I found this tutorial and gave it a go. It was really easy, and I even got Andy involved.

We found the foam board at Home Depot. It is foam insulation. We had them cut it into pieces so it would fit in our car.

 

I did a few things differently from the tutorial. The tutorial says to buy an 'architect print' from an office store. I guess they used to be cheap because only architects bought them once in a while. Since pinterest though, they must be selling more of these architect prints, thus the price increase. They wanted to charge me over $20 for a rough black and white print on paper! So be prepared for that. Luckily, Andy works with a lot of architects in solar, so he printed my pictures at work.

Crayons work better than colored pencils for coloring over black and white.

 

The other thing I did differently was color the picture. I only did it to one of my pictures because I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I loved it though! It gives the picture a very vintage antique feel. Which I don't always like, but in this case I think it worked. I colored with colored pencils first, but the color didn't show very well, so I switched to crayons which did the trick perfectly.

It was a really easy and fun way to get something more California feeling up on our walls. Along with the fact that it was super cheap. The foam board was only $2! We even had extra foam board, so we taped the edges and now use it as a bulletin board for ideas.

We wrapped the picture around the foam board (like a present) and taped the back with duck tape so the edges would look nicer. To hang the pictures we put tiny nails into the wall and stuck the foam pictures right into the nails. This method of hanging worked better than any other method.

 

A snowflake for Sandy Hook Elementary

image via

This is a great way for families and their children to give something and show support to Sandy Hook Elementary:

Snowflakes for Sandy Hook:
Please help the students of Sandy Hook have a winter wonderland at their new school! Get Creative!! No two snowflakes are alike. Make and send snowflakes to Connecticut PTSA, 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103, Hamden, CT 06514, by January 12, 2013.

Some great links to snowflake patters, how-to's, and fun info: 

All Season Snowflakes

Martha Stewart

Angel Street Mom 

Deviant Art  

Tree Hugger