Literature lamp

Happy Monday!  I've been spending all of my spare time trying to get our house put together, and I have a pretty long (and perhaps overly-ambitious) list of things left to do.  First on the list was "living room lamp makeover: take two"  We got these lamps as part of a living room set, and they were a little too "beach hotel" for my taste.

Now that's a lamp, right?  So for my first attempt at a lamp makeover, I tried to do some color-blocking, by dividing the lamp into three sections, and painting one grey, one yellow, and one shiny gold.  I thought this was a genius idea!  Until I realized that the beachy hieroglyphics underneath were really highlighted by the colors, and the finished products lovingly became known as the "cheese lamps."

So my second (and hopefully final) attempt at a lamp makeover involved a book, some scissors, and some Mod Podge.  I wanted to choose a classic book, so I hit the local Good Will, and found the perfect book: James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl (one of my all-time-favorites!)  I cut a bunch of pages into strips, and stuck them on with Mod Podge.

So after this super-easy (and perfect for sitting in front of the tv) project, we have our new "literature lamps!"

I love catching glimpses of this classic book on my end-table, and I just had to include some snippets of the illustrations.  I love our new lamps!

I've been working on some other home projects, which aren't quite ready to be shared yet.  But I had to share this photo of my favorite buddy, and it's a little sneak peek at another project to look out for this week!

Isn't that just the sweetest little face?  Happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!

Old brown shoe

I spent today at home, practicing and taking a bit of a mental health day.  It was another dreary day here in Pennsylvania (complete with a variety of wintry mixtures falling outside) which was the perfect excuse to stay in all day.  It gave me a chance to do a good-old-fashioned Mod Podge project this afternoon, and to work on a pair of my favorite old brown shoes.  My project was inspired by this post, which I loved (and tucked away in the back of my mind) the instant I saw it a few weeks ago.  These were my shoes this morning:

   
They weren't terribly expensive, but they've quickly become one of my favorite pairs.  For some reason (even after they'd started to look a little more crummy than cute) I just can't stop wearing them.  You can imagine my devastation when a snowstorm in Cleveland almost destroyed them a few weeks back (salt works wonders on fake brown leather...and not in a good way!)  So I tried to give them a little more life, and here they are now:

You may recognize the fabric from this project...I've certainly gotten my money's worth out of that yardage!  I didn't do a perfect job of cutting the fabric away from the shoes, but it's certainly an improvement anyway (and no one will see them that close up, right?) I just glued the fabric on to the sections I wanted to cover, sealed it with Mod Podge, and swapped the laces for some brown ribbon.  I can't wait to wear them out on the town tomorrow!  (And by "out on the town" I, of course, mean "rehearsal.")  Happy Leap Day, everybody!