Trash to Treasure Lamp Shade....literally!

Quite a few years back my husband and I were driving home from church on a Sunday afternoon, when something caught my eye. Was I seeing things or was it really and truly the lampshade that I had been coveting in a neighbors window for months, sitting in the trash!(I know, I know, thou shalt not covet!) :) Lo and behold, it was THE lampshade! I told my husband to pull over cause I was gettin' that lampshade. I assume he thought I was joking cause he drove on around the corner to our house. :-/ I told him to leave the van running cause I wasn't kidding, I was going back for that lampshade! I won't go into the strange looks he gave me, but lets just say he thought I'd flipped my lid. :) I drove on back to the house and the lady that owned it was about to take a walk. I asked her if I could have the shade and she asked me if I'd re-cover it for her. ( it had seen better days.) LOL I told her I had never done that before and wouldn't want to disappoint her............soooo, she said I could have it. :) I really and truly had never covered a lampshade before, but figured I could try it for myself and if I messed up, I messed up..no biggie! I took home my prize and immediately started looking for something suitable to re-cover it with. I found some lining fabric that was thick enough so you couldn't see through it, but pliable and stretchy enough to hug the wire frame. I was able to save the vintage fringe and trim from the original covering, so glad too.....the trim is about 1 1/2" wide! I used the old fabric from the lamp as a pattern and allowed just enough extra for a seam allowance. I stretched the new shade covering over the frame and with some hot glue and a few blistered fingers later...........walla, a new shade! I LOVE this lampshade........I wish I had a before shot of it, but I wasn't blogging then and didn't think to take a pic. Just picture the shade how it looks now with a lot of water stains and a few tears from dry rot and you'll see what the old shade looked like then. :-D Anyway, this lampshade is HUGE! It measures close to a yard across the bottom........fabulous for my floor lamp! So, if you happen to see an old lampshade on the side of the road, make sure your husband knows you're not joking when you tell him to pull over.................it'll save you some time from having to go backtracking. :) Enjoy your day and your dumpster diving! lol




isn't this vintage trim yummy!




You can't buy the color of aged fringe like this!



Here's my lampshade all redone and sitting in my foyer.........ain't she a beauty!! :) Not bad for FREE!!!

I'm linking up to:
Make it for Mondays @ Cottage Instincts
Met Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Show off your Cottage @ The house in the roses
Make Your Monday@ Twice Remembered
It's So Very Cheri
Trash to Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Blessings
MELISSA

OH MY GOODNESS, GUESS WHERE I WAS FEATURED!!??

Well I must tell you that I have been very honored the last week or so to be featured on two amazing blogs. You guys have probably seen my Cottage Kitchen Makeover

Remember this?..............

...you know the dark cave kitchen, turned light, bright and airy with little money and lots of paint, well it was featured on Remodelaholic and DIY Showoff! I am so excited to be recognized by such wonderful ladies...........thank you both so much!

You can go here and see my feature on Remodelaholic...........
http://www.remodelaholic.com/2010/03/skipping-steps-guest-project-feature.html






or here to see it on DIY Showoff....
http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/2010/03/diy-project-parade_21.html

Thanks again ladies for such an honor, I appreciate it more than you know!

Blessings,

MELISSA

Treasures and Trinkets Thursday! See What My Mom made for Me!

It's time for Treasures & Trinkets Thursday......you know what to do!
1. Link up something you love (it has to be something you own)
2. Link back to my page...it's just the nice thing to do. :)
3. Grab my Treasures & Trinkets button if you'd like to remember to link up again. (it's a great reminder tool!)

Okey Dokey now, here we go!

Wanna see what my mom made me? (and yes mom, I'm talking about you again!)...... she always says, "do you know how much you talk about me in your blog"? LOL :-)

I think this is very ingenius myself!!

Okay, here it is.............





If you look at this very closely you'll see that the bottom is a margarita glass turned upside down, and the base is a clear plate. She married the two together with two part epoxy (available at Walmart) The dome is actually one of those candle holders that come in an iron base, only it's upside down. She used epoxy and put a drawer pull on top for a handle. She actually made me a set of two...........isn't she a smartie pants!

Here's a couple more pics up close







If you didn't have the dome and still wanted to make something, I would think you could vary the sizes of the glasses and plates and make a three tier candy dish too.

I just thought these were the cutest things! At Christmas I fill them up completely with ornaments and at Easter, sweet little sparkly eggs! :) Hope you enjoy!

Linking up to:
Thrifty Thursday @ Bloggeritaville
Show off your stuff party @ Fireflies and Jellybeans
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Strut your stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Blessings
MELISSA

A VERY SPECIAL WEEK!!

