yeah, I have a thing for lights

Sorry, this post has no amazing crafting ability.  Just amazing bargain deal.

This, sad to say, is my dining room light.  It hovers about 2 feet away from the center of my table.  If I had nothing but the table in there it probably would be centered.  I do not, I have a big ole shelf and my desk.  So the location of ugly, dated light fixture is prime real estate for head bonking.

Just tall people though, which maybe why it's taken me so long to take care of the problem, I'm not tall.

I did make attempts at incorporating it with curtains. 

I still hate it.....

Paying over a hundred dollars for another fixture, I hated even more.

Then low and behold!!!  I went to Lowes' and found this!!! 

Know what's even better than that price?

This one!!!! 

So now I don't even care if it looks great.  I am gleefully skipping down the isle with it balanced on my head.

Until someone saw me and gave me cart.  Probably thought I was off my meds.  Too bad I don't take any bwauhahahhahahhaaha 

I can do jumping jacks in there now.  Not that I would or would want to but I could.

I also got to teach a different teenager how to change out light fixtures.

Yes, I am training the next generation to not be stuck with ugly lights. 

My living room and dinning are one room so it was great to see it goes with my ceiling fan.

Even if ceiling fans are a decorating faux pas I don't care.  They save me from being extremely cranky on days like today.  Which is worth more than being fabulous!!

Lacking illumination is not always bad

Hey, look I found another free chandelier.

Pretty ugly eh?  Then again if it was pretty it wouldn't of been abandoned.

So what do you think it will become?  I've done 3 chandeliers, black and white, gold french, and green daisy (outside).  I have no need for another one at this moment.

But I have seen a few different ideas out there in blogland and think I'm going to try something I've seen modified.  Follow along, it's seems kinda simple.

Start with chandelier and remove all the wires.  You'll need wire cutters and a wrench. 

Just take the parts off and undo everything you find.

I unscrewed the light cups to pull the wires out. 

Then I realized I could unscrew the little bottom finials instead.

Oh well 

So ya got rid of all the wires, now what?

Put it all back together.  I did leave the little bottom finials off. 

Then bring it outside and give it a coat of primer.

Have a clue yet what's it gonna be? 

How about now?  It's a multiply server!

I found this vintage dishes for a quarter a piece.

I was going to keep it white but then I found this color spray paint. 

Looooove the blue, sigh, it's soooo pretty. 

The ones I saw in blogland were permanent with holes and stuff.  I didn't want to do that and the cups were big enough to be stable and a quick add on for the top.  (It's the brass plate thingy that mounts to the ceiling) 

Now I can add a bigger plate and it will be stable plus I can take them off to be washed. 

The best part about it is, I can also store it easier without breaking the plates with the added benefit of switching out dishes. 

Or throw a bowl on the top instead. 

I suppose I could put a teapot on top with teacups and saucers on there as well.

That might be really cute!..... maybe I should do another one and have a tea party.

All in all this cost about 1.50 for the plates and 3 dollars for spray paint.

Plus, if I still wanted to I could put tea lights in there as well, just have to trade out top for painted finial.

Yep, I like it!!!!... now to find an excuse to use it :)

Tea party anyone?

OH yeah  TAAAAAA-DAAAAAA!!!

Help! I'm a craftomaniac

Ok, so I was doing my blog runs and I stumble upon this brilliant idea by one of my favs Life in Rehab.

I immediately stole the idea and ran off to the dollar tree.

I glued them together and decided to wait until I went to Wal-Mart to find something fun and pretty to put in  it. 

As you can see they are still empty....boo

It's been an odd few days, couldn't wake up one day and couldn't fall asleep the next.  Today I realize I have shingles.....(add big BOOOO here)

The store is out of the question and laying here is all I can muster.

I continued to surf old blogs and a few new ones only to find myself stealing yet another idea.

Some one needs to call the blog police and report me.

The other day I scored this for a dollar at a garage sale. 

It was filled with broken, or singular earring dating from the 50's to the 80's 

I was just hoping to find something amazing to do with some of them.

I did :) and before the down time I had found real Goop (thanks Sunni).

So you slather on the goop 

I am working with a clipboard today. 

Add random earrings until you like the look. 

They pull out the ModPodge and scrapbook paper and get creative. 

I made this for Fairly Godmother  to be able to use.

Using black and white with touches of hot pink....

makes it even harder to give up.

I think it came out fabulous!  I just wish I remembered where I saw it first. 

Alas I am not the original on this one.  I give props to who ever did it first.

I am just glad I found a craft (something to do) while somewhat horizontal and with the help of my lovely daughter.

In the gardern...kinda

So does anyone else know about Goodwill's Sunday and Monday sale?  It was only 99 cents but recently went to 1.29.  It's like a treasure hunt, you find the magic color and then start searching for a lost treasure.  I absolutely love it!!!  It is the game of re purposing :)

So back in the 99 cent era I found this lamp, I tend to buy lamps for parts and rewire them or distort them but they still remain illuminating.

Well that is until this one.  I loved the look but just didn't want to make another lamp.  It was like when I figured out how to crochet hats and then everyone I knew had one of my hats.  I had so many I was just handing them out to random people at the Christmas Parade.  It's the only time of year you can do that without being arrested.

So do you want to see what I did with it?  Oh I just remembered, the set of lights I converted into cat proof planters.  Ok my bad I was wrong but I'm going in that kind of direction.

So here it is TAAAA-DAAAA!!!! 

I found the bowling ball on one of the treasure hunting days and it fit perfectly.  Needed some garden art to balance the bunny.  The little tea light holders are glued to the file cabinet rod thingies.  The only thing left to use on the file cabinets are the drawers.

