Vintage Lamps and Oversized Frames

One of my favorite blogs I recently discovered is Kelley’s at The Polished Pebble.    If you haven’t visited her blog, I encourage you to do so, this is one talented lady!      She recently did a post on vintage lamps and in her words “re-think, re-use and re-cycle” which is a great philosophy.     When I saw her vintage ice cream lamps, I knew I had to find a vintage ice cream bucket to re-cycle into a lamp.     So yesterday afternoon I stopped at my favorite flea market and after wondering up and down three floors I happened to see a wonderful old bluish-green ice cream bucket!     It was meant to be (for me) with a price tag of $30.     Not bad but I wanted to see if the dealer would take less.    I had the front desk call the dealer (who is a friend of a friend) and I asked her if she’d take $20 and she said yes!     So then I went back to see if I could find a lamp shade and I found one I thought would work for $4.00…..guess it was my lucky day, huh?     

     

     

Now I’ve just got to turn the bucket into a lamp.     I really like the lamp shade “as is” (a creamy linen) but will probably end up covering it in burlap.   

 

Now about the frame story…..

I’ll be going to my son’s in Birmingham in two weeks to stay a few days and start decorating my granddaughter’s bedroom so we can get ready for the arrival of their baby boy in August….his room will be the next one we do.     We have an antique bed that belonged to my late uncle which came out of the Prince Albert Hotel in Selma, Alabama that we are going to paint a creamy white and distress.    We have also “loaned” them a gorgeous armoire in a dark mahogany finish that will also be used in the room.     Jennifer and I have decided to do the room in brown and pink (I’ll share the colors later) and use the Shabby Chic line at Target for bedding.    

I love those oversize photo frames with the little bitty cut out in the center for a photo or image and have several in my home.     But since I was pretty happy with the way my Cottage sign turned out I wanted to see if I could make an oversize frame to use over McKinley’s bed.    I got a 24 x 24 piece of wood at Home Depot and cut out a 5” hole in the center.  

I might try my hand at cutting one out and mitering it together but for my first attempt, I took the easy way out and just cut a hole in the center.

 

Actually, hubby cut out the hole but it was a little rough around the edges so instead of trying to smooth it out, I picked up a little wood frame at the Dollar Tree, painted it to match the frame and then used wood glue to attach it over the center cut out.    

I’ll have to give the whole frame another coat of paint and the appliques may be a little small but it’s what I had on hand and as they say “it is what it is”!

   

  

 

I printed out McKinley’s initials on copy paper and inserted it in the mini-frame to see what it looked like but for the finished one I’ll use some cardstock to print out her initials.

Tomorrow my daughter and granddaughter Taylor  and I are going to Birmingham for granddaughter McKinley’s dance recital.     Then all next week I’ll be preparing for my mom’s 90th(!) birthday party at the lake next Saturday.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.