As Promised (or Threatened?)

Perhaps you have already seen the Moroccan inspired lamp that I had previously upcycled.  The shade languished about for a while like this.

Very gold, indeed.

 And now, for a closer look at this plasticky, frilly detail:

Complete with sparkly gold ties that remind me of Christmas tinsel.  And a rip in the plastic fabric.  Lovely!

At any rate, I was inspired to do something with ribbon! So, the gold plastic ribbon went away, never to be seen again, and the lovely scalloped edge was revealed.

Good bones!

One roll of lime green ribbon and a lamp swag kit later and I finally had a light over my vanity table.  Now I can actually see my face when I am applying my makeup!  I know, everyone here in my neck of the woods is grateful.  Finally, two versions of the finished project:  lit and unlit!

 Now, to find an old ratty shade with "good bones" for the other side of the room!  Off to thrift stores I go!

A Thrifted Chandelier Upcycled

For five years I loathed our chandelier.  In 1967 when our house was built there were many fine, attractive, modern lighting options available, and then there was ours.  Of course, I only had to look at it every time I entered our house, every time I ate at the table under that wretched thing, and every time I walked from one part of the house to the other - since our dining area is centrally located.

For the first three years I dithered about, first liking one type of chandelier and then another.  But, for the past two years I have faithfully adored this chandelier, from Sears (Canada).

While I neglected to take pictures of our former dining area chandelier, rest assured that it did not resemble this.  But then again, it also did not cost $169.99 plus tax! While I do recognise that this is reasonably priced for a chandelier, it is still out of my price range, alas and alack.

However, this is not the end of the story, for one day at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, I spied something marvellous.  Something marvellous with a price tag of $6.00 - and no tax!

Shiny!!!  Perhaps of an eighties vingtage?  (One of these days I will take it upon myself to learn about photography, but until then...well, what you see is what you get.)  My long suffering husband, John, obligingly displayed the brassy treasure, in our unfinished basement.  The label indicates that it was made by "Luminaire", or at least some component of it was.  I haven't investigated too much, but I do know that the chandelier has nice lines to it, and I am quite fond of its overall shape.  But it very much needs to be black!
 

 

So new to blogging am I, that I neglected to take photos of the spray painting festivities that followed.  Indeed, I am also new to spray painting. And home decorating...

This part of Ontario gets a lot of humidity in the summer months, but there was one afternoon that promised to be not too humid, and not too hot or too cold for spray painting, as dictated by my research.  So I went for it, out in the back yard under a Maple tree.  I will leave the images of the plastic sheet (that I had put down under the chandelier to protect the grass) being blown about onto my freshly painted piece and me running about willy nilly replacing the plastic with cardboard (as had been suggested by my long suffering husband in the first place) to your own vivid imagination.  Trust me.  At this point it is black, with only one small drip, which I am too lazy and/or inept to fix adds character. 

Next I looked about online for some shades for my chandelier.  And I found that they abound - for a price. A price that is above and beyond my budget.  There are so many lovely ones to choose from, particularly from Ballard Designs.  A couple of them are my favourites:

Seagrass Chandelier Shade - Woven Chandelier Shade

Jute Twine Chandelier Shade | Ballard Designs

Jute, you say?  I bought several balls of jute twine when the garden centre at my local grocery store closed up at the end of the season, and I paid only 25 per cent of the regular price.  Also, I was able to purchase the 5 required chandelier shades at my local Lens Mills Store, for $3.00 each.

Next I ripped off the original fabric from the frames, and came up with design for a crocheted cover based on a tutorial over at Pickles.  My shades are smaller than the one shown there, and also curvier, so I began with fewer stitches and increased the number of stitches at a higher rate as I reached the bottom of the shade.

 Each cover took about an afternoon for me to complete (I am the slowest crocheter of all time.)  I look at it as one afternoon well spent for each of the years that I endured the former chandelier.  

Finally, the big reveal!

John is quite amused, I think, at how much I adore our upcycled chandelier.  He is also quite glad that I spent just a shade (pun intended) under $35.00 all told to put this together.  Credit goes to my long suffering brother, Glenn, who installed it.  I gave him a huge bear hug. And dinner.

Speaking of dinner, now when we enjoy a meal we can also enjoy the view above the table.  My 9-year-old daughter particularly likes the design on the ceiling that the light creates through the crocheted shades:

As do I.
 

Lighting up my Life

My sister knows that if there is an item that she would never want in her home, I'll probably love it!  So, when she spied this beauty going out to the trash, she grabbed it for me, and I found it on my front step upon arriving home that afternoon:

 You really need to see the details close up:

 I happened to have a lonely lamp shade lying around, from a project previously abandoned:

 Hmm...better...but not really great...Hmmmmm...what if...

 I just made it shorter!  I actually did like the amber glass section.  Now it is reminding me of something from somewhere like Morocco.

 Using inspiration from Pottery Barn, I measured, measured, measured then made a template of this shape.

