DIY Hanging Light

I've had this lamp shade frame laying around for a while and finally dived in and made it into a light. Before I begin, I just want to say that I am no electrician! This is just what I did, I don't necessarily recommend it for you guys. Do some research! Here is a source I used to put this thing together: source.  

 Materials: Lamp shade Ceiling Hook Light kit ScrewdriverChain, cut to the length of your choice  

First, you take this little bolt thing and screw the white thing on it. I don't know the names for these so just bear with me!

And then I attatched the two above parts to the lamp shade and secured it on top with the washer looking piece.

And then I pulled my wires through and tie the knot from the video.

Next, I attatched the wires to the screws on the big piece.

Then I slipped the cover back on and secured it all together.

Hang it, put a light in, and you are ready to go!

 So there you have it, you can make a lamp out of pretty much anything. I actually planned on doing this with a bowl and then I found the lamp shade.  

Best Sunday Ever!

So my Sunday was pretty awesome. We had breakfast in bed and a date night! Here are some pictures I took with my phone and edited with a photography app called Little Photo that's pretty much amazing (and did I mention it's free?).  

Breakfast of champions, right? Cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, and avocado. And I believe this is the first time I got to use my new awesome plates, hurray!

Someone got into some cherries and made a mess all over her face... By the way, I noticed I always post pictures of her with no clothes on and thought I should explain. When we are home (which is when I usually take pictures of her), she is always running around naked because she either made a huge mess and her clothes are no longer wearable or she just decides to rip them off because she thinks it's funny. And who am I to interrupt her fun, right? Might as well let her run around naked while she can get away with it!

We went on a dinner and a movie date and saw Hangover 2 which was freakin' hilarious! I seriously haven't laughed so hard in a while and it was mighty nice.

 

This isn't the greatest picture but whatever. So this dress actually came from my mother, she wore it when she was my age (isn't that crazy?). It's one of my favorite dresses and I'll never get rid of it. It's funny because for a long time it was just sitting in my closet (like years) because I didn't quite know how to wear it. But now that I've gotten into vintage clothing, it's perfect!

Dress: My mothers

Necklace: Forever 21

Shoes: Probably from Target?

I didn't have my camera handy which is why I had to use my phone but I'll definitely get better pictures of this dress someday soon. Maybe our next date night, eh?

Outfit Post: Graduation Day!

My little brother and sister (twins) graduated from high school about a week ago! My sister is going to UT and my brother is going to Texas State, so we are pretty darn excited for them. I got to see a lot of my family and had a pretty great weekend! So I thought I'd share what I wore:  

Skirt: Thrifted

Belt: Thrifted

Sweater Top: Forever 21

Necklace: Forever 21

Gladiator Sandals: Forever 21

And here's one of the graduates, my beautiful sister, Alex.

Aren't these shoes to die for?!

By the way, I'm sorry about the lack or posting in the last week. I accidently deleted like half of my pictures on my computer and have spent the last 5 days trying to recover all of them, and making sure I get them all backed up! Such a pain, but I guess I learned a valuable lesson: DON'T PUT OFF BACKING UP YOUR COMPUTER. Like my dad always says, "Remember the Woody Hayes Rules, There's three things that can happen and two of them are bad." It could have been worse but I'm starting to learn that procrastinating isn't always for the best. Well hope you guys have a happy Sunday!

DIY Chevron Wall Curtain

Remember this post? Well it's about my new found love of the chevron pattern. After seeing so many diy's with it, I decided to give it a go. I just happened to have a white curtain not in use so I planned to paint on a chevron pattern and hang it above the couch. Here's how:  First off, you will need materials: Curtain ($0- already had but I think I bought it for $15) Metal Rod ($3) Wall brackets ($5) Black Paint ($4)Brush ($0- already had)Manilla Envelope & Scissors ($0- already had)Total Estimate: $12  I did a lot of research to figure out the best way to go at this. Here's a source that I kind of based my plan off of. So first I came up with a stencil:  

I basically drew out a little grid with the points being about 6" apart and made a zig zag pattern.

Then I layed out my curtain (with something underneath) as flat as possible. The curtain loops were actually at one of the short ends so I just cut them off and hand stitched them real fast to one of the long ends.

