Lamp Shade remake!

So, my kids are hard on everything in my house. Sometimes I am amazed that the house is still standing when I get home. I have a great babysitter. But it never fails, they get a hold of something and ten minutes later, someone, usually Elena, runs up and tells me someone broke it. So, I recently inherited a lamp from my grandmother who passed away last year. Actually, I have been given a ton of her decor and I love every bit of it. Its quirky and weird and I love that she is all over my house. I will post picture of all her stuff, because it is awesome! Anyway. The Lamp is kind of modern brushed metal with a simple white cloth lamp shade. Well, as I was setting up the lamp I noticed that the shade was starting to come apart a little bit. I thought, oh, I can fix that, maybe do something to the shade to liven it up. Then, like clockwork, Elena runs up to me and says, "Look what Nevin did!" Big Surprise. she ripped the shade apart.

Please ignore the mounds of crap behind the shade. My "craft bar" is usually the last thing on my very long list of things to keep clean. Did I mention I have four kids under 6?

Also, Please excuse the pictures. My camera's battery pooped out on me as I started to take the first picture. Camera Fail!!

Anyway, I thought, I have ribbon, I have hot glue, I can fix this and make it cuter and to my style.  First thing I did was tape the ring to the top with just some regular tape to hold it in place.

So, I measure my ribbon using the shade (sorry no picture) and cute 6 strips of ribbon. 

Then I positioned the first ribbon right on the seam, that way at least one of them would be straight. I hot glued the inside first to make sure it was sturdy, but you have to remember to add the hoop under the ribbon. It was freakin hard to hold but thats how I attached the hoop to the shade. 

Then set the shade down on a flat surface, grabbed my glue gun and put a semi-thick line of glue all the way down the seam. then attached the ribbon as straight as humanly possible.

Don't you just love my "old as dirt and covering in glue" glue gun. It was originally my Moms and i have had other glue guns but this one gets super hot unlike some of the newer guns and gives me more time for manipulation (not to mention burnt finger tips). I love it!

So I sectioned off the shade into three's at first, and glued ribbon to these three spots I "eye balled". Then I went back in between the three spots with three more ribbons. By doing three ribbons first it made it look more uniform than adding one at a time.

Then with some craps of ribbon I added little bows. I think it is sooooo much cuter than it was and it's pretty durable. At least the kids haven't destroyed it yet.

I will probably go back over the ring with more hot glue to really strengthen it, but for now, I like it. The bows are cute.

Well, hopefully my camera will be ready to go next time I need it. So better pictures next time, I promise. Well thanks for stopping by. Be sure and check out my ETSY shop too!! I add more items everyday!!

Now, to go see what the minions are getting into! Later!

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Mom's 60 Birthday party: Luau Style

So, my mother recently turned 60. I can only pray that I got some of the good genes in the family and look like here when I am 60. My sister put it on at her house, which is perfect because she has a pool. Now,  mind you, I took all four of the kids, BY MYSELF, on a road trip to Houston for this. It was a very hectic day but how many times does someone have a 60th birthday. I was not going to miss it. Unfortunately, I did not have backup as Fred has to work on Saturdays. I am sure you are thinking, OMG, who works on Saturdays. My husband works for Palm Harbor Homes as a salesman. Saturday is their BIG day for sales. He doesn't miss Saturdays. So, I will take the kids to Houston for Grandma! Luckily, it went really well. We left about 11 or so, meaning I had a very quiet ride to Houston. The Baby (Nevin) went to sleep as soon as we left the driveway. Thanks to a beautiful Christmas present from the in-laws, the kids watched a movie on the way. I like it when no one is screaming.

 So we get there and Suzanne is setting up the table.Mom is the one on the right by the way!

The grass skirt was a nice touch!

 Meanwhile, back at the asylum, my children are running a muck!! But they are cute, aren't they??

So what my sis made is Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork, that of course, she found on pinterest. Here is the pin! It was delicious, put it on Hawaiian Bread and top it off with Pineapple Cole slaw!!

 And here she had the cutest pineapple cream cheese spread with veggies and crackers but it looked like a pineapple. I didn't get a really good picture of it but here is the picture from the website from pinterest that she found.

 

Super Cute and Tasty!!

Of course we had leis everywhere. Nevin kept wrapping her self up in them, and stealing them so she could destroy them. Suzanne is going to be finding flower petals all over her house for weeks! 

After we ate, and waited for 30 minutes (Elena went around the party reminding everyone that we have to wait 30 minutes after eating to go swimming or we will get a cramp! Thank you for the public service announcement, Elena!), We Swam!!

Finally, we had all had enough fun, or at least I had,  the kids had begun the ever popular whining and crying about everything. Which at that point you look around and say "Its been a lovely evening, and we are going to leave now." My family is used to this tactic by now. There comes a point in an outing where my kids have had enough and despite the "I don't want to leave" battle cry,  its time to jump ship and hope everyone makes it. So I decided, I needed to go. We had a great time, wish I had taken more pictures, but sometimes its best to put the camera down and enjoy the festivities.

