The Great Idea I No Longer Love

Remember that lamp I told you I bought at the Habitat for Humanity Store??

I was SO excited when I bought it... so excited that I immediately went out to Joann's and bought this fabric so I could make a new shade (the original shade was stained & so not my style)

I did the happiest of happy dances when I found this fabric..the day was going just my way..I had found a cool retro lamp & now the perfect fabric for it..plus, hello I had coupons! SCORE!!

Well, yesterday I finally got down to putting it all together...

First I measured out some white tagboard so I could make a new shade

I had to use two pieces of tag board because I wanted to keep the lamp as long as the original.

Then I cut it to fit and folded it into shape. I held it together with little pieces of masking tape until I got it just right.

Here it is next to the original

I used masking tape to keep the edges together with the interior wire. (oh, yeah, forgot to mention that I took the wire off the original shade) and maybe I should also mention that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started this project..really, no idea!

So next I split the original shade and flattened it out on top of my fabric

Remote weights optional :o)

Once you have your old shade stretched out, trace it lightly with a pencil (on the back of your fabric of course)

After tracing my fabric, I cut it leaving an inch around my traced pattern.

So that's the scary part (for me anyway..I'm always afraid I'm going to screw up the measurements & ruin my fabric..I'm a worry-wart)

So anyway then you spray glue your shade and wrap your fabric around it

After that warm up your glue gun..its hot glue time!!

I folded my edges in and glued them down

And I think that's pretty much it...It looks good..

Really good actually...but I don't love it... Am I crazy?? I like it a lot...but I just know that I jumped the gun with this project...I should have thought about where this lamp was going to go in the house..did I mention that it matches absolutely nothing in my house?...nothing...there is a possible solution however...
Remember I mentioned that I was going to turn our small guest room into a craft room?? Well I guess I could build my craft room around this lamp...but truth be told, it feels forced...

I really do like the lamp...*sigh*

maybe I should have used something like this instead...

or this

I know..it doesn't match the orange base..well, that's because I should have spray painted the base white..duh, Bernadette!!

look how lovely this fabric would have been...

Hello birdie!

or this...

I could build a room around this, right??

So lesson learned..My advice to you ladies, gents, or whoever is reading this, is..let it marinade..just like beef..let it sit there & soak up the possibilities...I for one will never jump the gun again...

I do like the lamp..I just don't love it...

so maybe I'll change it..what do you think?? Let me know in the comments...I read them all!

Now Linking to:

Under The Table & Dreaming
Thnk Pink Sundays (Flamingo Toes)
Vintage Revivals
serendipity chic design

The Much Needed Spice Cabinet Clean-Up

Remember when I said I had a few things on my "To Do" list. Well, I finally got around to cleaning up the spice cabinet. It was horrible. Every time I wanted to use a certain spice I practically had to take everything out of the cabinet just to find it...and that wasn't practical. Please don't judge me by this cabinet..I only moved in 6 months ago, remember...this wasn't all me..it was a lot me, but not all..

I need things in my kitchen to be organized because I love, love, love to cook and I don't like to feel rushed when I'm cooking.

My solution was to buy canning jars so that my spices would all be in the same type of container...

These are Kerr Wide-Mouth pint & half pint canning jars. I love the look of all that glass & the silver lids. Does that make me weird? I also knew I would need to label them so I made labels with a label machine

In case you're wondering, yes, I re-printed the labels that didn't print well. I think I mentioned before that I'm a control freak perfectionist selective. Anyhoo...This is what I started with...

I should probably mention that I first washed & dried the jars and lids (you never know what kind of factory muck is on them)

Next I started filling all my jars & adding all my labels (I don't know what happened to the pictures of this step...I couldn't find them when I was posting)

Anyway this is what my cabinet looked like when I was done...

Pretty, right?..well, OK, maybe not pretty, but definitely better than what I started with...(please ignore that red lidded plastic container..the ground cinnamon would not fit in a pint jar..darn it!)

Other than that eyesore, I am really happy with the new look...

But wait there's more!!  If you call now...lol..starting to sound like a late night info-mercial, but there really is more...

The jar of carne asada spice needed a different kind of lid...This is a spice that needs to be lightly shaken onto meat, pouring or scooping this spice out would not work.

 I would have to pull a MacGyver. (Don't know where I would be if I hadn't watched MacGyver all those years ago...Thanks MacGyver people) So, I went to the hardware store and picked up a piece of window screen. Once I got home I cut a piece to fit inside the rim of the lid. I just traced the flat insert of the lid to get the right size.

Next, I glued the piece of screen into the rim with Tacky Glue (not yet sure if the Tacky Glue will work long-term..I'm testing it out)

So this would take care of the "shaker" part of the lid, but I still needed the jar to "close," so I glued the flat insert to the rim using hot glue and a small hinge.

It's not super pretty, but right now I'm looking for function rather than beauty.

Here's what it looks like open...

Pretty good, huh?

Lets hope it stays on & that the screen doesn't pop out mid-shake... I'll let you know if it does fall out the next time we have a BBQ...fingers crossed that it doesn't!

So that's the story behind my spice cabinet...

What kind of Spring cleaning are you doing??

Now Linked up to:

House of Hepworths