A Little Lamp Pizazz!

On Saturday I showed you this lamp that I got at another terrific yard sale.  The lamp and shade were a steal for $3.00 total.  It is a very heavy iron lamp and quite pretty as it was.  However, I wanted to spruce it up a bit.  And spruce it up a bit I did!  Now instead of a gold lamp I have a bronze lamp.

I'm not 100% sold on this yet, but it's growing on me. I may redo this with a black glaze but we'll see. I was trying to use what I had on hand.   I simply added a little dark chocolate acrylic paint to my Burnt Sienna glaze by Valspar.

And this is my lamps new home.  I had already moved the lamp I had in here to another location.  I did bring in a different one but that one has now gone back somewhere else too.  I love trying some of my lamps out in different locations, changing things up a bit.

It is sitting on top of my dining room sideboard hutch. This piece of furniture was another consignment store purchase a few years ago.  It was the same color wood as is on the top but I painted it black to give it a more current look but left the top as is since it was unmarred and very pretty!

It has one long drawer along the top with a section that has built in dividers.  The front has 3 paneled doors on the bottom but only the two on the ends open and there are two shelves inside all the way across.  I love storing some of my extra serve ware in this.  It was also a bargain price too!

Let's get back to the new lamp, here it is again..

Looks pretty good all lit up doesn't it!

If your a follower I bet you recognize some of these items from other displays.  The floral tin plate I featured on my foyer table has now moved to the dining room.  It was competing too much with the plates on the wall in there.  I have a whole new vignette in my foyer now too, I'll get to that in a minute.

The lemons and the hurricane vase and glass candy were all featured in my Cinco de Mayo table, only a little differently!  I just love the colors so I had to bring them in here!

For spring I brought out this little Fitz and Floyd vase and added faux gardenias and berries.  I purchased this many years back at TJ Maxx, it didn't come with the chip on the bottom that was my doings.

And as promised here is the new foyer vignette.  I kept the electric candle but added this ivy urn for a little greenery to play off the green trim on the plates around the mirror.

Then I added this glass trivet I had on the wall in the kitchen, and my newest piece recently purchased from Tuesday Morning.  Don't you just love these sweet little birds on this beautiful candy dish that looks like a basket.  I certainly do!

Quite a bit of shifting around going on in my house lately, how about yours?

I'm linking up with the following parties today, be sure and visit them for more wonderful blogs!

                               http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for Met Monday

http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/ for Tabletop Tuesday

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/ for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

http://www.domestically-speaking.com/ for Power of Paint Party Wednesday

Missed Opportunities

Don't you just hate it when you miss an opportunity!  I do!  Today's post is missing photos, as that is exactly the point of my post.

I recently am very frustrated with myself for not having my camera on hand.  The things I have seen these past few weeks that would have made excellent photo ops!

First in mind was yesterday!  Like why didn't I take my camera garage salen!  I thought of this last weekend too after the fact.  How cool would it be to capture the directional signs of very organized yard sales and the gathering of people of all walks of life enjoying the hunt.  This weekend in particular, the lady who had tons of bird pics to sell would have been an excellent photo shoot and I may have been able to help her sell a few prints online too, if she was up to that.  But I didn't even bring my camera.  Then there is the unsurety (is that a word?) of how to go about asking people if they mind you taking their pics to go on your blog online.  I'm just not sure how I can do that!  I really want to, but like the lion in the Wizard of Oz, I need more courage!!!

Then later yesterday my husband and I went for a sail.  It was a hopeful day for sailing!  In the world of lake sailing there are many obstacles to overcome.  Mainly you need the right amount of wind.  Most people see a windy day and dreamily think this is a perfect day for sailing!  Not so!  If it is too windy, and gusty with winds shifting like crazy you run the risk of breaking something on your boat.  As with most boats, sailboat repairs are quite costly, not something you want to risk.   Quite often we are hampered by not enough wind, and a calm flat lake.  It makes a pretty picture but not a picturesque sailing day.   However, if you are blessed with just the right amount of wind, like yesterday, you have the makings of an excellent sailing day.  Can you believe I forgot my camera again!  I had it last weekend but the pictures were not my best, as many were very blurry!  I really wanted to try again yesterday but left the camera behind.  Uuughhh!  We sailed so far across the lake to a popular boating spot for the motor boaters I wanted to capture them all lined up on a beach island for you!  But NOOO!!!  I missed that opportunity!!!

