Romantic Lampshade Makeover

I was way under the weather this weekend... It was beautiful outdoors, but I was sick!  

A nasty cold kept me inside and mostly asleep all weekend.  I only went out to get ice cream :-) and run a couple of errands I couldn't get out of!  

While I was out picking up my son's eyeglasses, I found myself (NOT so innocently) in Goodwill (heehee!) waiting for Lens Crafters to open!  

 

 I picked up a fairly boring little white lampshade for $5.00.  I thought it was too much but I knew what I wanted to do with it and it was the exact size I needed.

I spied a few deconstructed lampshades like this on etsy recently... All beautiful and well worth the money, 

but way out of my price range!

Plus I wanted to try making my own.  It didn't look all that hard!

A couple of years ago I bought a box full of vintage linens, lace and doilies at an estate sale.  The lady of the house must have been a seamstress because I have never seen so much needlework and lace in one place.

She must have cut and saved the lace off of every old slip or dress she ever had.  

Some of it was really special.  The pink band must have been the hem of an old slip.

 

Most weekends, I try to do a few things I consider productive or creative or fun in order to feel like I made the most of my weekend.

This weekend however, I was just worn out.  The cold I was fighting, the painting I did last week, the work week, all kind of caught up with me!

Last night, I mustered up the determination to do this one little project (that I just couldn't wait to do) because I was so inspired by the box of lace I'd been keeping in the garage!

  It was a nearly no sew project... Mostly I just twisted pieces of lace around the skeleton of the shade.  

Kind of like making a mummy!

 

The majority of sewing consisted of fastening the pink band onto the lamp once I had finished with the twisting of the lace.

I decided I wanted a little ruffle added to the bottom when I found this piece of embroidered lace with a little ruffle.  

I tacked this lovely old lace piece onto the shade with needle and thread, when after an attempt at gluing it on, I decided that wasn't going to work and might not hold.

I finished it by fastening on a little vintage rhinestone brooch.

I don't remember what I paid for the lace but it was probably a fraction of the cost of the lampshade on etsy - FOR THE WHOLE BOX and NO SHIPPING EITHER!

I am thankful for the inspiration the etsy artist and the unknown seamstress from the estate sale gave me 

to make this.  

I am totally thrilled with it!

I was back at work today and feeling like my weekend was very productive because the sleep was good for me and my project made my world a little brighter and much more beautiful.

The lamp was a $10 etsy find.  The price was a donation to a humane society someplace that I was glad to give in return for such a pretty little lamp!

I want to share another lampshade that I found a few years ago and WON on ebay! It was one of the first ebay purchases, a total splurge and something I watched and bidded on up until the end because some person or persons wanted it as much as I did!

It came and it was HUGE and I didn't have a clue what I was going to do with it.  It wasn't until recently that I replaced the stained glass torchiere shade on this Tiffany style floor lamp with it. 

The pink and cream certainly helped lighten things up.

You might be able to see that painting is at a standstill until hopefully this weekend as long as my cold is gone.

Like everyone else, I watched coverage of the September 11th tributes on television.  I was mostly touched to see how life has gone on with the families of the victims.  

I was touched to see families viewing the 911 memorial at Ground Zero for the first time.  

10 years have gone by and still we are not at peace.  

My sister tells me 150 IED's were found in Kandahar yesterday, about half near the base that is across from her USAID compound.  

I'm thankful for the military heroes in explosives ordnance who were there and risked their lives.  

Who knows how many lives they may have saved! 

Just keep praying for peace. 

Peace,

Jennifer 

Linking to Homemaker on a Dime  

 

and 

Very Merry Vintage Style's 

"Share The Love" Wednesday

and  Cindy's My Romantic Home 

 

And, Since I made my shade last Sunday, I've discovered another linky party for thrifters like me and here it is....

Restyled Sundays at Stylish Once Again

 

and finally, I'm linking to Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound