There Once was an Ugly Brass Light

Happy Friday, Everyone!!!!

  Hope yours is great, and filled with creative moments.

OK, so , a few months ago I did not even know a word like  "cloche" , and now I'm making them out of light fittings?       WHAT NEXT, PEOPLE???!!! 
All I can say is..... ya'll inspire me.

BEFORE

I found this old brass light at Goodwill, of course (we don't have any other cool thrift stores close by), and turned it into this.....

AFTER

.

And now I have to say I'm sorry once again, because I forgot to take pictures of the "during".

Hey! At least I got the "before" and "after"!

Truth be told, there are not that many steps anyway.

I pulled all the electrical stuff out...basically the whole "light" part. Took the chain off, and was left with just the glass shade. I  used the brass ceiling medallion and other fittings and stacked them to sort of make a "handle" on top.

Then I just taped the glass with painter's tape, sprayed with ORB (Oil Rubbed Bronze) and that's it!

           A Cloche!....Sort of....

 Now that I see the pictures, I realize that extra piece of bolt inside is more visible than I thought.        Wonderhusband says he will help me get rid of it.

 Filling the cloche was more of a challenge than making it... I finally just collected all the decorating balls I had and stuffed them in  there. That will have to do for now until inspiration strikes again. (Read:  until I can copy one of your pretty ideas.)

On the table with some other Fall stuff.

The "throw" is a pillow sham from Goodwill btw. I think it is so pretty!

Do you remember my lamp shade redo ? 

And........one last look.

What do you think? I know that at least a few of you have done this too, so tell me about it.

What did you do with the extra hardware..like the bolt that is now sticking out like a sore thumb?

You know I love your comments!

Suzanne

Joining these parties:

Frugaliscious Friday at Finding Fabulous

Show and tell Friday at My Romantic Home

 

Wonderful Week!

Hi Peeps
What a wonderful week last week was! I am sure all   most  some of my stars were alligned just right.

First, I received an award  from  Lauren at 31 diy;  (so sweet of her)

then I got a message that  my Buffet Transformation was featured by

The Brambleberry Cottage 's Time Traveler's Thursday!  (She is my new BFF)

 

Now, I ask you...can it get any better than that?........YES, IT APPARENTLY CAN!

That same weekend, I got another message, this time from Jane at  Finding fabulous, informing me

that I won two free window shades from  Redi Shade at her Frugaliscious Friday Party!

I have honestly never ,ever won anything in a draw before. My luck must be changing...

This will come in so handy, since both of my sons' rooms need block out blinds .

A Big Thank you to Finding Fabulous and Redi Shade for this unexpected surprise!

Honestly, Peeps,.. do yourselves a favor and go check out all of these links above. They are some pretty awesome ladies!

Well, on with the rest of the week.  I have two very old ugly chairs awaiting their makeovers in my garage as we speak....

Suzanne

       xoxo

Monochromatic Fall Buffet

Welcome back!

I thought I would try out a white and silver Fall display. I like to use what I have, and not to buy a lot of stuff that will just go into storage after Fall again. I should have plenty of storage space, but I don't. Hmmm...wonder whose fault that is??? I really am not sure, that is not a rhetorical question. There are 5 people living here, each with their own individual hobby and the junk stuff that goes with it.

Where was I? O yes, the buffet that I transformed a while back. I have never really decided how to decorate it, so when the time came to start decorating for Fall, I decided to do this there:

Let me tell you about this little group:

I got the chicken at Savers a while ago on half off,  and the birdies at the Dollar Tree. They were all colored (the cicken and the birds) , so I sprayed them with Heirloom White..now they look more like a respectable bird should look..

The plate was also an earlier Savers buy, and these cutie rub- ons were from the 

$1.50 section at Michaels. I saw them and and bought them, and then saw what one of you very clever, crafty bloggers did with them, so, I copied you.

(I have spent the last 90 minutes looking for the inspiration blog, but, no luck in finding it. So, please, if it's you, let me know, I REALLY would like to give you credit. ) 

 Some $ store plastic pumpkins sprayed silver....

Another cloche made from a cheese dome, a ceramic plate, and a candle holder...with little wooden fruit from Goodwill, sprayed silver.

Gorilla Glue is my friend...that's all I have to say about that!

 Chalkboard  made by painting an old silver tray with black chalkboard paint -

 

 Another Gorilla Glue project....white candlebase glued to a little glass vase.

 The frame is from a thrift store. For the inside I just made a little collage with some fall scrap paper, and a picture of my happy daughter ... 

And....one last look...

Are ya'll getting in the Fall spirit yet?

Have you done a monochromatic Fall display? I would love to hear about it!

             Suzanne

I am joining these parties:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

I Won an Award!!!!

I feel like a child on Christmas morning! I won an Award! And though it may not be the Nobel Peace Prize,  it is my first in Blogland, and I am VERY proud!  OK, I will stop shouting now..

                                                   


Lauren at 31 diy bestowed the honor on me. She is one crafty girl, and I have been following her blog for a while now. Go check her out, and be inspired..

