Let there be light

So I've been working on this lamp for a while...and when I say working on, I mean constantly looking for the perfect lampshade in any store I entered. After not having much luck, I decided "why don't I just take a lamp shade that I already have (I have several lying around- any time I find one for a good price I get it) and recover it". So today, that's exactly what I did. I am making a lamp for a customer (aka my aunt) and she will be using it in her cabin on an old Singer sewing table. I already had the base picked out. It is a wine bottle which I wrapped in some twine. The cool part is there is this pretty "M" emblem on the bottle and their last name is Miller so I thought it was fitting. Here is the base:

So the lampshade I chose to use is a gold color and had some ribbon piping on the top and bottom.

I took off the piping and decided to cover over the gold with some lace so that the pretty gold color could still show through the lace. Here is the lace pattern I cut out by tracing my lampshade and then the shade once I covered it with the lace.  

I loved the way the shade looked just like this, but I felt it needed a little pop of color so I added a maroon ribbon to the top and bottom on the lampshade. Once I put it all together this is what I ended up with.

Hope you like it. Love you all!

-Amy

interesting, pretty and functional

I have started a habit of going to Goodwill almost weekly and I almost always walk out with some sort of interesting find. I found this at goodwill a few weeks ago.

I don't know what this would be called but it has three dials, one tells the temperature, one tells the humidity and one is a barometer. As far as I can tell they all work. I thought it was a great and interesting piece with good lines. Anywho, I took it apart and painted it.

This was after I taped over some parts of it before I painted. This took way too long to do fyi.

And here is the finished product. I spray painted the dials a silver foil and painted the wood a light green and a metalic sheer biege color and then painted the piping in white. I think it turned out pretty good and makes for an interesting, pretty and functional wall piece. Love you all!

-Amy

Weekend highs and lows

I went to Market Days in Wimberley yesterday and it was AMAZING! Definitely the highlight of the weekend. My wonderful husband got up early with me and we were off and running at market days by 7:30am (I know, I couldn't believe it either). We were there until about 11:30 and I think we actually covered all of it. I didn't buy much, just some drawer knobs and pulls and a storage basket/box. All were $1 each.

But I did get lots of good ideas, and I also realized that alot of things at Market Days I already had, like an old screen door and an old window. I had been thinking that I needed to redo those things before I try and sell them but after going to Market Days, maybe I can just sell them as is. However, that kinda seems like a cop out, the whole fun of collecting beat up things for me is to be able to transform them into something better. Anywho, here are somethings I've been working on that I have finally managed to complete.
Remember this chair:

Well now it looks like this:

I replaced the missing pieces of the chair and stained it a dark walnut, although the chair turned out almost black. Most likely because it was really dry unfinished wood and all the stain just soaked right into the wood. Then I got these cushions at Garden Ridge because all their patio cushions are 50% off right now. The seat cushion is really thick (maybe too thick), but I guess better to have on over stuffed chair than understuffed. If I get really ambitious, I'd like to make a footrest out of the scraps left from the other matching chair that I took apart. We'll see...

I also finished a matching set of lamps this weekend. The bases were originally vases and I loved the white with the gray and the pattern.

I am still working on getting my Etsy shop started. In the meantime, if you see something that you like, let me know and chances are it's for sale! My email is ajshaw10@gmail.com

Love you all!

-Amy

I love lamp

One of the things I've been working on recently is making my own lamps. Here is one that I've done.

Well, what do you think? I will be making alot more and hopefully will have some more to show this weekend. Love you all!
-Amy