Redoing Some Old Lamps and Something New Coming!

First of all, let me just tell you that I have a bit of news that I hope you'll enjoy. I've been setting things up the last week or so to do a blog where there is nothing but a list of lifestyle bloggers: romantic, country, shabby, chic, gardening (because what is more romantic than flowers?!) whatever—just so it's more about lifestyle than anything else. It's just links so it's not hard to do or to keep up because I can't keep up much more than I'm doing right now!

When you go over and see the logo, you'll see some absolutely stunning roses on the logo that are by Ronda Juniper Ray, who graciously and enthusiasticly gave me permission to use any rose I wanted in the making of the logo and also sent me the original photos to use in my PhotoShop. She's a dear and another Mac user. ;-) She's also a fantastic artist. When you go to the blog and see the logo, you'll see her roses; these in this little button are MY roses. Pathetic, but I did paint them. Do not get the two mixed up; it wouldn't be fair to Ronda. ;-)
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I bought these lamps several years ago when we were thinking of moving here to this house. I think I bought them at Home Depot. They are extremely heavy for lamps and the shades were a kind of "pull up" kind in the box. In other words, they were flat in the box and we had to lift them from the bottom up to the top of the shade and secure it. When we did that we realized that when the lights were on you could see they weren't on properly or evenly. I kept them like that with the intention of fixing them someday. I tried and tried but they wouldn't align properly—the wire showed through and no amount of tugging and pulling would get them in proper alignment. But we absolutely loved the lamps, even Love Bunny. They truly made a dramatic statement and he even agreed, which is no small feat, trust me! I even tried finding new lampshades but these are so big I couldn't find anything as big even in the best lamp stores in Boise. So I kept them and just recently decided what I could do.

I bought some braided gimp trim and put it over the shade where the cloth met the wire of the shade form. I had to put 2 strips about 15 1/2" long down each one, and there were 8 "ribs" on each shade. It took about 13 - 14 yards to do it but I was thrilled that the ribs don't show now when the lamps are lit at night.

I then added some white lace around the top, an organza bow, some faux pearls and some pink paper roses to the top. The roses around the bottom were already on it so I had to work around them, but I love how they look now. What think you, chicks?

Full photo of the lamps and the ambiance they bring into our home at night. It's almost a magical place.

Full photo of lamp during the day. This photo was taken before I added extra pearls to it later in the day.

Closeups of each shade with light off and light on.

And if Mum, my sweet adopted mother in Texas, is reading this then here are some smooches for ya, Southern Belle. I spent a great deal of my childhood in Orange, Texas and I can do a wonderful southern belle impression that would astound you! LOL This is true!!
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