A Working Lamp

I bought this lamp and shade at DI quite a while ago. I loved it so much that even though it flickered dangerously I just kept it unplugged on my end table. Well, thanks to The How-To Gal's post about rewiring an old lamp, I stopped procrastinating and finally fixed it (with lots of help from my husband).

I also cleaned the lampshade, which was DISGUSTING! While cleaning it I realized it had formerly been in a smoking cat lady's house (ok, maybe not but it smelled sick and was covered in cat fur). I filled my kitchen sink up with warm water and a little bit of laundry soap, dipped the shade in and used a toothbrush to scrub in between the folds and remove cat fur. I had to rinse it a few times to get the grime and soap off, but it turned out great.

One question for everybody...do you think the lampshade goes with the base? I was told that the shade was too small but I want to know what you think?

Chair Of The Week 3 (and international searches)

Sometimes I like to search for things on other country's Google homepages. Lately Afghanistan has been on my mind because my brother in law is in the Marines there. So I decided to search for a chair on the Afghan Google. Here is a simple how-to so you can do your own international searches.

1. Decide what countries' Google homepage you want to use. Here are a few that have searched on before:

Italy - google.it
Czech Republic - google.cz
Germany - google.de
Iceland - google.is
and (as of today) Afghanistan - google.af

I usually just guess what the ending is, or I'll do a search for "Italy's Google". But make it easy on yourself and look here for a nice list.

I thought this one was funny. Arrrr. Um ok, back to chairs and doing international searches.

2. Decide what you want to search for and translate it into that country's native language.

3. Copy and paste the translation into the Google search bar and hit enter.

4. Examine results. I prefer to look at images because I can't understand the text! However, there is sometimes a translate option or you can always use this again.

I hope you have fun with this! I think it's a great way to search outside the box and find totally new things.

Now I have finally come to the chair of the week! This giant introduction may not be fitting of the chair I found. It is a very unusual one, not attractive in my opinion and very bird cage-esque. However, I finally present to you...

Ya I know, it's strange. But to make up for it, I'm going to give you TWO chairs this week! Now time to unveil the second...
A very luxurious Arabian style. It's kinda growing on me :)

Wow, I learned so much about Google while doing this post! It ended up being more about teaching a search method than presenting an awesome chair, but I think it was worth it. Now go experiment with those international searches!

Give your lamp a lift!

Here is the lamp before I did anything to it.

Prepping is the most important part! Give the lamp a really good cleaning. Be sure to scrape off any blemishes; for example this lamp had drops of paint on it that needed to be removed.

Tape up the parts that you don't want to get paint on. I find it's easy to put the cord in a zip lock bag so I only have to tape the little part that sticks out.

Now spray paint it!

Here is the lovely finished product!

Painted Plate Tutorial

Check out this fun crafty activity! It's totally simple, all you need is:

-a plate (I got mine from the thrift store for 0.50 to 0.75 cents each)
-sticky mailing labels (I used an 8.5 x 11 full sheet transparent label from staples)
-pen or pencil
-scissors
-spray paint
-drop cloth or something to paint on

1) Clean the plate

2) Draw your design on the label. Make sure you draw on the front side so your design doesn't get flipped backwards when you stick it on the plate.

3) Cut out the design

4) Peel the adhesive and stick it on the plate in the way you like it


5) Set up your drop cloth and spray paint the plate with the color you like. Be sure to do a couple light coats so the paint doesn't pool. You don't need to cover the plate perfectly on the first coat.


6) Wait for the paint to dry. I used Rust-oleum Painters Touch from Home Depot because you only have to wait a couple minutes to re-coat and one hour until you can touch it.

7) When you feel like the paint is dry enough (2 hours to 24 hours later depending how patient you are) CAREFULLY peel stickers off the plate.
TIPS: use a safety pin to get right under the edge of the sticker then slowly move the pin along the edge. I had better luck peeling the stickers off when I waited a couple hours. On one plate I waited overnight and the paint was more brittle so it peeled off in places it wasn't supposed to. That could have been because I wasn't being as careful too so just be REALLY careful!


8) If you want extra protection add a coat of lacquer.

HAVE FUN!

My First Chair

I refinished this chair back in November, but I never posted about it! My friend and mentor found it for me by a dumpster so it was 100% free. I removed the seat cushion and reupholstered it with some awesome fabric from Home Fabrics in Orem. The frame of the chair is metal so I sanded it with some low grit sandpaper and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

Here it is BEFORE (I had already taken the fabric off the seat):

And AFTER:

NapaStyle

How many times have we heard not to judge a book by it's cover? Yet, when I first laid eyes on the NapaStyle homepage I almost brushed it off as it didn't seem to be my style. HOWEVER, I have been pleasantly surprised and am glad to share a few of their unique products.

(But first, their homepage as I recently view it)

These lovelies are handcrafted in Spain from recycled glass and range from $35 to $98.

On the website they seem excited that this ANTIQUE silverware is available by the pound. While that is nice, I am thrilled to find a resource for something so classic and quality.

I had a similar idea with the flatware...I thought it would be fun to grab all my silverware from the local thrift store. Although it took me almost two hours to dig through the giant buckets of kitchen junk, I didn't find anything quite as beautiful as on NapaStyle!