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I’m a SAHM, I blog, do crafts, share reviews and really try to get into the thick of things from my home computer, but my job doesn’t pay much if at all. So in my years of being a SAHM, I’ve learned to become resourceful and stretch the mighty dollar. I coupon, I clearance shop and now I revamp! I’d been sitting at my desk contemplating which project I needed to get started on when my eyes locked in on my 10 year old lamp. Such a cutie it used to be when I purchased it at IKEA, it was cute and inexpensive. As I began staring at it, it became more and more apparent that it was completely outdated for my tastes and for my eye candy at my desk. I decided that I would try to revamp it and bring it back it back to life in 2013!

First step was to decide how I was going to do that, and if I am being honest, I had no idea what I was going to do, just that I was going to do something and I wasn’t going to sleep on it, I was going to do it RIGHT NOW!

I quickly pulled out a tube of Peony Pink Paint from Americana, a paint brush, a Styrofoam plate and my cream colored 10 year old lamp shade. As I began slapping on the paint and filling in light areas, I realized some things… One this lamp was really old because I could see the cracks in the plastic on the reverse side and two, I was having fun and it wasn’t going to stop at a few coats of peony pink paint either.

Once the paint dried I just stared at it and though I loved how it coordinated with my Rose Garden that I made two weeks prior, it needed a little something more. I quickly thought embroidery. I had just bought a sew easy kit, that contained stitch piercers and floss, but being that my lampshade didn’t lay flat, it didn’t pierce properly, and that saddened me because I was determined to have some form of stitching on my lampshade. (Please note, you are about to learn that I am very resourceful and I use whatever I have on hand to make things happen), I decided that the top brim would have stitching and so I pulled out my staple remover and began to pierce free hand around the top and it was a success. I pulled out my floss and threaded it on the needed and began stitching (um, yeah, I’m a far cry from a sewer) after many different attempts I was able to create a diagonal stitch and then I turned it around and went over it in the opposite direction, creating a chevron pattern. Pleased as punch, I realized, this is nice, but it still needs something.

Seeing as though I just “mastered” stitching, I thought, I’ve always wanted to use buttons. I grabbed some lime green buttons in three different sizes, created a pattern and began sewing them up after piercing the holes with the needle (a lot more work than necessary had I realized I already owned a piercer, unused) and sewed them on in three places (not the back because that is where the seam was and well, it already split (and had to be repaired), so I figured I’d leave well enough alone. Once that was complete (no, I’m not even going to show you the inside of my lamp shade), I still felt like it needed something….

Of course, what is a project without some bling, so I grabbed pink, green and orange (to match of course) and placed in a triangular pattern in between the centers of the buttons. Now, yes, that was beautiful, that looked nice and wouldn’t you believe it, my SON was the first to say I like your lamp! I had so much fun revamping my lamp, I oohed and ahhhed at it’s beautiful brilliance for at least another hour, proud of my accomplishment, knowing that this would be just the beginning of my revamping. If you can’t get it new, renew it!

What would you like to revamp? Have you re-purposed anything lately? I have a new vision now, I see things and I don’t see them as old, I see them as a potential project and that makes me very happy.