The way these awards work, is that once you receive one, you need to pass it on to other deserving bloggers, as well as mention who you got the award from, of course.

I decided to pass on the love to the newer bloggers, just because I now know what a thrill it is to be noticed, and I want to pay it forward to some other newbies.(This is not a requirement, though.)

I  picked these Cool, Talented, and Inspiring Chicks;

1. Crafting for my Sanity
    
     Jenn is one crafty lady. She does everything from repurposing of furniture to making the cutest pillows. But I am most impressed with the things she does with her Sillouette. Her blocks are adorable.

2. The Project Shoppe

      Stacy and Joe are a contractor and a do-it-yourselfer who love to work on projects together.
Stacy shows some pretty awesome projects on her blog, and she is a thrift store junky too. I love what she does with dollar store and thrifst store finds.

3. Red Hen Home

  Korrie has some amazing projects to show off, cute vignettes, inspiring furniture makeovers, and lots more. I really love hanging out at her blog.

Go visit these ladies and show them some blog love. You will not be sorry.

Have a great Sunday!

Suzanne

Little Red Desk from Goodwill

Howdy!

Its about time  I show you this little gem. Well, she is to me. Found her at my local Goodwill a while back and brought her home. I don't even know why I like her so much. I have always wanted something red, but in that old, worn look. That was before I got hold of a can of red spray paint and painted every other thing in my living area red.... You can read about it here .

        Plus she was only $11.00, so, to me, it was a no-brainer. 

 I just sanded her a little bit,and changed the drawer pull, because for now, I love her just the way she is.            (Was it Lionel Richie who sang that song?)

And this is what she looks like now all dressed up for Fall.

Notice my version of the "cheese-dome turned into cloche"? I just glued an old stand of a hurricane that broke , to the wooden base of a cheese dome.All of course thrift store finds. I will probably paint it later,  but for this display I liked it in the brown. Inside is some Chinese Moss and two white round seed-things that looked like they could be eggs, to me. The little bird was from Dollar Tree, spray painted Heirloom White.

              I put some more candles and leaves in an old birdcage I have had for years.

 On the right is another Gorilla Glue Project, where I painted a candle base black and glued it to a vase.
Again...thrift store finds.

 Some more Dollar Tree pumpkins on candlesticks....and a metallic pumpkin from Ross.

The silver cock in the frame my mom bought for me in South Africa many, many years ago.

There you have it! Eleven dollar table, and my second Fall vignette.

What do you think? How would you change this little table up if she was yours?

Remember, I love your comments!!

Joining These Parties:

Marty at Tabletop Tuesday

/Hooked on Houses

Decoupage with a Twist

Happy Monday Everyone!

The other project I did during my blissful weekend of guilt-free crafting , was to decoupage two serving trays. Now I know anybody who has ever crafted for more than a week, knows how to decoupage, but this one has a twist in the end...trust me. (I'm a doctor...no, just kidding, I'm not)

We use serving trays in our house a lot. Every morning I take my husband breakfast in bed on one...(thank you, thank you, you can stop clapping now...I know..I'm awesome). Ok, I have to admit, it's usually just coffee, and  toast or cereal, and it's minor compared to what he does for me, but the point is, I use a serving tray at least once a day. I'm saying this to explain that I can't just make a tray pretty, it must be durable, too.

I started out with two trays, which I primed with Kilz primer, of course.
One got sprayed red, and the other one black.

I took a picture of my "inspiration" glass of red wine.Wine and uninterrupted crafting...it doesn't get much better than that....

 

The red tray got this black and white paper, and a red L that I printed out on the computer.

The black one got lime green scrapbook paper, and a collage of pictures of my kids that I had made at Wal-Mart. I could have just used the individual pictures, but my experience is the more pictures, the more little corners that can pop up.It is just easier and neater to do it this way.It was really cheap, way less than $5.00, for a  one hour development of a 10 x 8 print.

Again, some Dollar Tree vinyl lettering and hearts.

Then came the fun part....

Have any of you used this stuff before? You can buy it at Michaels or Lowes.It is a type of resin that hardens and leaves a thick, hard,glossy layer on top. Like they say, equal to 60 layers of varnish...sheesh!.

 It is very easy to do...just like the instructions show above. Just mix equal parts, stir well, and pour.

It takes 72 hours to cure before you can use it.

Can you see the finish? I'm not sure if you can from the picture.

I love the look. It makes a great gift to grandparents, too

You want to know what else I used this process on???

My kitchen table!

I was sick of the grooves - it was so hard to clean with the crumbs accumulating in there, that we came up with this plan..

Just stuck a bunch of memories on there, poured the resin, and now we have a wonderful conversation starter. So much fun to tell the story behind each different picture to enquiring guests!

We did this months ago, in my BB days (before blogging), so I don't have pictures of the process, but it is the same as for the tray. Only this time I  stuck the pics on one by one, of course.

Fun!!

The only thing is: what shall we do with it when we want to replace the set?

A friend suggested we take the top off and hang it on a wall. We might just have to. I'm very sentimental about pictures...

What do you think? Have you used this product before?

Let me know! I love your comments!

Joining these parties: