This Little Light of Mine

There's a saying that goes around my house quite often when talking to my children.  "Wantin' and gettin' are two different things."  Well, it seems I've had to take my own advice.  You see, this tuxedo chandelier from Z Gallerie was on my "wantin' list" for  above my island in my kitchen.

But it weighs in with a hefty $799 price tag so it didn't make it on the "gettin' list."  What you can't see from this online picture is the beautiful soft gold on the inside of the shade that casts the prettiest light. Here is a really bad iPhone picture from the display at the store.

So off to the inter webs I did go and found this as a more budget friendly option.

While it is lovely and the price was right at $229, the inside of the shades were bright white and didn't give off the soft glow I was wanting.  

Enter Rub N' Buff, one of my newest favorite friends.

I put a bit of it on a paper plate and went to town on the insides of the shades.

Six shades and a handy husband later...wait that sounds wrong.  Anyway, my handy husband did hang the light for me and this is what I ended up with.

I'm thinking for a little more than 1/4 of the cost and a little elbow grease, this little light of mine was a pretty good compromise.

Little Black Dress

Fashion gurus are always telling us that a "little black dress" is a staple in any wardrobe.  Since my kitchen window has been a source of frustration for quite some time, it got me to thinking maybe that goes for windows too.  Please try not to pay too close attention to the next bad iPhone photo and the dirty dishes, but I forgot to take a true before picture and this was all I could come up with!

In all reality, this window just needs to be completely replaced, but that's just not in the budget.  You can see part of the half-round window above that has always just driven me crazy.  Why do builders put these crazy difficult windows in?

I had gotten a quote for a custom Roman shade to cover the window, but at $2000, it wasn't in the budget either.  Who spends that on a blind?  After quite a bit of searching for an alternative, I found this blind at West Elm.  It was a deal at $79.00!

It fit the space perfectly and helped hide the half-round (at least when the sun isn't shining through).  It all was still a little bland for me with the ivory cabinets and brown walls (the walls are next on my to-do list!) so I pulled the shade down and tried to work a little budget friendly magic.  I ordered 7 yards of 2 1/4" grosgrain ribbon from MJ Trim for $1.98/yd and set to work at soon as it came in the mail.

I extended the shade all the way out and started trimming the edges with the ribbon using my favorite adhesive for fabric.

I put the trim down both sides first trying to keep it as straight as possible and eyeballing equal distance from the edge on both sides.

Nest I did the bottom and top and just folded the ribbon over at both ends a bit to cover the cut edge.

While I waited for that to dry I broke out some black paint I had leftover from painting my front door and painted the trim around the window.

After the shade was dry I hung it back up and, voila!

I think those fashion gurus might just be right; everybody (or everything) could use a little black dress.

Good Things Happen When You Pay Attention

My cousin had been holding on to some plates that belonged to my great grandma "Peck" Peckenpaugh.  She dropped them by my house recently so I could ship them to my sister whose married name is "Perez."

Something happened while I was packing them to send to her.  I realized that an upside down "p" is in fact a "d" which obviously stands for "Dover."  

So I did what any good sister would do; kept 5 of the plates for myself, flipped one over and checked the manufacturer, logged on to Ebay, and bought matching salad plates for both of us.

I would love to add to the set for us, so I'll be checking Ebay often and scouting flea markets and estate sales to see what else I can find.

What Not To Do During The Holidays

Do not move into your basement the week of Thanksgiving so you can have your main floor hardwoods refinished;

unless they turn out like this.

Do not, that same week, rip everything out of your main floor bathroom;

unless you get a vanity like this to replace the old one.

Do not move all the furniture from your bedroom into your master bath and your living room the week before Christmas;

unless you get new bedroom carpet that looks like this.

Do not, that same week, rip off all the carpet and treads on your main stairs and replace them with oak treads;

unless you end up with stairs that look like these.

still without the handrail...

And do not, the Saturday before Christmas, have a custom cabinet installed in your lounge;

unless it rocks like this even before paint and hardware.

Without Words

My heart is shattered.  Praying that the God of all will wrap his loving arms around the people of Newtown, CT and the entire nation.  Please God, keep us from coming undone...

Christmas Tree Conundrum

Most years I don't think twice about how to decorate our Christmas tree.  But with Pinterest and a ginormous blogland to travel, sometimes I catch myself wondering if I should rethink the way I decorate it.  

Should I make it a color coordinated gradient like John and Sherry's?

Or maybe it should have a theme like this poinsettia tree.

This book tree is quite clever,

as is this wine bottle tree via Pinterest.

via www.nps.gov

Maybe just going large like the White House would be fun?  But at the end of all the "should I's" it always ends up like this.

If I made it match or gave it a theme, I would miss dragging out all the ornaments we've collected over our 20+ year marriage.  

Like the following three all handmade by my sister.

This one is a memorial to my husband's grandma who was a dairy farmer.

And this one is a memorial to my grandpa, who among other things, was a Republican and of course collected elephants of all shapes and sizes.

This one my "rock star" nephew made for us.

And this one my oldest son made when he was in grade school.  He is now 21.

And of course, Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

I've linked up with Honey We're Home to show off my tree this year.