Oh My God We're Back Again (with a Terrarium Lamp)

This post is me picking up from where I left off in my last post. I'm surprised I'm actually doing this. If you don't recognize the title, that's the first verse in "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by the Backstreet Boys. 

In my last post I was bragging about how great my vintage thrift store lamp makeovers are. I mean, I think they're cool because I designed them myself. You might not agree. 

I came up with idea to make a terrarium lamp a while back. Not sure where I came up with it; I think that I wanted plants in a jar and I just happened to have a glass lamp. I Googled my plan and found only one example of a fake terrarium lamp in a blog post. Great, my idea was slightly original! Wait, what's a terrarium you ask?

These are. There's something very "70s-nature-boho" about these plants growing in jars. The 1970s was a time when crafting and indoor plants were popular and terrariums were both of those things.

Here is my ultra obvious "how to" on my terrarium lamp! See this:

The humble glass jar lamp. Often seen filled with shells, sometimes hexagon shaped. Notice this is an actual old ginger jar lamp, not a Mason jar! Look in your thrift store lamp aisle.

I like to start with one of those. If empty, cool; if not, de-shell. See that round metal base? It unscrews from the bottom for a jar entrance! I gather up some artificial plants and other things. 

These "other things" might be found in a thrift, but you might have to hit up a crafts store.

There's my work station and supplies. Let's break it down and use pictures:

 

Artificial air plants

 Artificial succulents

Moss chunks

Moss!

Driftwood

Aquarium pebbles

I pick out some of those things. Then I put the things in the lamp. You following? Need further directions? 

But seriously...this is not a difficult project. Add a lampshade for an additional challenge. Here are some of my results!

 

T

This one is my favorite because of that cool shape.

I also really like that one with the mid century mod lampshade.

 

I tend to stage them next to owls.

Are they not kind of cute?! 

I have also filled a few glass jar lamps with other things!

Buttons and other sewing supplies!

Tiny vintage toys! I thought that one was so much fun but it collected dust for about two years before it sold! The buyer's review stated that she loved it and also called it "fun," so I'm glad someone appreciated it.

I made this Christmas themed lamp...about three seasons ago. Still for sale! 

Here's the before and after!

 

Thrift store lamp upcycle!

Crewel Embroideries: Greatest Hits Volume 1

I decided I want to keep a record of my fabulous finds of yarn art. It occurred to me that I could have a colorful, kitschy gallery of gorgeous had I kept my crewels instead of selling them for money.
As of lately, these are my current "thing." You know, the thing I'm obsessed with at the moment. I've been very lucky! Here is a little retrospective from my first six years as a vintage seller.
Thing is, a lot of these are older pictures that I just saved from my Etsy account. I recently switched computers and haven't transferred many files over. I probably should have because some of these pics are potato quality.

I kept this big beautiful willow tree. ($5!) It's still hanging in that same spot.
I think I'll try and separate up this mass of pics into themes. I guess I'll start with larger sized ones. Here are some other big crewel wall hangings.

So awesome! The sun with a face really sold this one for me. One of my favorites and it was sold along with some other stuff as a prop for a Netflix show.

It's not exactly huge, but seem to remember it being...not small.

I found this biggie at my local thrift, OutFITers and after listing it sold immediately. Then I regretted it. I really should've kept this one.

This beautiful forest was actually found at the bins! The Goodwill Outlet, where people throw and grab aggressively. I just looked over and saw this standing up among other items in a bin that no one was looking at. I quickly ran to it, assuming the worst but much to my surprise it had no damage! A god damn miracle!

This one wasn't exactly huge either, but I remember it hung around for a good while. I feel like I usually sell southwestern themed stuff pretty well, so I was annoyed that I had to mark it down.

This is one from the string of autumn color crewels I had for a while. When I go into my local Savers the first thing I look at is the wall hanging wall. I soon found this one and noticed its cool 3D flowers. It was found along side this little one:

This next one is a favorite.

