Aliens & Tables & Mom!

That pretty much sums up my Mother's Day! Before anything else, I want to thank my mother, Betty Jane. My brother, sister & I have been blessed, truly blessed, with a generous, strong, kind, light-hearted, sincere, faith-walking, praying, spanked you when you needed it, unconditional-loving mother. I spent Saturday (Sunday too!) with her...

If this picture disappears you'll know she didn't like it and made me take it down.

We had a nice lunch & bought beautiful fabric!  How awesome is that?  Here are a few of the things I gave Mom..

I just love the whole look of this one.  It's perfect in her living room!  It was part of the furniture pile I brought home a week or two ago.

Here's the before:

I had already sanded the top down.

Next, lamps....

 I also gave her set of brass lamps a lift.  She loves them - mission accomplished!  (But let me just say this, you'd have to pay me $1000 to make another lampshade like this...no how, no way..nuh-uh.  Burlap is miserable to work with..I know it's dearly loved by many, but it sure can mess up your contacts with all that lint flying around.  Not to mention when you have hot glue stuck to your fingers and burlap lint stuck to the hot glue..MIS-ER-yyyy.) But if you are up for a challenge, then click here to see how I made this shade.

Here's the lamp before:

We had these when I was a kid..time for a change.  Oil Rubbed Bronze & the shade update brought them back to life!

One more table..

Looking a little tired & very, very brown.

 Again, it's perfect for her living room. I just love the lines of these tables..SO pretty! A little paint & elbow grease go a long way..and a really good sander.

 

And seriously, how could you not appreciate that beauty?

As for my Mother's Day...

 Hey...what's this?  For moi?  

(BTW, delivery person - don't mind the plants, just drop it anywhere!)

On top of living with two funny guys who keep my life interesting & full of love, they gave me a spray painter for my special day!  No more aching hands or wrists from holding a brush for hours!

 My two sweetheart aliens take good care of me!

Before I go..

 Little Birdie here is hoping you all had a wonderful time celebrating Moms!

and Betty left you some flowers....

Talk to you soon!


P.S.  I'm linking to the side bar parties!

Lamp Makeover & Such

I started this last week and just finished it last night..

I was watching TV not too long ago and looked over at this lamp and noticed how dated it looked. I can't tell you how many times I walk past or glance at it and it just hit me that it looks so sad.

Before:

This lamp has served me well, I've had it about 10 years..maybe longer. I spent $10 for it and another maybe $50 on the shade and trim...
not feeling the love anymore, that's for sure.
(Since we're here, I'm going to camo this cord.)

After:

This is not the permanent location..I just put it here attempting to get a good picture in natural light.


I painted it satin black, popped on a new shade with grosgrain ribbon (leftover from the bathroom project) and added a tassel & initial. I like the white shade.
I'm on a mission to brighten my living room.

My projects tend to snowball...I'll start one and it quickly turns into several more and I still want it all done in a very short amount of time.

So I started on the lamp which made the cord situation really noticeable which made a fresh coat of white on these baseboards a total necessity for the lamp to look good. See how that works?

Nothing is ever easy!

Here is the after with the cord where I tried to make it blend in better...now, if I was hardcore I would've had the white cord go along the white baseboard.
I'm just not there yet.

One last thought:

I think this bag is so cute. My mom picked it up in the gift department of a little hardware store here in town. It's burlap with a simple handle and stencil/screenprint. It is very sweet and I think it would be a fun project to copy!

I'm posting this at Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and Make it for Monday at Cottage Instincts.