Blinded by the Light

This is a post about lamps. You love lamp? I got mad lamps, right here.
By the way, I hope you all sang the blog's title as it's a pretty famous hit from the 70s. I also hope you're giggling on the line that sounds like, "revved up like a douche."
How long has it been since I've shown off some great thrift finds? Forever? Let's catch up.

Look at that mid century beauty. It's brown, so not the most fun color, but still retro fabulous. It's kind of a small-medium size and was found in a Goodwill. One of those things that I grab and cart as soon as it's in my field of vision. I'm like, "Don't even try and check out my mod lamp, suckers. I found it and I got it. $4. In your face, Goodwill-ers."
I don't always get so mean over my thrifts, I swear. Let's look at something that doesn't make me sound like a freak.

Aww, look at that one. It's a lamb lamp. It was in that same Goodwill for $2. It's one of those plaster mold dealies and someone made that. I stuck a shade on it and gave it a reasonable price. No need for ewe to overpay. I would feel baaaad about ripping someone off for a baby lamp. Good god, I'm sorry.
Also for your children's room, I present these things:

Oooh, wishing well lamps! In brown. Why. This isn't the best picture, either. Also, they cost me a fortune of 5 bucks each at Savers. I just really like things in pairs. Hey, did I ever share these beautiful Art Deco jade green partners?

Oh wow, I staged them exactly the same way with the same books. Here's their story: this one day I saw a jade green lamp with an Art Deco style for a mere $3 at the G dubs. (Does that work? G dubs=Goodwill?) I was surprised, because it looked just like a lamp that I already bought and listed it in my shop. "A pair!" I cried with joy as I brought it home to unite the two. I went to look up the listing for the single lamp only to find that there wasn't one. I searched in confusion for a while before concluding that I just never got around to listing lamp number one. They have been sold as a team and hope they are living a good life.
Hey, fancypants, take a load of this big-ass piece of lighting:

Gaze upon its mid c mod glory with its unusual shape and large size. This baby was in the entrance way at a Goodwill that one of the gals that works there always uses for such nice displays. Yup, I grabbed up this thing. I think it had a nice low price, too.
Not as low as this next piece! Although, at the condition this poor lamp was in they should've have been giving me the dollar to haul it away. You know how you go to the flea market and there's always at least one dealer's lot that basically looks like they just sped onto the grounds in a pick-up before slamming on the breaks thus dumping the truck bed's content onto the ground so they end up with a big pile of junk and boxes?
Well, if you know about that, than you know that since they put about zero effort into presentation, they practically give the stuff away. It was a warm summer day at the Londonderry flea where my eyes scanned the large pile of old stuff. There, I found this;

What was once probably a glorious piece of big, mod lamp stood this beat down, faded piece of plaster. "I can rebuild it," I thought as I handed over a dolla bill. See where this is going? It's a DIY!
Oh, never mind. I guess I didn't bother taking photos of the "process." Not that I really needed to. I put paint on it. I covered it in turquoise, off-white, and chocolate paint. Here's your step by step...
Step 1- paint an old lamp.
Step 2- ????
Step 3- profit
Here is what my crappy lamp looks like now!

I'm trying to sell it with the question, "Do you want a large, mid century lamp, but don't want to spend a lot of money? Buy this one; the chipped part is in the back!"
Here's another:

Grrr...that's not its original gold. When I brought it home from Outfitters ($4 I think?) the first thing I did was use soapy water and a towel to clean years of grime off--and the gold color! Seriously, the rings of gold around this lamp mostly rubbed off. I got something called gold leaf paint and dabbed some on there.  
Stay tuned for my next lamp do-overs, where I hopefully show off the finished results from these damn things:

LOL. It has a doll attached. Cool plastic lamp shade and a nice blue base.
Oh, and these guys. I forgot to get a picture of them as a team, and I'm certainly not about to get up and do it now. Just imagine that I have two of these:

So, there's a shot of one laying on a blanket at my parents' house. Guess I didn't want to get off the couch that day either. You see, when I found these cute little lamps they had this layer of dull gold paint. I used water and a little sand paper to remove most of it and repainted one of them with my gold leaf paint. I brought both home one Sunday to get my sister's opinion. Her response was something like,  "A: the gold painted one sucks, leave them shabby. And B: what is moving around inside the unpainted one?"
As you see, the felt and cardboard bottom had been removed before I took that pic. Here's what was found inside:

A baggy of powder wrapped inside some aluminum foil. "Is it drugs!?" my mom exclaimed. "If it's drugs, we can sell it for...how much do drugs cost?' continued my mom with her joke about drugs.
Nope just a bag of beach sand wrapped in foil.

As usual, most lamps seen here are available for purchase in my Etsy shop. Ahem...Sweet Scores on Etsy.
The end.

Let's Review

Since school starts tomorrow (and I've been losing sleep with anxiety about it) I declare that today is officially my last day of summer. Here are some of the things you missed. Because I didn't share a blog post about them. I was busy, that's why.
Many of my items are refashions, but here are a few items that were just great thrift scores with no need for alteration.

This gorgeous aqua with white piping, sleeveless shirt dress. I love it. I took in the bodice a little.

Got it at Outfitters awhile back, put it away for winter, then kinda forgot about it. It was $5. I added the belt because I can't resist waist accentuating,
Check this out: it's a whale skirt.

Thar she blows! I paid full price for it at Goodwill; $5. It's vintage! Well worth it! Look at the whales!

I paired it with an anchor print crop top which totally goes with it. It's such a childlike garment, and I really wasn't sure what to match it with.

I said I was showing you a "few" things, which usually means more than two. The third thing was these:

There, I zoomed in. They are cute, black, wedge sandals and they're made by Dansko which I'm told is an expensive working lady shoe. Sticking with the theme, these were $4.99 at Savers.
For the fixer uppers, we have this:

This thing...it's so cute and summer-y. I bought it last summer and maybe wore it once. I hate being hot and this seersucker thing is perfect for staying cool and looking great. What's wrong here?

LOL, I censored it. It's a halter style and it's backless. I can't wear that to summer school. I DO NOT WANT TO LAYER! I probably did take pictures of the process, but let's just cut to the chase. I cut up a stretchy tank top and sewed it to the dress so that it looks like I've got it on underneath.

I went with black because I like it. I wish I had a black background. Do you see the fabric? The tiny white and light aqua stripes?

Here it is from the back:

There is more to show, but I was just over it that day, just like I am now. It's the night before school and I'm stressin' hardcore. I'm going to prepare now.