Ultimate Blog Challenge Week in Review

This has been the toughest week so far, I was a post behind most of the time (and even 2 posts behind on one day!), but I'm still here, and I can really see the end (only one more week to go!).

So here's a recap of the last week.

On Tuesday I showed you the DIY yarn lampshade I made

Then I showed you my talented readers (remember our Pinterest group board?)

Then we talked about link parties and how to track them (download your tracker here)

Then I showed you how to turn a simple cereal box into a fancy magazine holder

On Saturday I showed you our improvised lemonade stand

And for the finale we had the funniest post ever. A Chinglish post.

Next week I'll show you some of the items that I'm going to sell on my new Etsy shop, we'll have a pacifier clip tutorial, summer activity for the kids and of course - our giveaway winner ( only 2 more days to go, hurry up!).

DIY Yarn Lampshade

Once upon a time, many many years ago, when I didn't even know The Man yet, he traveled to Africa and came back with all sorts of wooden furniture and houseware. They all came to our house as some kind of dowry and found a warm spot in my heart as well. One of my favorites is a tall, wooden carved lamp, but it never had a lampshade. It has been waiting for years for a lampshade to redeem it from the dazzling light, but we haven't done a thing for years. Until two months ago.

After searching all over the WWW, we decided that what works best is some kind of yarn lampshade, something that will have an unfinished look, and we decided to make one. Meaning - I'll make one.

I used a lampshade frame that I already had in my craft room and we went together to buy yarn (you know those men that know nothing about design and give their wives a free hand to design the house any way they want? Well, mine isn't one of those... He chooses and designs everything with me. Luckily we have pretty much the same taste...). So we chose a colorful yarn, with tiny yarn balls, in hot, earthy colors, something that we felt was related to Africa.

In the beginning I cut pieces of yarn and tied them, leaving a small "tail", but after finishing two sides of the frame (which took something like 2 hours...), we decided we didn't like it that way, and I started over again.

Now it was way faster - I just wrapped the yarn around the lampshade frame. We thought that this was exactly what we wanted.

But, of course, nothing can be perfect in out small kingdom, and when we took a step back…




We found out it looks a bit weird. The lamp itself is really high (around 160 cm / 63") and the lampshade is small and cute. Together they look like this tiny head on a huge body... So the lampshade is off again, waiting for a new house, and the lamp is again naked, until the next experiment.

Disposable plates faces

I've been trying for ages to get rid of at least some of the boxes filled with empty toilet paper rolls, eggs cartons, plastic bags etc., and so I decided to do something with the disposable plates we got somewhere. The kids lightly abused them, and they carried small scars... While we were at it, we continued with the "Destroy the Eggs Cartons Operation" and the kids glued (they love gluing so much!) a nose made of a piece of eggs carton, hair made of yarn and eyes. They also painted a mouth, and voila! Now all we have to do is connect a piece of yarn from behind, so that we can hang these faces up on the wall.