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. ;-)
~*~

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!!
~*~

Refurbishing Some Red Shoes I Love for Pink Saturday 12/5/09

A friend of mine is doing a series of photos of Victorian Christmas' through this whole month. It is "eye candy" for sure. So won't you please go visit her at Aunt May's Cottage.

~*~

Visit with Beverly at howsweetthesound for more participants for Pink Saturday. You'll not be sorry. Hope your holiday was wonderful!
~*~

Beverly has asked us to share a Christmas memory and mine just happens to be about a pair of red shoes!

In the late 1950s we lived in Yorktown, VA. and did our shopping in Williamsburg. One day while shoe shopping my mother wanted these red shoes for me and I wasn't particularly fond of the style. I would only agree to them if she bought me a pair I liked. I was a teenager and a bit obstinate. So we bought 2 pairs of shoes that day: the red pair and another pair that the color escapes me after 50 years, but I rarely, if ever, wore those red shoes and never did hear the end of it from my mother. Oh, I loved the color, just not the style.
~*~

I've had these shoes for over 25 years. They were my favorite pair of shoes but as you can see they've just about had it. Who am I kidding; they've definitely had it. They just went with anything: skirts, dresses or pants. I love them. So instead of throwing them away I've redone them to keep in a spot in my home. If I could find a shoemaker to duplicate them I'd have another couple of pairs made. But, alas, around here no one would take on the challenge. That surprised me because they definitely look easier to make than a pair of cowboy boots!

First step was painting them. I didn't necessarily want them to match so I painted one pink and one white. It took several coats of paint for them to even start to look better.

First I added german glass glitter to the outside. Then I started with the embellishing.

I painted the heel alizarin crimson red. That's about as red as you can get. I've given it many coats and may have to do many more through the days just as high end house painters and decorators do to those fabulous homes in magazines. Do you realize that in some cases those homes get 25 coats of paint? Yep, they do. The more paint the more luminous the wall. I've never done less than 3 coats of paint to any wall I've ever had.

Then I added some gorgeous vintage lace and some ribbon roses.

Since I call just about everyone "chick" I decided to add a little chickadee and a frivolous bright pink feather. A paper rose tops it off.

I wrapped some beautiful fabric around some poly filling and stuck it inside the shoe. After all, who wants to look at the yucky inside. On the sole I glued some pretty paper on but didn't take a picture of that.

And voilà the end result.
~*~


I'm grateful to have lived in many places in the U.S. and having visited other countries because I then can truly judge about how wonderful this country is.
~*~