 All sketched out and ready for 17 metres of edging and a glue gun!

And here she is!

I spray painted the fancy parts on the lamp with matte black paint, and bought trim that is mainly black with some sparkle (amber and pink).  I did not intend for the design on the shade to be perfect - and I succeeded in making it imperfect!  It still is in need of rewiring...perhaps I'll manage a better photo of it when it is actually functional.

I'm not holding my breath, but I think even my sister might approve of this transformation.  And rest assured that the original shade will be put to use in another project!  (I feel her cringing as I type.  Hee Hee)

What a turkey

My husband, John, teaches Special Education.  At Christmas his department had a Festive Dinner with all the classes, and John contributed turkey.  However, he did not factor in how long it would take a frozen turkey to thaw, so the original turkey that he bought was brought home, and fresh turkey was cooked at school.  Last week I decided it was high time to roast that turkey, so I put it in the fridge to thaw, and a couple of days later opened up the package to make sure it was ready to be cooked, at long last.  I did not see what I expected to see:

Is that what YOU expected to see?  Okay.  Either I did not understand John when he explained what was in the bag that he was putting in the freezer, or he did not understand what the Educational Assistants were saying who handed him the bag to bring home.  [When John arrived home later that day it was determined that the latter condition was true.]  Further prodding and investigation revealed not one, but two turkey carcasses in there.

Turkey Frame Soup it is!  Fortunately it was still early enough in the day to produce some french bread to go with the soup.  The only photo of the bread in question is abstract; use your imagination.

Yes, there is dough rising under that tea towel.  And yes, of course I meant to include a shadow of my hands holding my phone.  This is high art, indeed.

At any rate, I found enough odds and ends of vegetables lurking in my fridge to make a fine soup.

 Why did I wait so long to buy a good stock pot?  Ridiculous!

In the end, the final product was so delicious that I forgot to take any photos.  But rest assured that I doubled the batch, and there is now soup in the freezer where the bag with the label "utility turkey" used to be...

Jumping In!

"Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.  If they watch every cloud, they never harvest."   Ecclesiastes 11:4 (New Living Translation)

So, rather than spend countless hours researching how to do this blogging thing, I'm jumping in and just doing it!  I'm Dana Lynne, and I am a procrastinator.  I also love starting things;  I loathe finishing them.  However, I also desire a home which is not completely chaotic, so currently I am trying to just complete a few things every day and develop routines (I always thought "routine" was a vile word, being eight letters long - that's twice as bad as a four-letter-word!) that allow things to run smoothly.

After all, what says "love" like making sure your loved ones can find a matching PAIR of socks in their actual sock drawer...

One current project is painting the bedroom that my husband and I share.  It is not the Master or Principal Bedroom - we gave that over to our sons to share.  Our room is just big enough for our needs, and works quite nicely - when there aren't overflowing laundry baskets everywhere, necessitating that my husband navigate carefully toward the bed and then do a complex flop thing onto it...although that is entertaining for me...

Okay, just one more of the "before" shots, to give you an overview of what we're dealing with:

 Nota Bene:  I cleaned!

The star of the show is the gorgeous quilt that a friend made for my husband and I as a wedding gift.  she hand dyed all of the fabric, in all the colours of the rainbow, plus black.  It is a traditional quilting pattern done unconventionally, which she felt reflected us well.  We agree.

Keep studying that beautiful quilt, so the torn blind and markings on the walls (this room was formerly occupied by our daughters) don't hurt your eyes.  Of course, then you might also not notice the step-like effect that the arrangement of furniture creates.  Or the note that one daughter duct taped to the wall just above our "artwork".  It is a loving note, and I do like the caption on the "artwork":  "In a world of copycats be an original."  However, I believe there is room for improvement.

So, during March Break, when our two youngest kids (the boys) were at a Day Camp, we began.  Did I mention that I love launching a new project?  Yes?  Well, here we are, at the beginning.

And when I say "we"?  I mean John, my husband.  Here he is, wiping away 4.5 years of grime off our walls using good old TSP.  You see, I've often read about TSP, while researching how one would go about cleaning one's walls...I've never actually USED it.  (And I still haven't...)

Anyway, I've never chosen a paint colour before.  Since this is for our bedroom, which is not often viewed by people other than my husband and I, our four kids, and miscellaneous close relatives, we decided we could go for anything WE liked.  Eventually I decided to go with either my favourite colour (yellow) or John's (teal).  Now, decision making is not my forte, but John asked me to choose so I made myself choose.  And here it is, along with my youngest son who is "helping" me tape so we can paint the trim.

 Isn't he adorable?  The colour is called "Lagoon" by Beautitone.  And I love it!  And yes, we John painted a few weeks ago during March Break.  And yes, it is now past Easter.  And yes, we still are sleeping in the smallest bedroom...Did I mention that I like STARTING things?  Yes?  Okay then.  Here's something new you may not have tried with your painting tape:

 Wall painting:  complete.  Trim taping:  in progress.  First blog post:  complete.