Shining Some Light On The Subject

The subject being our kitchen sink. Our fabulous builder grade rental home only has 1 light in the kitchen area of the home; which drives me crazy when I'm trying to wash dishes at night. Solution? Rigging up some awesome vintage pendant lights!

You may remember when I bought these a while back, I wasn't sure what to do with them. I always had it in the back of my mind that they would look great clustered together as a ceiling fixture.

But I didn't think it would be possible in our current home given that we are renting and I can't really go around switching and rewiring light fixtures. (Or at least I shouldn't in good conscience because I sure did think about it.)

Well, last week while doing the dishes in the semi darkened cave that is our kitchen I thought- "Why don't I just use some of the Ikea pendant lights I have lying around and hang my green fixtures from those!?"

And a project was born! First up was cutting some wood pieces to fill in the missing tops of the two larger lights. I drilled a large hole for the wiring to go through then painted them to match  and screwed them to the predrilled holes on my existing pendant shells

 (Sorry for the lack of pictures)

Next was hanging them. I screwed 3 hooked in the ceiling and ran the wiring to the wall and down. I kept it as clean as I could but of course hardwiring would have been best.

Hubs making lunch while I risked my life on the ladder.

And then all finished!

No more doing dishes in the dim light and I've added a bit of character to our characterless home! And- Bonus- I can take them with me when we move to our next home! Score!

Staying Alive

I just wanted to shout out to the world that I have successfully kept a plant alive for 5 months!

My Fiddle Leaf Fig is alive and well. Hopefully I won't jinx myself by mentioning it! I usually have a black thumb in these type of situations.

Give A Dog A Bone

Do you ever have those projects that you store in the back of your mind, meaning to get it done but never do? Well this is one of those, and the great news is that I finished it! I hand painted shower curtain for Con-Man's bathroom.

Where the Heck I've Been

I know, I've been gone for almost 2 weeks! Horrible blogger. Things have been hectic around here. Blogging and project making have taken a backseat. 

First thing that happened was the huge tornado in Moore, OK. Thankfully we live 2 hours away from Moore and the devastation that took place there. But that didn't stop the amazing people in our town (who have friends and family in Moore) to find away to help out. I along with lots of others spent most of that week gathering supplies and donations to send to our fellow Oklahomans (Okies? I'm not sure.) 

Then came Memorial Day weekend where we went down to Dallas to spend some much needed family time together. 

Next was the end of school and we have been summering it up. Spending lots of time outside and at the pool.

So... we're getting into a summer routine but even though I'm posting this today doesn't mean I'll get myself back in gear. The weather has been surprisingly mild so far this summer (unlike last year when it was 110 degrees everyday- not an exaggeration) and the outdoors are too tempting. :)

Ok, enough talking let me show you some projects that are hopefully upcoming!

First up is this dresser that I bought for our bedroom. I desperately needed a new dresser as my old one was way to small and falling apart. I found this "new" one and a long low dresser that matches it (that I neglected to take a picture of) in our AF Base classifieds for a steal! 

Both pieces are in good shape besides some of the wear and tear you'd expect from vintage pieces. Both dressers have some missing knobs and the veneer tops are worn. But they have dovetail joinery, are solid, and the wood looks good.

My original bedroom scheme included a white dresser and I thought I'd go for it and paint this one. But I'm having second thoughts. I may try to fix the veneer best I can and leave it as is. Anyone have a vote?

Second find is this awesome vintage headlight. I loved the chipped paint and overall look of it. The shop owner said it still works and for $4 I thought it was worth it.

My grand scheme is to make a bad @ss light for Con-Man's room. But of course I've run into issues. Auto headlights run on 9v (I think) and our homes run on 110v. I have to convert the light to be compatible with the wiring in the house. I'm not 100% clear on how to do this and of course I can't figure out how to get the darn thing open to take it apart in the first place. It's quite the conundrum. 

And last but not least is this set of enamel pendant lights. I bought them a few weeks ago, have no clue what to do with them, and they have been sitting in my closet since. 

Again I thought they were cool looking and for the price I didn't want to pass them up. Maybe I'll turn one of them into a light, but I feel like I could make something else with them too. Who knows?? 

Thats part of the fun I guess. Waiting for inspiration to come along. Or figuring out how to figure out how to go about doing something you've never done before as in the case of the headlight.