Updating Thrift Shop Goodies

So everyone loves a bargain. I love goodwill because it is great at that. However, sometimes your bargain buys aren't EXACTLY what you wanted. I found that to be true of my $3 lamp.

See? Just not pretty. Plain, bland, blah. 

I started with glittering the top screw:

Fill bowl with blue and purple glitter (it's what I had)

cover top in mod podge (that's what the little dobber in there was for)

and roll around in there. And you get this!

Prettyful!

Ok, step two: the lamp shade.

I had music note fabric that I loved and have been looking for a reason to use. 

It came from IKEA. You could buy it by the yard, and i got some remnant pieces for cheaper.

So I put a bead of hot glue along the rim of one side and pressed the fabric in.

Then I would continue on all four sides until they were secure.

Then glue excess on the insides of the top and bottom of the shade.

You can see how it's glued inside the top of the shade over the edge.

I layered the fabric different ways on different sides to create the desired effect.

And then I made an adorable little bow with a resin rose on it and glued that sucker on the front!

(I may or may not go back at some point and glue ribbon around it)

But for now. SO much cuter than it was! I no longer hate it, and I now have light.

T-Shirt Quilt

Everyone and their mother has seen the adorable t-shirt quilts that everyone is making out of old ill-fitting (or just scratchy) t-shirts that you saved forever! I finally got my butt in gear and started putting mine together.


I cut up 11 shirts and 2 custom bags that were broken thus far. I'm still looking for about 5 or 6 more shirts.

I liked the t-shirt quilts that sort of had a more hodge podge look to them. I wasn't as much a fan of all the perfectly cut squares. So mine is NOT perfect.

I decided I wanted to start with my center square as the bag that was monogrammed with my puppy on it. It says "Bailey" and has his sweet little stitched picture on it.

So from there I just started placing things around it. I put my AOII letter shirt to the right, I <3 above="" act="" and="" below="" competition="" dr="" it.="" it="" left="" my="" nickname="" one="" p="" shirt="" the="" to="" who="">
Then I just kind of made areas that were for certain subjects. Sorority stuff went one way, theatre stuff another, nerdy stuff another. Then I mixed in my two band tees in and the APO bag my big brother made for me (because it was very broken). Now, I've got two prom shirts, several letter shirts, and a few more theatre shirts that I'm aware of still need to be added. But it's looking good so far!