  Here are a few from the weekend prior this past weekend, hope you enjoy!

I said this post was missing photos not photoless!  LOL!  I had to give you something to look at! 

Finally, this missed opportunity was not my fault but I was so sad I didn't have camera in hand anyway.  Can you believe this?   I was walking in the very back of my yard into the woods to retrieve a piece of lattice I thought we had back there.  I thought the lattice was under and old tree fort we built for the boys when we first moved here.  I walked into the woods, looking strait towards the fort but then before I got to it I stopped.  I spotted another pile of left over wood from various projects my husband had stacked.  I was looking at the pile and trying to figure the best way to walk over to it. Woods can be very tangled you know.  When I started to move forward, something right in front of me jumped up!  When I jumped back I was so startled and pleasantly surprised to see a little baby fawn scamper off!  She wasn't even much larger then our cats.   I almost stepped on the poor thing!  I was so thrilled and stunned and just watched her run further into the woods.  Immediately I wished I had my camera but knew there wasn't enough time.  What a photo op that would have made right?

Well, that's my jabber for this morning!  Just sharing a few things on my mind lately.  Wondering how you do it?  How do you train your mind to remember the camera everywhere you go?  Please tell me it gets easier!  Also, how do you work up the nerve to ask permission to photograph something and someone?  

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend, I certainly am, even though your not seeing it all!
Thanks for stopping in and leave me a comment if you please.

Another Great Saturday Sale

 

OMG!  Another great Saturday Sale!  NOT sail, but SALE!  I'm going to make this post short and sweet cause I've spent the morning Yard Sailing and want to spend the rest of my afternoon Water Sailing. 

I started out late this morning, like after 10:00 am kinda late.  I picked up the newspaper after my leisurely Saturday morning coffee and toaster strudels and saw another multi neighborhood sale.  It was a little further out but would take me less then 30 minutes to get there.  I called a friend to see about exact directions, she didn't know but wanted to join in.  After googling the directions we hoped in the car and were on our way.  It was well worth the trip and  here's my haul from this multi family yard sale!

Let me walk you through my finds....

First up these hand painted and signed prints were a steal at .50 cents each.  The ladies selling these had a stock pile of  bird prints in all sizes.  Her father was the artist who sold them in his gallery.  She had framed and unframed, matted and unmatted.  These were my choices from her because I already had more things I was buying from her and was trying not to get carried away.  Sorta wish I had gotten more larger prints too! But I always feel like I am running out of wall space..what was I thinking?

The goblets were $3.00 for a set of four.  I took two photos for you to see if you can see the color.  They are a light blue with a slight iridescence look to them...so pretty!

This very decorative ceramic fruit canister was $5.00.  Of course I just loved it for my kitchen!  It is actually very large and would probably be more considered the size of a cookie jar.

And this beautiful lamp with shade was only $3.00.  She had $5.00 on but said I'll give it to you for $3.00.  It was getting late and they were ready to wrap it up for the day.  The beauty of the garage sales on the lake are the homeowners have had enough by 12:00pm and are ready to hit the lake!  The lamp is so very heavy!I was quite surprised when I picked it up, so this is a great quality lamp, and it works too!

And finally on our way home we passed another neighborhood that had a garage sale sign up and pulled in to find a moving sale.  The house was trashed and smoke ridden.  We looked inside and walked back out to leave but I stopped to ask the guy how much for this table that was sitting in the yard before leaving.  I was shocked when he said $3.00.  It's very dirty and will need major TLC!  I can handle that!  Hopefully this one will make it to the front porch, as I am running out of room on the back porch.  LOL!  I am definitely seeing something colorful in this little tables future.

 

Well, there you you have it!  A great day and great finds!  All in all today I spent a total of $15.00.