Then starting at one edge, place your stencil down, and tape above and below it along the entire edge.

Then start painting! I watered it down because it was taking forever but towards then end I over watered it (see picture below). Wait for the paint to dry, apply second coat as needed, and peel off the tape.

To Hang: I had to cut my emt rod because it was too long (just using a hand saw). Then I just marked my holes, screwed in the wall brackets and hung my curtain! I got the idea of going the cheap route from here: source.  It only cost me about $8, compared to a curtain rod which would be about $20. What a steal! I'm never buying another curtain rod again! So here is the end result above my couch:

I kind of like the way it bleeds towards the bottom left corner. I'm just going to tell everyone I planned to do that (:

Vintage Plate Find

This weekend was very long and full of activities! My brother and sister graduated from high school and there was a huge two day music festival in Houston. I'll have to post pictures on that later... But one of the highlights of my weekend was finding adorable vintage plates! You see, we don't have any microwaveable plates and I have been on the hunt pretty much since we moved in. So on Sunday, my Grandma, Aunt, and I went to Goodwill. That's when I came across these babies and I just knew I had to have them! At first I just saw all the plates (they were wrapped up together) and then my Aunt spotted the other pieces in various places around the store. It came with 4 big plates, a bunch of little plates and saucers, three cups and a milk pitcher thing. 22 pieces in all and only $9.99! So here they are, I'm in love <3 

Oh, and I also got this cute oven mitt for $.79

 And this dream catcher for $.99 

 So, good day! I'm excited to put these plates to use! 

New Favorite Snack

A couple weeks ago, we visited a friend at her new house by the beach! I'll have to take pictures next time, it's cute. We spent the day at the beach and then we came back for a bite to eat. She made this snack and I fell in LOVE. I've been looking for healthy snacks because I haven't been eating too great... and this was perfect! It may sound like a weird combo, but trust me! It's worth the try! So here's what you do;  What you will need: 

1 Cucumber

2 Limes

Salt

First, cut up all of your ingredients. Slice the cucumber about 1/4" thick and slice up the limes into 4 wedges each.

Place all the cucumbers in a preferably shallow and wide dish.

Then squeeze your limes over the top of the cucumbers and sprinkle them with a bit of salt.

And last, eat it up! Ahh, I could go for some right now! Any other healthy snacks that I'm missing out on?



Couch Make-Over

One of the biggest... issues I've had with decorating my apartment is my couches. There's a love seat and a regular sized one.

My dad actually made these back in the 70's and while the body is still in excellent condition, the cushions were a little.... outdated (to say the least). I really didn't want to spend the time and money making slip covers for each one so I had to get creative. I wanted something that I could take off because of Eliza but wasn't going to take me forever to make. Here are a couple places that I got inspiration from:

source.  

source. First, I tried buying fabric and just draping it over.  

But they didn't last more than five minutes with Eliza. They just came off too easily and I decided I didn't like the fabric anyways.

So then, I came up a with different idea. I decided to make the bottom all one cushion. So I bought some plain, off white fabric from Hancocks for $30 and two long zippers to go on the side for about $5. I measured all the sides, cut out all my pieces, and sewed them together. This is what it looks like so far: 

I was kind of stuck on what to do with the cushions because I didn't want to make them one cushion but I didn't want to sew slipcovers for each so I finally decided to just go out and buy some regular pillows to go in their place. I bought 5 pillows for about $5 each from Walmart (and they're not too shabby!). I then used fabric I already had and made some simple pillow cases to cover them. It was hard to pick out the perfect ones, I had a pile of options that I just couldn't decide between.  

I also bought some cotton for $7 to make up some deocrative pillows. And here they are, our new couches! 

 They look sooo much better. We have string lights above them (no over-head lighting) and I wanted it to feel kind of like a treehouse if that makes sense. I think the bed pillows as the back pillows fulfill that and they definitely come in handy when we want to lay down, we have pillows right there! I'm very happy with the way they turned out, I've been avoiding these couches for so long but now it feels like it's all down hill from here, decorating wise. So for $67, I did pretty good! Woo hoo!