This is the reason I am happy.........ain't he a cutie! :)


He's my hubby and today is his birthday. We were only 15 & 17 when we met, married at 17 & 19 and have been married for 25 years. Yesterday was my oldest son's birthday he was 22.....next week is my youngest son's birthday, he will be 9. March is a birthday bonanza around here! lol

I know I usually do decorating blogs, but I couldn't let today go by without telling all my guys happy birthday! They are such blessings to me!

Blessings

MELISSA

Surprise area of my kitchen you haven't seen yet! :) Cherub & Roses & How to build a shelf above your french doors.

Isn't this the sweetest little cherub! I received this from my next door neighbor years ago...he used to be gold, but I used my "miracle in a can" paint and transformed him into a creamy wonder. :)




I bought some beautiful roses marked down on clearance a while back and dried them to fill the cherub to overflowing.




Here's where he sits in my cottage kitchen. This area is to the right of my french doors and to the left of where my living room starts.




I wanted to wallpaper this wall without continuing to paper the living room, so I figured out a way to stop the paper. I put chair rail backerboard vertically up the wall and also used it as the chair rail as you can see below, I was able to stop the wallpaper in it's tracks! :) If you've never heard of chair rail backerboard and would like to see more about it, go here. I like how it gives a farm house look, instead of the normal chair rail that sticks out from the wall. (especially with the beadboard underneath) I just love the look!




Here's the area above my french doors. It was very plain when we moved in, so I built the shelf to go above the door to hold some of my favorite plates and creamy white ironstone.




The contruction of the shelf was a breeze...It's just one large 1 x 8 and I trimmed it out with some trim that I mitered on the corners. The brackets on the end are actually just for looks, there are L brackets behind the plates that are screwed into the shelf and also into studs in the walls. I just hide the brackets with pretty "stuff". I think it adds a lot to the area and gave me a lot more room to decorate..........which is always a plus in my book! Isn't that what we live for!!? :) Oh and the whole thing only cost about $15 bucks!



I am linking up to...
It's So Very Cheri's It's so very Thrifty.
Show & Tell with Cindy over at My Romantic Home


Hope you have a blessed day!

MELISSA

MY GOODWILL $2.99 COTTAGE LIGHT MAKEOVER.....YOU'RE GONNA LIKE THIS ONE!

This is my transformation of a Goodwill find! Don't you just love finding old stuff and making it new and useful again?! In this case, it was still useful when I got it, but U. G. L. Y.!!! Sometimes we just have to beautify stuff to make it nice again. :)



This light fixture came from Goodwill for $2.99.....



of course it didn't look like this!

Imagine it all brass, wood and brown, no crystals or shade........see, I told you it didn't look like this when I got it! LOL (sorry there's no before pictures, I re-did it before I started blogging) To begin this light's transformation I had to give it a good scrubbing......it was grungy. After that I primed it with Krylon white primer and then gave it 2 or 3 coats of Krylon white paint.



I taped over the socket part that holds the bulb...you don't want to get paint down in there, that would be BAD. While I was in the process of re-doing the light I was looking for a shade that would work....my mom said she had one if it would fit.........I tried it and it fit... YES!~ :) I love FREE! I found a chimney to go under the shade, but I knew it still needed something else. I looked online and found all these wonderful little crystals on sale for 14 cents each! I got them from GSPN Crystals...........they're 55 cents each right now, but this place has weekly specials if you'll sign up for them... sometimes they have some really good deals!



After the crystals arrived I hung them all around the bottom of the light...I think I hung them in every third hole. We got the light all connected and hung up and I put it all together.. I think after everything was all said and done, this light fixture ended up costing...........

Light fixture $2.99
Paint free, I already had it
crystals $7.00 (had some left over too, for my xmas tree!)
install free, I have a sweet hubby
Shade & chimney free..mom and storage closet

Sooooo, my lovely new light cost less than 10 bucks! :) You can't beat that with a stick! LOL



Whenever I see something that has a nice shape, but not a nice finish, I try to imagine what it would look like with a nice coat of white paint...........I pretty much live by that philosophy! :) I call paint a "miracle in a can"! It really is miraculous what a coat of paint can do!

I just LOVE the results!! :)

I'm linking up to

DIY Show Off

Make it for Mondays @ Cottage Instincts

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Show off your Cottage @ The House in the Roses

It's so very Thrify @ It's so very Cheri

Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality

Have a blessed day!

MELISSA

Easter Tree Eggstravaganza!!! :-)

LOOK! It's me in the morning! HA!

No, not really, but doesn't this chick look like he's about to grouch at somebody! :) (not that I would do that!) lol

I told you yesterday that I would show you what I had on that little white table my grandpa made me.....

Well this is it!

But seriously now, my little boy and I have been at it again! This time we decorated out little kitchen feather tree for Easter. We started off with this............

And these...............

And ended up with all this!!....................

And here's our final product!

Don't you just love the colors of Easter? :)

I'm linking up to:

Cindy's Show & Tell at My Romantic Home

Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge

Hope you have a blessed day!

MELISSA