I'm being harassed by fellow bloggers and it's not pretty...

sigh...

Angela, the Parisienne Farmgirl (of the beautiful kids, lovely chickens, and honey lavender ice cream), is "requesting" to see my chandelier after it's paltry makeover.  This re-do is more a case of "anything would be better" than "isn't she just amazingly clever." 

To save you time here's the "old" very ugly cheap chandy with it's too small shades.  Love all the extra chain and wires sticking out...

Original plan?  Redo the shades in a cool fabric to match the burgundy trim on plate and paint the chandy white (via Jan at Bobby Pins Boardwalk)

Shortly thereafter, a quick trip into Tuesday Morning unearthed two darling little shades.  Ooooops.  I need four.  The manager overheard me saying something to hubby (angel intervention alert) and she said,

"Did you see the 50% off ones in the back?"

"Why, no - no I didn't."

Buried in a bin in the back of the store were 5 high quality white shades.  Final cost after the additional 50% off?

$1.50 each

See how much bigger they are?

After slapping some primer on the chandy, I knew white wasn't going to work.  I got out my acrylics and started mixing until I matched the plate and voila - burgundy chandy  (Jan will be proud)...

The fabric I originally purchased for the shades will become the cord cover...

De-cluttering continues with the question, "Does a 65 year old woman really need her eighth grade report card?"  Purely rhetorical as it already hit the trash can.

It's Thursday...

Transformation Thursday

and 

Boardwalk Bragfest

 Don't forget to head over to The Shabby Chic Cottage and check all the other transformations... 

And check out the seriously outstanding Twig wall decoration that Jan over at Bobby Pins Boardwalk made. Outstanding!!!  And don't forget to check out all her "bragging" friends participating in Boardwalk Bragfest ....

I can't believe it's Thursday again.  And I also can't believe I'm doing another lampshade.  Last week I hopped on ebay and found an auction getting ready to close for a wall lamp (I am so into wall lamps lately).  It was a vintage lamp with crystals.  Opening bid was $4.99 and not one person had bid on it.  I jumped on it and left an opening bid.  Two hours later I won it.  It puzzled me that no one else had bid on this charming little lamp until I re-read the description.  I'll tell you the reason later.

I didn't want the shade and told the seller to just send the lamp.  I grabbed a shade I had  but it was too short and covered in the wrong fabric.  Here it is after I ripped off the old fabric. Hmmmmmmmmm, what to do!

Here's a picture of the old fabric right after it was ripped off...

I opened up a drawer and discovered some wired ribbon I purchased about a year ago that was the perfect colors for my living room.  I gathered it slightly and started gluing it on the shade with the first row on the very bottom making the shade appear larger. I also slopped a coat of gold paint on the candle part.

And here it is finished.

 

For a quick and simple cord cover I grabbed some beige wired ribbon, gathered it up, wrapped it around the cord, and put a few stitches down the back.  One thing I highly doubt I will ever do is dismantle a lamp to put on a cord cover.  

 

Looking pretty glamorous at night...

Ok - so why was it so cheap?  Because - ta da - it's plastic.  If I had read the description more carefully I would have known that (and I also wouldn't have bid on it.)  But I got lucky 'cause it doesn't look plastic at all.  I showed it to a girlfriend today. When I finally told her it was plastic she did a cartoon worthy double take and had to lean over and grab one of the "crystals".

Shhhhhh! Let's keep that our little secret...


Now head over to The Shabby Chic Cottage and check out all the other transformations...