The power of love, light and a cheap set of doilies...

I have always loved lights on a Christmas tree. Always. Ever since I was a small child, a Christmas tree with lights made me basically beam with delight. I always told myself that when I grew up, I would have magical Christmas tree lights all over the ceilings of my house. Every room would have them and I would make forts on the floor and have the best adventures!

Unfortunately, my parents did not let me have the Christmas lights in my room (fire haz and all that jazz). I wasn't even allowed the glow in the dark star stickers on my roof (but I did eventually get these on the down lows anyway). However, the fluro stars didn't quite cut it so I would patiently wait for the 1st of December to rock around ever year so I could sit in front of the tree and look at the magical delicious coloured bulbs for hours... Strange child much?!

I am now 28 and still, tiny, magical fairy lights make my day. My brother asked me what I wanted for Christmas; my request - lights! It's quite amazing how much of a pretty wee feature they become. They take me straight back to that place of sheer excitement and happiness - a bliss moment.

Back in the Uni days, we had a friend (Carolyn) who still, (to this day) is one of the most talented artists (in both paint and sculpture) that we know. Being quite povo (poverty-stricken) as students, we would raid the organic collections of people's unwanted treasures left on the side of the road and make do with adorning our ratty flats with vino bottles (acting as vases) or 'can art' made out of beer cans. 

Carolyn took to task on buying some fairy lights (for about 10 bucks) and making the most incredible piece of wall art - a crazy spiral wheel on the lounge wall, held up by tiny hooks. We would spend countless hours staring at it, enjoying it and dancing around it like life could not get any cooler than this.

I heart my fairy lights so much. My London room makes me happy in an instant when I put them on. Tonight being Monday, I decided to take my arts and crafts to the next lev, and buy some doilies (I know what you kiwi's may be thinking reading this - tack tack tack) - but please do read on.. I wanted to make flower cases either out of pretty different coloured tissue paper or with lace-like doilies, so I could wrap these around the lights and they would look like flowers! 

I always see these gorgeous flower feature fairy lights, but for 40-50 quid my internal monologue gets all Castle-like with the shop lady and says 'you're dreaming'... Walkaway Renee... I went about researching how to make these.

My fellow hype-girl and myself do really get depoed (depressed) on Mondays... The Boomtown Rats sang about this day, so too did The Bangles; no matter what, we always struggle to get out of this neg mindset come late Sunday eve. 

In order to shift these feelings, I came home tonight, turned the lights on, repeated my top 5 highs of the day and got to work on how to make these 'flower lights'. I hopped on my bike and went out to buy a pack of doilies (I got 20) from the supermarket for 5 quid! How rad is that?! 

I am currently sitting on my floor, (feeling giddy like I am seven again) writing this and smiling. They let me dream and make me happy. There is something about good mood lighting which makes people feel really happy and at ease.

So, if you are feeling a bit low, want to take 5, and seriously feel content, I firmly believe a good set of fairy lights are key...

See the good in all things this week and unleash the child-within. We can't always be so damn serious.

And just like wasabi, fairy lights DO make everything okay... x

Paper Flower-lace-doily Fairy Lights

What You Need:

* 1 string of fairy lights (Argos sell them on the cheap, so does this website with next day delivery: http://www.fairylightuk.com)

* 1 paper doily for each light on your string

(All supermarkets seem to have these little beauties)

* Clear sticky tape

* Double sided tape

* Scissors

What To Do:

Take one of your doilies and make a cut from the outside to the centre. Put a little bit of double sided tape on the back of one of the cut edges, overlap that edge over the other to make a cone shape. Secure the other loose edge with another small piece of double sided tape.

Now make one of these for each light on your string of fairy lights ...

Right, time to put it all together!

Snip the tiniest bit off from the tip of your cone, just enough so you can push your fairy light through. When the light has been pushed through, take a small piece of clear tape and wrap it around the bottom of the cone to hold everything in place, like so:

Repeat with a new doily cone for each light on your string.

Now you have some racy-lacy fairy-lights!

Easy peasy, super cute and cheap as chips!

Tip: You could also use different coloured tissue paper and create the same, but have a rainbow of colour!