They are working pretty good as planters! 

Scope out my pea crop, no weeds, no bugs, no cats digging in and doing their business.  Plus I don't have to bend over or kneel in wet ground.  I do <3 these things. 

Think I 'm going to have salad for lunch with some fresh pods, oooh yeah :)

VICTORY!!!!! (we will we will ROCK YOU....sing it now)

Meet my nemesis    >-< ooooooooh!!! how I hate to sew.  Think we've gone over that while making 50 chair covers back in the fall.  It has been long enough I have forgotten.

I had no choice, I needed cushions for outside and the cheapest one I found was 20!!!!  for one. 

 After checking around it appears outdoor cushions are quite valuable and one wonders why you would leave them outside.  O.o  I am now contemplating a life of crime by stealing people's outdoor cushions and selling them on the black market.  My lack of storage and common sense is keeping the thought at bay.

So my attempt at making cushions was a total fail. 

It probably had to do with not having a pattern, or measuring.  Or even a faint attempt at any kind of structure in making this cushion.  I still love the fabric though.  Trust me I will still use the cushion (I'm not that proud) and throw it on a stool or something.  On top of it being confusing it was waaaaaay to small.  boooo  See there's that measuring thing again.

So with much apprehension I attempted to redo these awesome chairs a friend of mine gave me.

I stained them a light grey and found some great outdoor fabric at fabric guru.  Who knew you could actually find outdoor fabric for 4 dollars a yard and if that wasn't awesome enough shipping is only 4.99 for any amount!!  Take that 30 dollar cushions!!! 

So here they are back from forgotten to fabulous!!!

TAAAAAAAA-DAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Simply sublime...sigh...

I even attempted artsy photos :) 

Here's a close-up of the fabric.

See that little black smudge?  Look closer...yeah that's why it was 4 dollars a yard.  Now ask me if I care...nope not one bit.  I'll just blame it on the cat :D hahahaha

Not only did I have complete victory over my sewing machine once but...

TWICE!!!!! 

Have I mentioned we live near a rain forest? 

If you don't mow the lawn within a two week span it tends to go back to jungle mode.

Our lawn mower got pulled out, did a few passes and then promptly died of a heart attack.

Thinking about renting some goats.

odds and ends and a possible fail

Waaaaaaay back in Feb I stopped by Ikea just to forage and see what I could find.  I found this for a dollar.

Well it didn't look this nice and it was without it's lighting.  It was just a paper husk with a few small holes in random places.

I have witnessed crafty things done with paper lanterns and decide I too would join the ranks of said craftiness.

I thought about cupcake liners or flowers but then a friend of mine asked for my help with her bedroom redo.

She loves vintage and funky.  Me, I love cheap or free.  I found a broken light fixture at a yard sale and got it for, yet another dollar.

Next came the idea to cover it in craft paper with her chosen colors. 

So  retro TAAA-DAAAAA!

It's got a retro sputnik feel to it so I threw in the flowers to not be over the top. 

I was a little afraid she wouldn't like it.  I called her down to take a gander so I could fix it if she didn't.

She didn't like it.....she loved it!  I am soooo glad :) 

If you want to know what I did, I'll tell you.  I cut a bunch of circles and mod podged them on there along with cut-out craft paper.  That's it.

After staring at my wood wall, I realized how much it looked like a pallet.  I have nothing against pallets, mind you.  I actually love them, but it's not a pallet.  So I stained it and am now thinking about that.

What do you think?

I'm thinking about framing it out in black or something.... 

So I was cleaning out some stuff and found a decent size frame with glass and decided I would try my hand at a dry erase board with fabric.  I spray painted the frame a lovely red and found a metallic shiny silver that was all crinkles.  It was looking awesome!

Then I was pushing the metal dohiggies back down on the back and I hear a kriiiick.

DANG IT!!!!

The stoooopid glass cracked, broke, became instantly useless. :(

Now what???  Go buy another piece of glass? HA! not for what glass costs.

Throw the glass away and use the frame? Maybe but that is more work than I want to do.

SOLUTION: use it in the design......GENIUS!  maybe? 

I ran and grabbed my glass glue and ran it along the cracks and covered it with red ribbon.

Brown ribbon would of been better in hind site, but my daughter grabbed what I asked for the first time.

Dang my mouth not catching up to my brain.

So then I added branches with my glass paint marker. 

So you decide...SCORE?  or FAIL!!! 

I tested it, it still functions.

I love other people's gardens!!!

I know I have said this before, "my thumb is not that green".  I want it to be green, and sometimes I even achieve a little success.  Then I confuse myself with thinking I am a farmer.  Then get caught up in something twisted and become a herbicidal maniac.  I don't want to kill the plants.  I'm not even aware of when I am killing them.  It's a Jekyll/Hyde thing. 

So many people have such great and fragrant gardens and I just thank God I am related to some of them.
It makes it easier to forage if you know the people who own the land.  Less conflict and yelling.

I went to my nieces today to drop something off but I did have pillaging in the back of my mind as well.
I can't help it!!!  She has lilac trees everywhere and in different colors and healthy and in bloom and .....and.....an.  They smell so pretty.

Plus the ones I had stolen found and lovingly given, were starting to die. 

Aren't they simply amazing and just.....PURPLE.

You know what's even better than free???

Love and family that will tolerate you stealing their flowers.

As I was leaving with my bouquet, I walked by her spring peas...I couldn't resist.

I yelled out "I'm eating your peas too" and munched a few.

They were delicious and you could taste the GREEN.

Yep, family with green thumbs rock!