Goodwill Lamp Makeover 2- Just Like Sarah Makes

Hey friends! How was your weekend?
Ours was good, nothing too exciting...
did our taxes and found out we are getting a great refund!!
Then found out we owed our state the exact same amount......
Our dishwasher started making motorcycle sounds on Saturday night.
The weather guy (aka the guy who makes way too much money to just put a blindfold on and throw darts at weather conditions) said it was gonna be 75 degrees yesterday and it was 45 and cloudy.
And as much as I love my kids, I am spring breaked out.
But then we went to our old church yesterday and it was such a light at the end of the tunnel for us.
We were openly welcomed, given so many hugs and kisses and even mentioned in the morning announcements.
We missed our church family there and I am happy to say, we are back.
I am also happy to say that Rebecca and I are on week 2 of our 5k training!
And I am not sore anymore!
And I am noticing I am not as out of breath anymore!
But one obstacle.....a blister on my left heel.
It won't go away and I am having trouble getting rid of it especially since I run three times a week.
Any suggestions from you runners/walkers out there??


On to the real reason we are here.......

Who is Sarah, you ask?
Well she is the name behind Thrifty Decor Chick.
Don't know who that is?
She is one of the bigger bloggers out there.....her, Centsational Girl, Pioneer Woman.....you know, the supahstars of blogging.
My bestie Melissa introduced me (well, not literally...virtually) to Thrifty Decor Chick (or TDC as I like to call her...cuz we are tight. Real tight. We are. She follows me on Pinterest. Oh, maybe that was a mercy follow.) back in 2010. We were walking off our baby toddler pounds one spring day and I mentioned starting a blog and she told me about TDC and to check it out.

I immediately fell in like.
Then fell in love.
I loved her projects and especially liked her tutorials.
For someone who had never held a power sander or even heard of a Dremel?
She was my Maya Angelou...or my Bob Vila...or (I am trying to think of famous teachers?!?!?!)..or my Mrs. Tesar (she was my 4th grade teacher and my fave of all time).

Anyway, she was like a mentor to me....even though she doesn't know that.
I hope my blog can be that to someone else someday.....I hope I still have a blog someday......

The thing is, her projects are always spot on.
I mean, ALWAYS.
Who has this kind of luck?
Not me that's fo sho.

Plus she always has the best thrifting luck.
If I tried to order something on Craigslist?

Yeah it would look something like this:

source




Yet TDC goes on Craigslist all.the.time. and gets items like this:

Isn't that dresser gorge??? And see those lamps on top? That's the kind of lamp I have been looking for since I first saw them on TDC's blog. She has the best luck finding lamps at Goodwill, like this one:

Which she then painted with nickel spray paint and now it looks like this:

Why oh why am I showing you these pics????

Now MY project is gonna look totally suckish.

Wipe the above from your brain.

Clear the mechanism.....which movie???

Sorry, Sarah always used to quote movies in her blog post.

OK now I am sounding stalkerish......

You get the main idea.

She is my inspiration and when I found the following lamp at Goodwill the other week, well I might have squealed.

Just a little.

I loved the shape!

It was perfect.

And the shade?

Burlap......

Really, who in the heck gave this away???

'Cuz I wanna give you a big wet kiss!!!

The beauty?

I didn't even have to run out to buy spray paint because I already had the color!

At first I wanted to paint it a turquoise but after thinking it through, I knew it wouldn't go with anything in the house.

So I stayed neutral and decided on Heirloom White by Rust O Leum, which I already had in the garage.

Besides black and white, the two colors of spray paint that I would recommend you always keep on hand are Heirloom White and Espresso Brown.

You can always use those two colors on almost anything.

Look at the cool snowflake pattern I created on my lamp!!

Noooo.....this is not a pattern.

This is a mistake.  

This happens to even the most experienced spray painters.....

It was coat number 3 or 4 and all was going fine.

Then this happened.

No worries.

I waited for it to dry and then took some sandpaper to get this off and spray painted over it.

And here is the after:

I have never nailed down the trick of not painting the cord.

              I have even taped the cord with painters tape and still manage to get paint on the cord.

It's a wonder how I even have a home improvement blog, isn't it?

It's an even bigger wonder that you all keep coming back.

                                           God bless your little souls, I love you for it too!

I cannot stop taking pictures of this thing.

I love it so much.

I literally walk into this room every hour or so just to look at the lamp.

You know, to make sure its still there.

I cannot take a good night picture as my camera is not professional.

Because I am a stay at home mom.

Not the paparazzi.

So what do we think?

I love it so much more now and to think I only spent $3.99 on this baby!

Then I decided to google "cream lamps with burlap shades".

And found this:

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/burlap-upholstered-lamp-shades/

It is a lamp from Pottery Barn that is cream and has a burlap shade.

                                 Ummm yeah. the shades alone range in price from 49-79 dolla.

Yes, American dollars.

How does that place stay in biz during this economy?

So I feel really good about my $3.99 investment to create a lamp we will love for a lifetime.