DIY _ recycled paper mache lamp

I made this gorgeous lamp a few months ago. Check out the instructions on how to make one for yourself


The cable I had bought in Sweden wasn't adapt for Italy, so a friend of mine was nice enough to modify it for me and help me assemble it. And I just love it. It gives a lot of character to the room and I just adore having something unique at home that I made. The lightbulb that I've used is a very large clear lightbulb but I'm going to change it for a matte one, or with lower Watt as now its too bright and hot.
This lamp is made out of newspaper using a paper mache technique. The outside has then been painted white and the inside has been painted turquoise. I made some holes on purpose in order to create  a more interesting light.  

The lamp at night time with my dad's painting in the background.

Our wedding decoration

 Here are the decorations from our wedding. I did so many things in order to make our wedding as personal as possible. It all turned out amazingly and I was given many compliments. Our guests appreciated the personal touches making them feel special as well.  

 This is a road sign that I made where all the places are indicated where our guests had travelled from to be there for our wedding. 

 The table decorations. The napkin had a champagne coloured ribbon (our colour theme). Fabric flowers, a Protea flower, a pot with grass with the table numbers.

 A close up of the table decorations. 

 The cakes and the cake presentation that I came up with myself. The white chocolate of the cakes resembles the bark of the tree stumps. The beautiful seeds that I had collected over some time. The tin cans with babies breath flowers, and also the cake toppers that I had made of us. 

 The headband for the flower girl. 

 The cake toppers that I made of ourselves. They're made out of Polimer clay that are baked in the oven. 

 The ring pillows with the same lace that we also had around the jars on the tables and of the leg band. 

 The hair flowers that both I and the 3 bridesmaids wore on the day. 

 The window on which I wrote the table seating. Each rectangle had the names of a table. 

 Wish tags that were placed in the birds house, which our guests wrote their wishes to us. 

 We put photos of our parents, grandparents and other family members on their wedding days. It was a way to celebrate them and show our respect to them.

 The wedding program fans. On the first page it has the program, second page has the bridal party names, the third page had the text of That's Amore which we sang together with our guests after the ceremony. 

 Small flags which the guests waved after we were wed. 

Wedding inspiration _ unique invitation cards

This is the wedding invitation I made. The cartoon is of us. Me pulling my husband to be away from his dish of pasta to get to the altar. It has a fun feeling to it and shows our personalities quite well. I have included many details into the invitation that will later be shown at the wedding. 

This is the card when its layed out. You fold it in 3 parts. The bride and the address become the outside, and the groom eating the spaghetti is on the inside, as a surprise. 

This is the outside of the card. Showing a bride pulling what seems to be a rope... 

Only to find out that she is pulling the spaghetti. Her fiancè is eating, as usual (Italian). 

This is the inside of the card. It is full of useful information about the wedding.
- On the left page we have the map with directions on how to get there. It is a map of Lake Garda, a cartoon aeroplane shows nearby airports, the "spaghetti" continues and becomes the highway, as well as a dividing line on the other 2 parts.
- The addresses of the restaurant as well as the ceremony location are written on the bottom left page. The same symbol is then shown on the map.
- A road sign on the top left corner shows the distances that our guests are travelling to come to celebrate with us. This is to make them realise that we are very well aware of how fare they are travelling. It's also a fun topic to talk about during the dinner. I have made a real sign that will be placed in the garden of the restaurant where the guests will enjoy a refreshing drink and snacks before the actual dinner.
- A fiat 500 car has the text "just married" on the side.
- A cartoon of the castle has 3 flags: The Italian, The Swedish and the Australian, showing our nationalities. The real sign can be seen here.

The center of the card has the actual invitation details, time, date, place, etc.
In the center of the middle page we put the link of our wedding blog where people can get more info about the wedding, transport, accommodation, gift registry, etc. The bottom flowers are also shown again on the wedding blog and include the colour theme for our wedding.

The right part of the invitation is the RSVP page. Guests can fill in whether they are coming or not, if they are allergic or vegetarian, etc. Hardly anybody actually sent it back, as it meant cutting off the cartoon of the groom on the back. 

Wedding inspiration _ Alternative confetti

I wanted a personal way to store the confetti at our wedding (as you might've seen by now, I want everything to be personal at our wedding). I was looking for a way to personalize the typical paper cone where guests can put their confetti. I soon had the idea of using the pages of an old book to make the cones. I wanted the meaning of the poems or book to be special to us and also have an important meaning. But that wasn't such an easy task. At one point I thought about taking the easy road and buying an old Shakespeare Romeo & Giuletta book, but then started cringing at myself for its banality. After a while it came to me and I was surprised I hadn't thought of it earlier....
When I first moved to Rome, dad used to send me a new poem about every month. Some were dedicated to me specifically, others were about all kinds of other subjects. When he passed away 3 years ago, I decided to put together a book which I then gave to each of his siblings and other friends of his. So I decided to use these for the cones. I printed them out (6 per page) on an A4 piece of paper. Each square was about 10cm (10,5 x 9,3 to be exact).
This way, dads poems to me have been integrated into our wedding and we could include him in a way without making it way too teary.

The cones will then be presented in a lovely wooden box (which I love) and 3 white paper bags filled with 3 types of confetti: Rice, Lavander, and paper confetti. The guests can make their own mix.


I made about 60 despite we have 90 guests, because I have also made 60 small white flags for people to wave, so I gathered that some people will just have to have one or the other. 

 The photo above is from the lavender that I dried. I picked quite a big bunch and then it only turned out to be enough to fill about 10 cones. I wanted to go and pick more (wild lavender grows along the roads here) but a few days later the council gardeners had cut them all down. :-(

 I also bought this cute wooden calender at the "1 euro store". I'm sure I'll use it as a decoration somewhere. 

How to fold the paper in order to get the best looking cone. 
* cut out your square pieces of paper. Mine are about 10 x 10 cm.
* turn your piece of paper so that a corner is pointing up
* Take the top corners and place them together, pinching the bottom corners together with eachother too.
* Fold the bottom corner to avoid any holes for the confetti to fall out from.
* Put two staples: one in the bottom and one at the top of where the two corners meet like in the photo below. 

The display of the cones filled with lavender, the wooden box and the wooden calender. Cute hey?

I always thought you were odd!

Dare to be unique and mix and match designer chairs with the average vintage chair you'd find at the market. This bachealour approach is exactly the right thing to do! Then add an old rustic wooden table to complete the style! Feel free to combine all different types of chairs, benches, stools. A quick and cheap way of making your own table is getting an old slab of wood from your local woodmill and lay it on top of two sawhorses.


A tree stub can become a great stool which doesnt take up much space and gives a great unique feel. Just ask at your local sawmill or firewood salesman and I'm sure you'd get it for close to nothing.