Milestone

This post has nothing to do with furniture or anything secondhand, but this is my blog and I can post whatever I want.

If you have or have ever had a baby, you know about sleep deprivation. It has, in the past been used as a form of torture, and has been torturing me for the last 4.5 months. And until you go through feedings every night, every two hours, you really don't understand what It can do to a person. It can change your personality completely. Going from a laid back Mom and wife, to a crazy screaming, crying lunatic. Being a mother and wife is the best and most rewarding thing I've ever done, but also the hardest. So enough about that, I just wanted to record this milestone some where, and here is where, since I've not been big on "baby books".

THE LAST THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW THE LITTLEST MEMBER HAS SLEPT FOR 8 HRS STRAIGHT. AMEN.

Lights of my life

All of these lamps have been brought home since my blogging hiatus. I have a thing for lighting. I feel like great vintage lamps are easy to come by for a good price, and I've recently had to stop myself from bringing any more home, unless there is something really special about it.

The first is a little guy, that came with a perfect little shade made of a taffeta like fabric.

The second was found at an estate sale, and at some point someone had made this decanter into a lamp, and then painted some sort of landscape scene on it. The paint was flaking off, so I just used some striper and steel wool, to get it back to the simple glass. I also rewired it with a cloth covered black cord.

The next pair I found at a flea market for $2.95 each. I love them! They didn't come with shades, so I topped them with simple linen covered drum shades.

This isn't the greatest shot, but this came from the basement of an estate sale, its some kind of super heavy work light. I had been hoping to come across an industrial light on the cheap, and when this was found for $10, but was too heavy to cart around the rest of the sale, I gave my 4yr old a sucker, and told him to guard my lamp.(bribes always work). It is currently being used as a grow light for all of my succulents that were seeking shelter for the winter.

This sweet guy was also bought at an estate sale, and I feel in love because of 1.) the color 2.)the leaf cut outs 3.) the finial is a ceramic leaf. It wasn't in good shape, besides the ceramic having no chips, so I rewired it, repaint the base black, and added the burlap shade.

This monster was found at a thrift store, its super heavy. I almost squealed when I found it and for $10, it was mine. I also added a modern drum shade, made of linen. I feel that unless a vintage shade has some special quality to it, its best to update with a modern one, and it keeps everything looking modern, and not dated. That's just me, I'm not a purist.

This little cypress knee lamp came from some sale, but I'm having a hard to remembering which one, or what I paid. Its not real big, and super light, and I was having a hard time finding a shade that was the right size, and shape so that it wouldn't cause the lamp to topple over. I finally found this perfect one at the goodwill for two bucks, and I loved the matte black with the shiny gold interior. I think these pieces were made from each other. I really can't tell if the shade is vintage or not, but that's the great thing about modern design.

And last, but not least, this behemoth, Is one that I just made myself. I had seen a huge vintage decanter lamp at Anthropologie, That I loved, but in no way could pay $495 for it. So this is my own rendition. I found this carboy in an alley, and picked it up, since I had never seen such a large one before. We have a few of the 5 gallon ones, but I think this is probably 10 gallons. I used a cork in the opening, used one of those lamp making kits from the hardware store, I had a beautiful brass acorn pull socket made by Hubbell, and then wired it with another black cloth covered cord.I also took a old drum shade and covered it with black burlap,which was a simple way to update this also huge shade. I'm super happy with how it turned out, and its now one of a kind.
These are just the lamps on the main level of my home. We live in an old house, and have very few outlets, trust me, if there were more outlets, I'd have more lamps.

Is this considered minimalist ?

I love just about everything in this picture, besides the sofa. So often I feel like when you have beautiful things they need room to breathe, so that you can enjoy there beauty. In my home I love everything that I have, but don't appreciate it, due to the amount of stuff.
Can a normal person live this way or is it only for magazines?
photo was found from decor8, via Home is where the heart is.

(I would replace the sofa with a beautiful vintage leather one of course.)

Same Room, Different Ways

These pictures were taken in the same room, at different angles, over the period of two years. These are just the changes that were captured on the camera. It is amazing how often things change in our house.

We have so much stuff, that I have been daydreaming about selling almost everything, and starting over, here of course. With the amount of stuff that we have, and the amount that we sell, my husband and myself, have each noted at different times what we would never sell. So I was trying to decide if we made a huge purge, what would be left.

As I look around I see plenty of things that I call irreplaceable, but only because of either finding them, or have very little money in them. But at the same time we have not put much money into anything that we have.

So, if we were to sell off most, would we find new favorites, or in the end would we always be sad about the loss of our collection?( I say "we" loosely, anytime I have a great find and then show my husband what other people are paying for the same thing, he always says "sell it")

Say Hello , Wave Goodbye

This sweet two piece sofa was brought home by my husband one morning as he was walking to work. He saw it sitting on the side of the road and ran home, picked up the car, and brought back this little surprise. He told me that after seeing it sitting there, he really hope there was something wrong with it so that he didn't have to bring it home. After looking it over he knew he would either bring it home now, or when I spotted it later that day, I would try to bring it home myself, and knowing that I would have both boys with me and two car seats, I may have decided to leave the boys on the side of the road to make room for the couch.

I decided to sell it recently, since we had 5 sofas.

I can sometimes be my own worst enemy. I love bring home new vintage pieces, I love looking at them, they make me happy since I spend a lot of time at home, and I love having my space fresh and exciting. At the same time, I also like our space to be neat and tidy. And living with a mate, two kids, two dogs and two cats, I feel quite often the walls are closing in on me. If there was a way I could keep all of my treasures, have space for the boys to play, but not have a big space to clean. That would be my perfect world. But that is not here.

So this sofa was posted on craigslist, and within hours the sofa was bought, along with a full living room set up, including the coffee table in the picture that I didn't want to sell.

I had a home stager, doing a mid century home, that said she hadn't done one before. Done. She didn't have to go far, to get everything she needed.

Now, I don't have a coffee table.