A short time later, I was looking in the exact same spot at Savers when I spotted this. For real, my jaw dropped. This big pink masterpiece was incredible! It sold within 24 hours of listing.

Here's a closeup.

I had a similar experience with this one. I was in OutFITers when I glanced over and saw this leaning against a bookshelf with a shopper precariously close by. I made a dash for this thing before someone had the chance to knock it over or put it in their cart.

This one is like the Cadillac of crewel art. It's big, unique, and expertly done. The frame is professionally done, heavy and high quality!
I mentioned earlier that I had a run of good luck with Autumn flowers. Let's transition to embroideries made of brown, orange, rust, avocado, and harvest gold...
But first this one:

Here's the story. Over the summer, I thrift like maniac. I was on my way back from a trip to a Savers and Goodwill a few cities over. Apparently, I hadn't had enough because I stopped into OutFITers on my way home.
One of the employees approached, "Hey, you look at wall art a lot, right?" Once confirming, I was led into the backroom and shown a large canvas cart of wall hangings. They had just come in and hadn't even been priced yet. I excitedly looked through the treasures, where I immediately spotted that one with all the plants and the wood stand.
Score! A framed crewel! "Definitely want it!" I said, greedily. Then I found this:

Like the first one it was made by "A.J. Stanley." Then I found this one:

Thanks, A.J.! I told the woman I would take all three and thanked her for sharing these treasures with me. She pulled out a price gun and said she would ticket them. $3 each. Three professionally framed, hand embroidered artworks for a total of $9.
At some point afterwards, I actually found another one just like the blue/orange/brown flowers in a basket.
Also, this one.

 This one fits both themes; it's seasonal and it's large. I believe that was a Goodwill find where a week later I also found...

Fishing supplies. I don't love the subject, but great execution!

Oof. Not a great picture, but I can assure you these owls on a branch with an orange background was great quality! I can say that about this next picture too!

They're pillows!

Look at that little cutie. I don't know whether the quote is suggesting that the chipmunk listen for the earth's music, or that the chipmunk is going to sing for us. I'm not a huge fan of their music; their voices are way too high pitched. (Get it?)
This charming cottage looks autumn-y.

All right, let's wrap this up with some sunsets.

This style is called "long stitch." Man, I love a good '70s landscape. This one has a matching orange frame!

 Awesome shades of orange on harvest gold.

This one is somewhat similar. Isn't it kinda creepy? I love that.
Join me next time for some more yarn art!

Big Time

Hi there!

After typing in title of this post, I started singing the actual song in my head. 

The 1986 hit "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel starts with the singer cheerfully greeting "Hi there!" before the song about what a big time hot shot he is. 

The subject of this little post here is big thrift scores. Not big in quantity, big in size. I'm specifically talking about large wall decor! Since I'm not the dedicated blogger I was when I started, I'd like to take the opportunity to share some of the big-ass pieces I've loved.

Long ago, I posted about one of my most excellent finds; this ginormous '70s, silk screen canvas.

I just love big wall hangings! I can't put my figure on why, and no I'm not going to make any more Freud jokes. I guess I like a big statement piece, the more old fashioned the better. For instance, the great unicorn art that greeted readers who clicked this post is bigly. I was very excited to have found it at the Goodwill one night for $6. It was a three-fer: It was oversized, had unicorns, and it was a painting on black velvet! I sold it though. Gotta pay rent.

It was a lot like this one from years ago that I purchased for a whopping $3 at a yard sale. Of course, when selling items like this, their size does pose a challenge. You pretty much have to build your own flat box using cardboard, a box cutter, and a shit ton of shipping tape. I don't care I just want to share my love of fine art from decades past with others. In exchange for a little money for which to buy food.

 There's another biggie that I found while searching through the archives. That one was cool.

