I do it, me!

“I do it, me!”

My mom used to say that was my favorite phrase as a toddler. Not much has changed. I occasionally think I can do something I’ve never done before. I once saw a Christmas quilt in a magazine and thought “I can do that.” even though I had never quilted in my life. So I cut out all the pieces and sewed the top together. It was great…

Until I realized, I don’t know how to quilt this, or bind it. I began begging for help and advice. I finished it several years later. It is not a masterpiece of quilting, but I’m sort of proud of it. Here’s the only photo of said quilt I have, along with my beautiful daughter about nine years ago on Christmas morning.

So, recently I was looking at this corner of my dining area and imagining how I’d hang the gold framed paintings around the rug and how every thing on the wall is part of my story etc. blah, blah, blah.  Then I noticed the lamps. The really tall lamps with the shiny, silky, gold shades. I thought about buying new lamps, but who wants to spend money. Besides, I’ve always liked the slim bases and didn’t want lamps to take up a lot of table space. It’s just those lamps weren’t working. They were too tall and taking up wall space where I want to hang paintings and those shades were a little too fancy-dancy for the look I want.

I wanted little bits of gold in the picture frames juxtaposed (I like that word) against the more rustic elements on the table, not the Trump Tower penthouse!

As I sat staring at them, I thought “On HGTV they take light fixtures apart all the time. I bet that I could take the upper part off and buy new shades, and have just the lamps I want.”  So, I began dis-assembling a lamp with my own phillips head screw driver. I felt so handy.  I even remembered to unplug it first. Then, I couldn’t get it back together.

When my husband came home, there were parts all over the table and me grumpily sitting next to the carcass of a dead lamp. He examined my mess and declared I needed an extra part to put it all back together.

This part here.  A one inch threaded pipe. Apparently I had removed the long central core that everything attaches to, but I didn’t have a shorter core to put everything back together. He got the part. He assembled it. He did the other lamp too.  So much for “I do it, me.”

With a new pair of dark gray linen shades, they still look great and give me more wall space. Now I have to hang the paintings.

Oh Sweetheart!

Thanks for reading,

Celeste