Lil' Red Chair

This is a super sturdy, comfortable, darling red chair that I found at a thrift store yesterday! I did not have to do a thing to it! It is perfect. 6 bucks!

Living room

Before and After

Chair - refreshed

I found this chair at a thrift shore. It was really sturdy and comfortable. My Big-ol-boy needed a chair for his desk in his room. So I unscrewed the seat from the bottom, tossed the rancid fabric and replaced. I used leftover batting for the "cushy" part and denim from an old pair of jeans. I turned out great. 6 bucks for the whole project, baby! The wood color and denim go with the color scheme of his room and best of all, my big-ol-boy loves it!

Birds in Paris

I found this paper at a paper store in DownTown Mesa. Sadly, the store went out of business in the fall.
This paper was the inspiration for my Beauty girl's room. A warm pink and milk chocolate brown. Vintage feel with birds and flowers.


The frame was a thrift store find ($3.99).
The paper ($1.50)
The glass birds were after Christmas ornaments 90% off ($0.39 each)
Flowers (about $0.20)

The other embellishments were things I already had.

Re-wire (steps, not instructions)

First things first. You have to have an ulgy old lamp to fix.

I removed the outer glass and the chain attachment. I then opened the compartment where the wiring was. (take pictures as you go, so you can reassemble the parts)

Save the wire nuts when you remove them. It is a pain to find out you lost that little yellow screw on thing (nut). I untwisted the wires that were connected. I actually drew a picture of what wires went to which part, a little diagram, so I would get it right. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a diagram has a few very helpful words just where you need them.

I had to pull the old wire out of the lamp. I mean PULL!

Then I had to thread the new wire through the opposite way I took the old wire out and reassemble and connect the wires again.

After reattaching the outer casing I add a two pronged plug. Make sure to follow instructions. I bought the wrong plug for the wire I had. I had silver wire and got plugs for brass wire only. Not good, so I went and got the right kind of plug..for silver (aluminum, I think) wire.

These are not really instructions. In fact they are more of a proof that I did rewire the lamp. I googled "How to rewire a lamp" and got all the info I needed.

I am doing as my mother admonished. Finish!

Lamp- reborn

This old lamp 80's style has been reborn. It came back to life as a chandelier and a cloche (French for mini green house). I rewired the thing and added flame light-bulbs. I also added a handle to the cloche for ease of checking the delicate plants below. The glass makes a great insulator. The original lamp was a $10 find.

Shed some light

I rewired this light fixture I picked up from an thrift store. I payed $5 (i think) for it. I make the cord really long so I could hang it from the ceiling in my craft room. Well, when we moved, the bedrooms did not have lights in the ceiling. We had to plug something in. Tada! I had a light for my son's room. It did not have globes that I liked. I refused to put the old wierd ones back on it. I found these glass jars with a flur de leis on it (which is the symbol for Scouts)and used them as the globes. I really like how it turned out.

a little tree

I got this wonderful idea from a trip I took with my sisters in August of 2008. Anthropology had a beautiful old wardrobe with glass doors. But the glass doors had a drawing of a tree on it in marker. I could not get the idea out of my head. So I took this frame, took out the yucky cat poster and drew on the glass. I used dry erase markers instead of permanent and I drew on the back so it would not get smudged. Then I put two little birds that I had cut out of an old wrapping bag. I glittered and shined up the birds, of course, before I stuck them to the front side of the glass. It gives the tree a little life. The pictures do not show it super well, but you get the idea.

reindeer jack

Jack got to play a reindeer this year for Christmas. He enjoyed eating the gold antlers.