The drive home was uneventful. I like uneventful!

And the whiniest (is that a word?) child of them all, Kiera, fell asleep three minutes into the ride home with mouth gaping, catching flies!!


Ahh, memories!

Kiera's 5th birthday party, Puss in Boots theme!

Kiera's 5th birthday!

Puss in Boots Theme!

We had a wonderful time at Kiera's party. The theme came together quite well, I have to say. I think I have probably doomed myself, just because now I have to keep it up and do all the cutesy stuff at all the parties from now on. But it was really fun putting it together and I am sure I will do more next birthday (there are four children, I should have plenty of practice by the time I am done with kiddie birthdays, if I will ever truly be done). 

 So the decorations I did were a beanstalk (If you haven't seen puss in boots, Jack and the beanstalk is the main idea behind the movie, so I ran with that.) The bean stalk was made out of pool noodles and had 3-d paper dolls of Puss, Kittie Soft Paws, and Humpty Dumpty  that I got off an HP website featuring puss in boots. They turned out really good, and they were super easy to make and free (not considering the card stock and ink it took)

Then we had magic beans, of course!!

Then there were the golden goose eggs!! These are left over plastic eggs from easter that I spray painted gold. I used Krylon Metallic in Brilliant Gold. It didn't say plastic on the can, but for three bucks, I was willing to try it. I figured if it didn't work, I can always use it for other projects. Luckily, it sprayed beautifully and once it was dry, did not flake or rub off, which was actually my worst fear. I (or rather my sister) filled the eggs with Hershey's kisses. What is the equivalent of golden goose eggs, CHOCOLATE!!!

The cupcakes I bought from Sam's. They were delicious and inexpensive and I was able to get them in the colors I wanted. The toppers I made myself. Click here for a free printable.

So that is the Decor for the party. But the highlight of the party was really the bouncy house.

We had a bouncy house, made for smaller kids, with a moon walk and slide with ball pit. It was a perfect day. The sun was shining but not so bad that it was extremely hot. The bouncy house package we got through Fiestas Portable Party Packages , came with a canopy, table and 6 chairs. We all went outside a lot to just hang out and watch the funny kids go crazy!!

Bouncy house on one side, ball pit on the other. 

Nevin couldn't be happier and messier. Which was my fault. The kids started saying that the house was getting hot. So I thought, well, this thing came with an optional water hose attachment. Lets hose it down. Needless to say, everyone was wet and dirty but oh so happy. Whatever, I got over the hole dirt thing years ago.

Kiera got lots of gifts that she loved, but her favorite, which was from Mommy and Daddy was her Fluffling. Yes, you read that correctly, a Fluffling. It is basically a trible (if you recall your Star Trek Trivia) that sings, speaks, and cries. Everything noisy you could think of, it does. I know I am going to be sorry I bought it but it made her happy and there is an off button. I like off buttons!!

That is one happy five year old. 

Happy Birthday, Kiera! 

I love you baby!

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Pin of the week: Finger knitting!

For this weeks, Pin of the week. I did some crafts with my daughters that ultimately lead to Elena knitting ALL day. I highly recommend this one. The pin itself is on my pinterest sight but here is a pic of it.

Link to the pin

Elena, my 6 year old, is always bugging me about knitting but she is not my most coordinated child. I worry that trying to do actual knitting with backfire on me. Elena does not do well with failure. So I have been looking for alternative ways to teach her. This is brilliant. Its from Flax and Twine. 

I sat down with Elena and within minutes she was hand knitting like there was no tomorrow. 

 

Elena picked it up like it was nothing.

 Even started teaching her little sister.

So here is how you do it.

To start with all you need is:
1. yarn

Elena picked pink with silver accent. My girl does loves pink and glitter. Kiera pick a similar glittery one, but my girl puts a spin on it and picks teal with Silver.

2. Your Hand

Start by going under the pinkie, over ring finger, under middle and over pointer. It looks like this...

 Then turn it around and go under pointer, over middle, under ring and over pinkie. It should look like this.

Do it again... and again, until you have two loops on each finger

Then grab the bottom loop and pull it over the top loop and off your finger.

 Do this again

 And Again

 This is what it will look like after the first pass. Not pretty, but wait, it gets better as you do more

 There is what it will start to look like. Pretty cool.

Here is Elena's final scarf. She is soooo proud and has been knitting like crazy. I have created a monster. She got excited at walmart yesterday when she found the bargain bin of yarn.

 Here are my crazy girls, messy hair and all, with their scarves.

Needless to say, everyone will be getting scarves as a gift from Elena this year. I think I will teach her how to crochet next.