Thrifty Thursday: the accidental lamp edition
It was a dark and stormy night hot sweaty afternoon and I was on my way to the grocery store for some odds and ends for a new craft post I’m writing (Stay tuned! I have a new writing gig and it’s super fun!) and I suddenly found myself in the right turn lane instead of going straight at an intersection. That happens in this town. I hate it.
So instead of making some kind of crazy-dangerous illegal lane change, I decided to ride this mistake out and go with the flow of traffic going right. Very inconvenient but sometimes God works in mysterious ways, right? I turned onto the very busy avenue and the first chance I had to make a u-turn back to the street I wanted to go straight on, happened to be a thrift-store parking lot.
Since I happened to be in the thrift store parking lot and I had some extra free-time because I was not picking Bug up from kindergarten (Grandma was. They had a special afternoon planned.) I decided to stop. I was there by divine intervention I figured, why not. I haven’t been thrifting since forever. I’m watching my funds closely and I don’t really need stuff. But that’s when you always find the best stuff, right? When you don’t need it and aren’t looking for it.
And of course I found a lamp for $6.99.
I’ve always dug these lamps with clear bases. The kids I babysit have them in their parent’s bedroom and I always thought they were cool. Of course their’s were clear glass, not tinted yellow but I bet they didn’t pay seven bucks for them either. So the dusty lamp jumped into my hands and I bought it.
I took it home and cleaned it up and then spray-painted the warbly, cracked, messed-up shade red. I should have a photo of me spray-painting here but I did it in the backyard and it was about eleven-hundred degrees out and my face melted.
Then I ran out of red spray paint half way through. So it’s hot pink on one side and red on the other which might be super cool and hip except the spray paint didn’t paint evenly and now I need to either go buy more spray paint or just get a new lamp shade. I’ll probably just ignore it until I find a new shade by accident or divine intervention or something. Garage sales are great for u-turns.
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In other news: I’m reviewing some Fair Trade Green Mountain Coffee on my review blog and there’s a FREE Keurig coffee machine in the mix!
7 Comments
gingermog
Ahh so that’s why you were spray painting the other day. The crafting never stops at Chez Josephine. Extremely groove-ay-shious lamp Ms Brenda.
KelleyD
I’ve scored some el-cheapo {$2ish range} lampshades from Target on clearance. Not cheap in quality, just price. And if I remember right even the regular priced ones aren’t unreasonable in cost and they have different styles. :)
Tori @ The Shiksa in the Kitchen
This project is totally Nate Berkus worthy. That sad little lamp is really happy now. Amazing.
Emerson
Love the painted lamp shade. Also: randomly saw you turn up on Taste of Awesome today. Your identity has been busted by the interwebs ;) http://www.tasteofawesome.com/view/Secret+agent+josephine/107257
Amy
Great idea. I recently bought two gorgeous lamps from a garage sale. Vintage Japan and right up my alley. No shades so bought some at Ikea. Problem is they are stark white and do NOT go. Thinking I may have to hit the hardware store for some spray paint! Thanks SA.
Ninabi
You have the eye for spying items with style potential, Brenda!
I think I like the lightly tinted glass better than clear, actually. What a cheerful, clever lamp.
mari
So that’s what you were doing in the 100+ heat. Wonderful! I hope it’s cooler now; it sure is here in Pasadena. We also had that murderous heat last week. Yuk.
I’d LOVE to see you on one of your shopping trips. I’m horrible in antique shops, flea markets. Maybe I just don’t know what I’m looking for. And so my house is filled with rather boring and generic looking merch.