DIY Lamp

A little while ago I posted about some goodwill treasures that I bought - including a lamp that I wanted to revamp for my jungle-themed room. Well, I finally finished it. (And, it was super easy to do!)

Here is the BEFORE picture again:



And here is what it looks like AFTER:


Of course, my little shadow (aka Snickers) snuck into this picture. This sweet little cat follows me around the house all day checking out what I am doing. :) When we took this little stray into our house, we weren't really sure if we would be able to keep him - now we can't even imagine not having him! He is the sweetest little thing!

Anyways, if you'd like to do your own lamp-makeover, it is really simple. Here is what I did.
(Sorry - some of these pictures are not the best quality.)




Use a pencil to trace to length of fabric needed on the backside of the fabric.





Cut the fabric a few inches wider than the line that you traced.





Here he is - watching everything I do. :)

Spray this adhesive on the shade and press the fabric into place. This adhesive stays tacky for a little bit so you will have time to make the fabric fit just right. (You may notice that I painted the shade white to try to get rid of the pattern showing through when the lamp is turned on. If I was to do this again, I would just start with a white shade.)



Fold and hot glue the fabric to create a seam.



Fold and hot glue to over-hanging fabric.



I had to snip the fabric so that it would fold around the metal pieces.





Everything is now glued into place.




I added this peel and stick beaded trim. (I found it at Jo-Ann's on clearance.)



Lastly, I hot glued this brown satin ribbon on the top and bottom edge of the shade.



Happy Tuesday!

Back to School Shopping and Other Fun Stuff

I have to admit that I LOVE back to school shopping. I love new pencils, crayons, glue sticks and other supplies. I also can't help going into the Goodwill and leaving with a whole bag of books to add to my classroom libaray. In fact, I think that the Goodwill is my favorite place to find unique items for my classroom. Recently, I found some items that have inspired me to try a jungle theme this year. (Like this light-up palm tree for only $3.99!)

And these cute palm-tree lights, which I have turned into chicka chicka boom boom lights by adding some foam letter stickers. (They were only $1.50 for two strands and the stickers were 50 cents!) Maybe I can hang these around my word wall.

And this little guy...

I also picked up this lamp for only $3.50 and I am going to cover-up with giraffe printed fabric. (After picture to come...)

I also have to say that I love the penny sales at Staples and how they allow the teacher-limit of 25 items, as opposed to 2. I was able to get: 25 packs of index cards, 25 packs of pencils, 25 packs of highlighters, 2 packs of markers, and 3 plastic shoe storage boxes for only $7.14! Thank you Staples!



Even Snickers is mesmorized by the amount of items I got from Staples.



I also owe a huge thank-you to Lyssa from "My Mommy Reads". (Check out her blog for lots of great book suggestions!) I won her giveaway and was SUPER excited to get this wonderful pack of Think-Math cards in the mail from her.

These are really neat... I think I will hole punch each card and hang them in my calendar area for a "problem of the day". 

Last, but not least, I made these cute "magic reading wands" last night. All you need are some sparkly pom-poms, some wooden rods, and hot glue.

Glue them together, put them in a cute cup...

and have your students use them to track the print as they read!