crafts

Something Old Becomes New Again: Victorian Style Lamp Repair.

Shopping at Yard Sales and Flea Markets is something that Tom and I really enjoy doing in summer. So, when Tom found  these two beautiful dismantled lamps tossed in a box at a yard sale, he had to have them. The price was reasonable at $8 dollars and it looked as if all the parts were in the box. I have never seen a set of lamps like them before and found them to be the perfect solution to life in West Virginia. Here the hills never know when you are going to have to live without power and for how long. Having the candles in the same place as the lamps makes life easier when you are looking for a secondary light source.

DSC02378

Antique lamps in need of some TLC

When we returned home with the box  of parts I did a quick inventory of all the hanging crystals. I needed to see if they were all still in the box. I really did not want to go looking for 3 or 4 antique chandler crystals, if I could possible help it. I was in luck all of them were in the box all were in good shape and usable.

The pair of lamps were actually wired with a single plug-in cord so we knew that in all likely hood they were used on a dresser or on a antique vanity in the bedroom. The problem for us was that the cord was too short to go between our night stands to be used in the bedroom. We started a list and noted that we would need several feet of  lamp wiring cord to separate the two lamps. A screw was missing from the base of one of the candle holders and very few of the crystals had their hanging wires left. We would need a little light weight wire, about 12 feet of cord, a screw and 2 new plugs to make the needed repairs. Now the cost of my $8 lamps would be about $30 dollars for the pair. I still think that price is reasonable for beautiful lamps like these.

Tom disassembled the lamps so he could rewire the sockets. The sockets were old like the lamps but not in need of replacement. Tom fed the old sockets and new 5 foot section of wire through the glass body of each lamp added a new plug to the end of the wires making the lamps individuals. He  cleaned and polished all the glass of the lamps and reattached the candle holder and protective dish to the lamp that was missing them. Then the process of hanging the crystals was handed to me. I spent about two hours cutting uniform lengths of wire and hanging the crystals.

When we bought the lamps it appeared that the crystals had been hung on the lamps with wire nails. One end blunt and wide enough to not pass through the holes. The other end was a sharp point like a nail.  I am guessing that this is not the usual way to hang crystals on light fixtures so I removed all the old rusty wire nails and started replacing them with short pieces of sliver wire. In the end I crimped the wires so the crystals would not have any way to fall off the lamp even if tipped over. They looked so nice once washed and put back in place where they belonged. Finally we could see what we had bought in the bottom of that old b

As you can see the end result is a lovely set of night stand lamps that fit the decor of the bedroom. I am often surprised at what we find on our trips to Flea Markets and Yard Sales, where something wonderful just needs someone to take the time to repair it. Toms nature is to see the potential in almost anything and I am so fortunate that he likes to bring wonderful things back to life.

 

Fixed Bedroom Light.jpg

Categories: antiques, crafts, DIY projects, Flea Markets, Home Decor, home improvement, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Salt Dough Holiday Ornaments with Kids of All Ages

My older son Cody has always made my life more fun with his unexpected ideas. So you never know what the boy has planned when you see him. Some times its,”Mom you got to see this” or “Mom how do you make this” or “you need to try this”… it is always so much fun when he is around. So the weekend before Halloween ( at little late I know). He arrives at our house for the usual Sunday Dinner with bags of stuff in his hands and the granddaughter  so excited trailing behind him. My daughter in law Jamie explains the Cody wants to make Play-Dough at my house that Sunday afternoon ( he never warms me we are going to make a mess). After looking over the ingredients I quickly realized that what he had brought was not Play-Dough ingredients buSalt Dough ingredients.

Salt dough decorations

Salt dough decorations

Salt dough is a wonderful inexpensive way for kids of all ages ( 4-48 this day) to mold and bake decorations, figures, or models. This dough can be colored and baked to make the craft hard and dry so it will last for years. The hard dough decorations can be painted and sealed with any clear coat. The dough is non-toxic and eating it will not hurt the youngest of artist… but be warned it is very salty.

So with all of us in the kitchen together  we mixed up a large batch of dough. Cody then took the dough and broke it into smaller pieces and added food coloring. All I had on hand was Easter neon colors so we had very bright colors to work with. We gave Christopher and Paige each 4 small bowels of colored dough and turned them loose with my cookie cutters, rolling-pin, tooth picks and watched the fun. With in minuets we were all making things too…

Jamie Powers and Paige Powers making Salt Dough decorations

Jamie Powers and Paige Powers making Salt Dough decorations

Salt Dough family time

Salt Dough family time

I even joined in the fun and made some decorations too. The decorations had both a Christmas feel and a Halloween feel so we covered both holidays with some of our creations. When all the dough was gone I put two full cookie sheets in the oven to bake. I did notice that we made very thin decorations and they do not take as long as the directions say to dry. Worried that at some point they would burn, I reduced the length of cooking time 15 minutes.

Sponge Bob and Patrick salt dough decorations

Sponge Bob and Patrick salt dough decorations

 

.

Salt dough ninja

Salt dough ninja

 

So have fun this holiday season, break out the cookie cutters that have not been used for a year and make some lasting decorations with the kids. The kids and grand kid played for about 3 hours making things and baking them before dinner. Now both little ones have home-made decorations for this years trees.

 

Salt Dough: hardening dough

4 cups flour

1 cup fine crystal salt not sea salt

1 1/2 to 2 cups water

mix until can be worked with fingers like heavy bread dough

bake finished work in oven at 300 degrees for up to an hour.

( I bake ours for about 45 minutes because they were so thin)

let cool and paint, glue and decorate and enjoy!

 

Salt dough skull

Salt dough skull

 

Categories: Art, Christmas, crafts, family fun, Halloween, Holidays, Home Decor | Tags: , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.

myoldtypewriter

The pleasures of a bunch of old typewriters

Mitch Teemley

The Power of Story

Barbour County Development Authority

Providing economic vitality for Barbour County, West Virginia

Life on the Massanutten

Musings from the Massanutten Mountain

The Helsingian Pathfinder

the inward path is the way ahead

Daydreaming Millennial

Come for the thoughts, stay with the journey.

Monkeying Around

Monks, monkeys and monkeying around. An adventurous life.

Dreaming Reality

If Existence is a dream, let us dream perfection....

alifeofvanity.wordpress.com/

For anyone who has ever thought of attempting the #vanlife, A Life of VANity is an unfiltered, realistic look at the unglamorous day-to-day happenings of life in a Chevy G20 Conversion van. Unlike other #vanlife blogs, A Life of VANity is here to show you that it isn’t all roadtrips and ocean-side views, and that there’s nothing wrong with living in a backyard or two.

Mark Explores

Nature + Health

Thrifty Campers

Nature Knows No Such Barriers

Missmackenzierose

Dream-Explore-Discover

%d bloggers like this: