Before and After: Thrifty Lamp Re-do

You probably remember how much I love finding things for free, especially finding them on the side of the road for free - something about that just feels so awesome.  I'm pretty sure it was last summer that I picked up this lamp from a heap of stuff in my neighborhood: functional lamp, but definitely not my style.  Talk about unfortunate.

Lamp re-do: BEFORE

Fast-forward many, many months.  We decided to move out of our current house into another house across town, and I told myself I wouldn't take any half-finished projects with me.  It was either toss this into my own roadside pile for the next lucky scavenger, or get cracking.  As you might guess, I decided to just jump right in.  So glad I did!

I'm squeaking this baby in just under the wire!  11 days until our move, and now, the lamp is finished!

Lamp re-do: AFTER

I hot glued sisal rope around the lamp base, coiling it around and around.  It's a little shaggy looking, and very rustic - much better than a yellow porcelain dandelion.  And here's my little "untutorial" on how to do a lampshade: check out this post by Young House Love.  All you need is a lonely and/or desperate looking lampshade, some hot glue, and some fabric.  And ... go!

Total project cost: less than $10!  It did take a lot of hot glue, but this was a seriously thrifty project!

The move, the push to finish projects, and general summerness is accounting for my lack of frequent posts these days.  I'll try to squeeze in a few more project finishes if I can, and at least another recipe or two during our transition!

What To Do With Too-Small Onesies

I've been in a massive cleaning and purging mode over the last few weeks, which has felt AWESOME.  One thing I've run into though is too much of one thing (baby onesies that don't fit a growing-taller baby, for example) and not enough of another thing (t-shirts that don't swallow said baby whole).

So I had the idea - why not just upcycle onesies into toddler t-shirts?

No sewing required.

Just snip straight across the bottom of onesie ... aaaaaaand, you're done.  Because onesies are made of knit fabric, they don't fray.  They'll roll up a bit with wash and wear, but won't come unraveled.  

You know I hate throwing anything possibly useful away.  So, thanks to an idea from my neighbor, the leftover bottom parts of the onesies are now going to be fine motor skill training experiences.  I trimmed off the excess fabric and left just the thick trim with the snaps.  Big Sister will LOVE this on our next car ride, I just know it.  Snap, unsnap, snap, unsnap, snap, unsnap.  I bet it will keep her occupied for at least 3 1/2 minutes.