Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Giving Lamp Shades New Life


Danielle from EatBreatheBlog is sharing tips of how to dress up your existing lamp shades. Great ideas to use what you have to change up your decor.

Creative and Inexpensive Lamp Shades
A lamp shade can set the mood for any room. A bland, plain lamp shade can set the tone of understatement and boring. Lamp shades sh
ould do more than just soften light in the room. It should be a reflection of your personality and style. It should also bring character to a room. There is no need to spend loads of cash on expensive lamp shades, when a personalized inexpensive lamp shade will do just fine. Purchase a plain light-colored lamp shade that matches the color tones in your room. Pick any of the following ideas, or come up with your own to personalize it.

Magazine Articles

Magazines are notorious for having gorgeous pictures. The pictures can be beautiful scenes, funny sayings, cartoons, creativ
e shapes and characters. You can also put all of your to-be-recycled direct mail advertisements to use by cutting out letters and lifestyle images. Simply sort through your old magazines and direct mail postcards, and find pictures you like that suit your tastes and room decor. Cut them out and use
spray glue to adhere them to your lamp shade. Let the lamp shade and article completely dry for a few hours before handling it.


Creative Thought: For a toddler’s room, find
a character your child likes and cut them out. Glue them to an inexpensive lamp shade. Let the glue completely dry in a well vented area. Should your toddler get a hold of the lamp shade, you will only have to spend a few bucks to recreate it.

Leftover Trims
Just about every sewing box has leftover trims and notions. Old buttons make great colorful additions to a lamp shade. For a classier look use any lace remnants you have. Simply hot glue the lace trims to the bottom and top rim of the lamp shade. In seconds you have transformed a plain lampshade into a personalized, gorgeous addition to your room.

Creative Thought: Embroidery floss can be used to make patterns on any plain lamp shade. Simply unroll a section of floss. Dip th
e floss in plain white glue. Use your imagination to create patterns with the floss. You can make swirls, free-form shapes, basic shapes (like squares, circles, triangles) or spell things out (like names, "go team" and more). Do one section at a time so that it can dry without sliding out of position due to gravity.

Flowers
Silk flowers can be found at your local dollar store or craft store. The great thing about silk flowers is you can find them in any color, size or style that fits your room and personality. You can accent a shade with a few flowers or cover the entire shade with blooms.

Source: http://rosyredbuttons.blogspot.com

Creative Thought: To soften a room and add a year-round, spring feeling, find pastel flowers to match your room. Cover the entire shade by clipping the bloom close to the base of the flower. Use a hot glue gun to glue the flowers in place. Add sprigs of silk baby's breath to soften the flowers. Finish by adding a touch of lace (as mentioned above) to the bottom rim of the lamp shade. During the winter try creating a shade using poinsettias.

Lamp shades can add so much character and warmth to a room. Do not settle for a store-bought rendition of what someone else designed, when it is simple to create your own. You will not only save money, but have a personal touch to talk about with guests.

Thanks for sharing Danielle! Don't forget to check out her blog,EatBreatheBlog. Lots of great information on health, wellness, and life.

Would you like to do a guest post on A lil bird? We would love to have you feature a project, your blog, or anything that strikes your fancy. Email us at alilbird3 (at) gmail (dot) com, we look forward to hearing from you!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Tidy Tips For Your Waistline

A few weeks ago, we had some friends over for "Sundae Sunday". It was a fun night of cards games, talking with friends, and ice cream. Truth be told, I am not really an ice cream fan. I can hear everyone gasping now, but it's true. For years I wasn't really a milk drinker, and after working at Cold Stone Creamery through high school, I just didn't care for ice cream. I am more of a sherbet kind of gal.

That being said, I have a friend who brought the most amazing VANILLA ice cream I have ever had. Vanilla plain and boring, is one flavor I almost never eat, especially plain. That is, until I tried the Tillamook french vanilla. It is amazing!!

The problem with ice cream is that it's load of fat and calories in every bite, especially the good stuff. So, to help me eat the leftovers in a way as to not gain 5 pounds, I made a game out of portion size. I tried to find the smallest thing to eat my ice cream in. That happened to be my son's KALAS cup from IKEA. I almost used the bowl, but the cup was smaller and a more appropriate portion size. A 1/2 cup of this particular ice cream is 160 calories and 9 grams of fat. Can you imagine if I used a regular bowl? Eek!


I have been trying to do this a lot with my portions lately. Especially snacks. I eat my snacks out of small ramekins (usually around the 6 oz size). It really works well. My servings are usually less than 200 calories. Small is better.

Do you have any tricks to control your portion sizes?

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

A few weeks ago I helped with a baby shower for a neighbor. The neighborhood did it pot luck style and there was some yummy food! I made ham & cheese sliders, my MIL had made them for a shower a year ago, they are so yummy! There wasn't a real theme or anything, but the Mom to be said she was doing her nursery in red, brown, and cream, so I made a small banner in those colors for above the food table.
I also made this yummy punch. I got the recipe from Pinterest of course!
I was also in charge of the favors. Ever since I did this post, I have been dying to make some lips! I thought they would work for favors since it was a baby shower for a girl! They were a piece of cake, my Silhouette did all the work, I slid in the suckers and they were done.
Here is one close up, I will totally be using these as Valentine's some day.
I also found some cinnamon lips to go with the favors.
I made the Mom to be a small diaper cake, the flower is actually a headband for the sweet babe. I didn't use all the diapers, so I tied a ribbon around the rest.
It was a fun summer night to enjoy my neighbors, can't wait to meet the little lady in a few weeks!
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