I love lamp

My bedroom has no overhead light. This is possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Now that I think about it though, I believe I previously had an apartment (maybe in college) that didn't have a light. I used Christmas lights... That was in college though, when it was whimsical to not have lights. Now it's just annoying. How can I put away laundry or vacuum or find a black bra? Let me tell you, it's very difficult! All I had were these puny little paper lanterns.

So, they're cute right? Just not very bright. They were a Christmas gift years ago and were originally cream and green. Well they hadn't matched anything I owned for quite some time. So I attacked them with brown spray paint (making them less than bright) and pink ribbon and hot glue. A good end result, unless you want to use them to see.

Now comes the new lamps. I bought them post college when I was planning to have a blue room. They were on clearance and I loved the look. Well, I never really had a blue room after I bought them. So I've used them, they just never really matched and it drove me crazy so I did not bring them when I moved. However, after discovering the lack of light in my room I wished desperately for them and had my mom bring them to me last weekend. And thus a craft project was born.

1. This is the original lamp shade. Or what was on the frame. I forgot to take a real before picture. See how the inside is blue. So when the light was on you could see the blue through the white. Clever idea really. Unless your room is pink. So I got out my X-acto knife and a pair of scissors and went to town.
2. So after I cut the old shade off I realized the top and bottom of the shade frame were only held together by the fabric of the shade. Ooh, wooden skewers in the kitchen, problem solved. So, some hot glue, 6 wooden skewers and some white fabric later we have a very plain lamp shade. I was proud that I'd done it but it wasn't anything exciting.
3. Today I bought ribbon. I really just wanted a brown satin (but remember the sucky crafts department at Wal-Mart) but they didn't have any. It was like destiny though. I found pink and brown striped ribbon. So, add some more hot glue and I have fantastic lamp shades. I am so thrilled with how they turned out. I looooove them!