My Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades

Last night a couple of other girls and I got together for our first attempt at a craft night.  Basically, a couple of girls came to my house with small craft things that they have been meaning to do for some time and just haven't gotten around to doing.  We all sat around my dining room table, chatted, and worked on different things.

I decided to attempt to monogram lamp shades for Lil's room.  I saw this picture on Pinterest (of course) the other day and decided that it seemed easy enough and could be done in a couple of hours.

Pinerest

The shade on Pinterest used felt for the monogram, but I thought it would be a lot easier for a first attempt just to use paint.

First, I used a container to make a circle on plain printer paper and then I just drew a (kind of wonky) monogram in the circle.  I used a Sharpie to outline the monogram and then taped it to the inside of the lamp shade.  I traced the monogram with pencil on the outside of the shade and then painted it.  I used acrylic paint because I already had it.  My shades are not perfect, but they were an easy project for craft night :)

The lamp bases were from Pier 1 several years ago that I spray painted pink.

Are any of you guys and dolls up to anything fun?

Make a Plate

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I hope you are all getting ready and excited for Christmas.  Our week is so crazy, but I'm more excited about Christmas than I have been in years.  It's not that I've been a scrooge in years past (except when I was a terrible, terrible teenager), but it's been so much fun to do Christmas stuff with Lilly this year.  She still hasn't really gotten the concept, but she does know that Santa says, "Ho, Ho, Ho!"  She's also learned a couple of Christmas songs and she'll love to open presents.

Anyway, thinking about my babies got me thinking about birth plates (is that a term??) that I've made.  I made one for Lilly when she was born, but poor Gaines has yet to get his.  Those poor, poor second babies :)

I've also painted plate and cup sets for shower and Christening gifts.  I think they're really cute (it's all relative, right), but of course I've never taken a picture of them before I've given them away.  Maybe the recipient of one of these gifts will send me a picture :)

Here is the birthday plate that I painted.  The concept was for the birthday girl or boy to use it for cake, but of course I forgot about it at Lilly's birthday party (story of my life...if I don't write it down, it never existed.  I might as well staple notes to my shirt...seriously).

Here are some other random things that I've painted.

I had grand visions of Jeff using this for weekend coffee, but it's literally never been used to drink out of.  It collects small stuff in my closet :) 

Here is an actual, non-cleaned view of where they sit in my kitchen.  As you can see, I have a spot for Gaines' plate, just no plate.  This is pretty much my daily kitchen reality :)

I've always just done these at paint your own pottery places.  It's a little time consuming, but that's part of the allure for me.  It's kind of like a date with myself:).  Anyway, it's a relatively inexpensive way to make a personal gift for someone.  Also, you just have to show up and paint and they clean up after you!

Do any of you ever do the paint your own pottery thing?  It's probably a little dorky, but I resigned myself to the fact that I'm not cool a long, long time ago :)

Have an awesome rest of your day!!  Let me know if you've got a fun idea you want to share or you think other people might like to try.