The coolest one of all  might have to be the map. A great roll-up wall map like those that once hung in classrooms can be quite rare. So I couldn't believe my luck when I found this:

Wow. I get a wistful sense of longing when I look at this picture. This was taken in last year's kindergarten classroom which was the best school year ever! It took me a week or two, but I finally noticed that the only way to really hang this up so I can photograph it would be to use the little clips, like they have in schools like the one I work in. When I shot some of these, my precious little AB (read posts from last summer) was looking on and in a few pictures. Miss her and that class so much! As I can tell from that 5 on the whiteboard, I found this in May at Savers for a very fair price of $19.99. It has such great colors and in such good condition. I gave it a nice little price and it was quickly purchased.

That brings us to the piece that I still currently have in my apartment. It's a little hard to describe, but I know I've seen something like this before. It's a tree and sun scene made with carpet and attached to a big piece of wood.

Earlier this winter, I was leaving school when I got a text from Greyson, a buddy of Chris and I. He asked if I wanted this thing; his parents were just going to curb it!

It's such a cool '70s piece. It's made out of carpet! It was free! 

I have to remind myself to share my story of selling stuff to the set of a Netflix show. I'm gonna do something else now, bye.

Throwin' shade; (and Mod Pdge Fabric)

If only...I wish this was a scandalous blog post where I call out some unnamed hater and drop the mic on some fool who did me wrong.
This post isn't even about sunglasses...it's about lamp shades.

Woo hoo, look at those beauties...I bet I'm totally capturing readers with this image, drawing you in with a great pair of boring old lamp shades.
Even though I have a huge backlog of sewing projects to show you, I feel like it's been a while since I did a non-clothing DIY post. Here's how I did something to some shades. I'll throw in some pictures of lamps, too!
So, those are two small fabric lamp dealies. They're boring and beige but they were $1 each and just the right size for some $2 lamps I recently brought home.

Just a couple of fancy ceramic pillars painted to resemble french vanilla ice cream with the little black specks. How can I make them more appealing? With fancy shades. Or regular shades that I would fancy up. When I got this idea in my head, I impulsively got up and went to Savers to look at fabric remnants and pillow shades. I had a plan.

A plan that included Mod Podge for Fabric that I had to acquire. (I added that brand name to the title because maybe this post will come up on Google searches.) So, with my blue-labeled decoupage medium and two floral place mats --that's what I found at Savers-- I was down to do this thing. I cranked on the air conditioner and  for ready to attach some things to things.
That's pretty much my way of describing most of my projects. I take two or more items/materials and some kind of adhesive then join them together: attach things to things.

The place mats were very 60s-70s floral with a barkcloth feel. There's a hastily snapped picture of one of the place mats before I tore into it with some new fabric-only scissors.

...and here it is after.

What did you think I was going to do? Take measurements, mark where to cut, do geometry, and then cover the shade with properly sized fabric? That's what a good crafter would do. I decided to cut a bunch of the flowers and leaves from the mat in various sizes. I was going to do this collage style.
After a shit-ton of cutting, I grabbed a paint brush and started painting the backs of my cut-outs with Mod Podge, paying no mind to the fraying around the edges. Because screw it. I let my hard work dry overnight before adding the top layer of Podge to my masterpieces. Eventually, I had these:

Closer look?

High five me because I created these and these are great. The flowers are kinda 3-D, kinda trompe l'eoil (prob spelled that wrong), and maybe a little shabby. Buy my lamps.

available on Etsy

High on my own personal satisfaction, I overestimated my technique and hauled one of these babies out of hiding:

Just the shades, not the granny lamps. Those are two perfectly good, huge, drum shaped lamp shades that also happened to be all dingy and ugly from their years. I got a fix for that.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but it's a glorious large pillow sham featuring botanical-looking wildflowers in beautiful colors! I repeated the above process...

Nope. That's a no for me, hard pass, do not want. I guess from a distance, it's doable but it just reminds me too much of a poster that has been plastered with images cut from magazines and layered with Elmers.
But, you should see the lamp I planned on pairing it with:

Nice find, right? It's all swirly and 70s colored. Mint condish, lamp lovers...for sale on Etsy.
I've got a whole lamp party over here. Boatloads of lighting! Stick around and I'll do a whole post of 'em, nothing but pictures of lamps.

Meh.