I think, that's pretty good, what do you say?

Thanks for stopping by and be sure and leave me a comment,

I'm linking up with our sweet friend Debbie for Garage Salen Saturday @

 http://www.debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/

 Be sure and check out more great deals and finds at her fun linky party!

Revealing the Bakers Rack!

Finally, the Sun came back out today and I was able to take pictures! It's very hard to get decent pictures on my screened porch on an overcast day so I've been waiting for just the right amount of sunshine.  I want to show you our fantastic bakers rack makeover.   In case you missed my previous post I got a fantastic deal on a bakers rack at a yard sale last Saturday.

This is what it looked like when I brought it home.  It was two different shades of green with flaking paint and rust. As you can also see it was missing the main center shelf.  Ever noticed how they are always missing the center shelves?   I have!  It seems I've looked at several of these for sale that are missing that one shelf.

But I've also looked at many of these that even in this condition they want close to $100.00.  I'm not sure why bakers racks seem to hold so much value but that's basically why I haven't had one until now.  That is until the past weekend when I bought this one for the incredibly low price of  $8.00.  Yes, that's right, you read that right.   I said, $8.00, and I'm not missing any zero's here either!

So, here's my $8.00 bakers rack now!

I apologize for these photos,I still have so much to learn!  I gave it a very good sanding with a wire brush and sandpaper, then 3 cans of black rustoleum semi-gloss protective enamel spray paint.  I wanted to make sure I really coated it well.

It turned out beautiful! I am so pleased!

The Mr. had a wonderful idea to add a piece of our old kitchen counter for the center board.

So now we have a wonderful corian shelf in the center.

He cut it to size himself and did a wonderful job!  It is an off white oyster shell color so to speak with specks.

This is the best close up I could get to show you the coloring.  Looks so good with the black wrought iron!

Of course I could hardly wait to decorate it. 

 I put it on the screen porch in the back for now.  I really wanted to put it on the front porch but my more practical side put in back here so I can use it and see it daily.

First I had to do a little re arranging of my furniture. I moved a larger table out and a smaller table in.  I absolutely love sitting in these chairs in the morning at a table to enjoy my coffee and breakfast so loosing the table was not an option for me.  This is still a nice size for two and I was able to put the rack along the screen wall.  I also had to raise the chandelier to keep from bumping our heads.  LOL!

This is how I have decorated it for now, I am sure this going to be an ever evolving display area.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Just a few accessories and it's off to a great start!

Another wide shot!  I just can't stop looking at it!  Can you blame me?

Now all I need to do is get to work on the new pillows and tablecloth for this area.

Did I mention how much I love my porch?  I love my PORCH! 

I am linking up with the following parties below.  Please be sure and visit these for more inspirational posts.

Transformation Thursday @ http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/

Met Monday @ http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Show off your Stuff @ http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by..have a great day!

Leaping Lizards my projects done!

Yay!  I am finished with my bakers rack!  I am so thrilled and cannot wait to show it off!  It looks fantastic!

Sorry ladies, it's only a sneak peek!  You will have to wait a bit longer for the big reveal!  It overcast and gloomy and not a great day for photos on the screened porch! 

Today is all about Outdoor Wednesday @ http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

Quite literally it's also about leaping lizards!  They are everywhere around here!  Everywhere I look I am seeing lizards!  This post is dedicated to and all about our reptile visitors!

Here's one enjoying the side of our hot tub!

Yeah, we're looking at you!

You may be brown to match the side but you can't hide!

This one is hiding a little better beneath the potato vine.

What's on this his face, is it starting to change colors?

Running on the front porch railing...

And this guy on the rain gutter got away!

Yep!  There's one in the bush's.

He's looking rather green!

Wow!  Look at the tail on this one heading for a flower pot.

She doesn't seem to mind posing for a closeup.

Hmm!  A shy one here!

Peek a boo, I see you!

Hope you enjoyed my company today!

Leave me a comment if you visited today, okay?  Don't be a leaping lizard! 

Happy Outdoor Wednesday!