From the Lonely Summer of 2012, an Easy DIY

Last summer, of the year 1012 was mostly enjoyable, but spotted with moments of quiet, dark, loneliness before it's August climax of a public meltdown
I worked a summer school job and part time at a store. This left me enough time to socialize, shop the thrift stores, and enjoy the local wrestling promotion I had been part of for many years. But it was also my first time being single since I was a teenager. I lived alone in my downtown apartment and I soon began to feel like the world was no place for sole single woman in a social circle of mostly male friends. I had a a handful of girlfriends--but they weren't single. I just felt like I was doing everything alone, and it just wasn't me. I might have met up with a group, but I would arrive and and exit alone.
Friday nights were the hardest. Friday is date night and week after week I would find myself spending it alone. At the age of 31/32, I felt like the last of my youth was slipping away and that good times and joy were happening every where without me.
There was always one person I could talk to. John was my former boyfriend (I never called him my 'ex'). Together for 11 years, I made the hasty choice to break up in early 2011. It was not always easy, but we stayed close and we talked to each other all the time. He didn't hold the break up against me. He believed in me, even when I didn't. He was like "the wind beneath my wings" or some shit. I was blessed to have him in my life.
He thought it was cool that I was doing crafts. We talked about my depression and ways to cope. He suggested I use my projects to keep me busy and that I start a blog where I could share them and also my writing.
It was awesome. I remember publicly thanking him for the idea, posting on Facebook; "Finally! An idea I can use from someone who really knows me!" This blog was essentially his idea. I'll get to the sad part of this story soon enough.

This was what I was working on at the time: the beginner DIYer's project of lamp spray painting. I'm all about vintage stuff, especially mid-century modern (who isn't, amirite?) I wanted two matching lamps for the tables on each side of my couch. I found these.

They were marked $7.99 each at Goodwill, but they were half off that week. They matched, they looked retro, and for $4 each, I thought they would look nice under some spray paint. There are many tutorials for spray painting, but I'm pretty sure I didn't follow any of them. I like things done fast, not perfect...sometimes not even correct, but I'll learn one day. Here's one in Krylon blue ocean breeze.

Pretty cute, right? I'm sure there are some flaws up close, but nobody's gonna go looking at it up close, ok? The shades were nasty and not at all cute, so I began my search for two medium, not too wide drum shaped shades.As it turns out, they didn't exist. I tolerated those white shades before attempting to recover them in some cool fabric I picked up during some thrift haul. I don't see any pictures, but I'm sure I still have the shade project fails in a closet, so maybe later.
Soon, I found some reasonably sized and properly shaped shades at my local Savers. Of course, they had a stripe of Christmas-y ribbon at both the top and bottom. At only $2.99 each, I knew I could easily glue gun some non holiday themed ribbon and make them work. So I did; turquoise bias tape at the top, red on the bottom. They looked nice, but I couldn't just leave 'em alone. Next, I stenciled on some adorable atomic stars (no pictures).
Hated it. So, back to Pinterest I went, eventually coming up with this.
http://www.vintagerevivals.com/2011/10/yarn-ombre-lampshade-tutorial.html


My yarn wrapped shade came out...ok. I didn't do it as carefully and neatly as this beauty and I decided to do gold and teal colors instead of ombre. Here's the final result:

Oh, man, you can totally see where some of the yarn is messed up. I turned the lamp on for this pic because then the atomic stars kinda visible underneath and I am totally ok with that.