Vintage Plates Say "Spring!"

I DO love snow.  Really.  I DO.

Look at the loveliness outside my living room windows.

Well.  The sky is gray, the plant material is brown.

But other than that, it's lovely, right?

However, when it hovers just above or below zero, it's not as though

you can go outside and play or anything.

It IS pretty.  I DO love it.  I said that already.

Ahem.  Time to start thinking spring and gardening
and COLOR outside my windows.

There's a great product called water-slide decals that I learned about at
a blog I follow, The Polka Dot Closet.

I visit Goodwill and buy pretty plates, then I design my own
water-slide decals to mount on the plates.

The plates are usually 50 cents to a dollar.
The water-slide decals add another dollar or less.
For just a tiny expense, I have some lovely, inspirational wall art to sell or keep.  It will tide me over until the Gray and Brown Season is ended.
Only about three months to go.
Sigh.

Linked with Project Inspire(d) at An Extraordinary Day   Tweak-It-Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Valentine's Day

I spent a quiet day at home.

Valentine's Day is pretty simple around here.

Red Velvet Cake, fresh out of the oven.

It will be frosted tomorrow.

I made two of them.  One is for dessert at a friend's home,

where we've been invited to dinner.

The other is for Sunday dinner with Mom.

I made simple colored pencil cards for our four grandchildren.

We love because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19

Vintage Book Hooks

I just love the look of old books.

Wayne and I made some hooks from vintage books

that are available in our Etsy shop The Darling Touch.

They aren't just decorative.  We used heavy-duty D-rings on the back so the books won't wobble or tilt when something is hung on them.
They're sturdy enough to hold a jacket or purse...maybe both.
They'd also be cute for keys or scarves, belts or jewelry.

Linked with Your Turn to Shine at Anderson + Grant

Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal

Project Inspired at An Extraordinary Day

Tweak-It-Tuesday at Cozy Little House

The Biggest Book Lamp Yet

Vintage books are just too pretty to spend their lives sitting on a shelf at a thrift shop.  Wayne and I like to make them into unique lamps.  Here are just three examples of the several book lamps we've designed.

I have loved each book lamp we've made, but we've sold them all (and made one especially to give away as a gift).  It was time to have one of our own.
I needed a small lamp in the kitchen, so Wayne used four vintage cookbooks and made the base.  I deconstructed a thrift-store lampshade and added cookbook pages to the shade, embellished with my grandma's three well-worn measuring spoons and a vintage bird cookie cutter.  Finally a book lamp of my own!

But I knew already then that one book lamp in my home would not be Enough.

Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago.
I was thinking for the umpteenth time
about how poor the lighting is in our living room.

It's a gorgeous room, our favorite in the house, but let's just say it's a hard room for arranging furniture or lighting.  I realized I wanted a floor lamp, but I wanted a floor lamp with Personality and Character, and one that was movable to put the light wherever it may be needed.

We have a LOT of vintage books on hand, and I got the idea that maybe we

could make a tall floor lamp with books, so I hauled 41 volumes upstairs and arranged them by size and color.  We loved how the book stack made a quilt of color in that corner of the living room.  

Now that I knew I'd love the look of the book floor lamp in our living room, Wayne was on board to make it happen. He's really a "let's make it happen" kind of guy, whenever I get one of my weird ideas.  (How blessed am I?!?)

We had just the right old cupboard door in our garage to use for the base. Wayne added casters to the bottom so our floor lamp would be portable.

I found the right size/shape lampshade at Goodwill and pulled the ripped, stained silk fabric off of it.  Next I wrapped all the metal parts of the structure in book pages.  Then I took a roll of wheat-colored tulle and wrapped it around and around, bunching it up with each pass because I wanted the shade 

to have some texture and depth.

Every book had to be drilled right through the middle, and I've got to say that is always painful for me. But I have to remind myself that most of these books were from thrift shops or rescues from the final day of a used-book sale.  

Nobody else wanted them, and I can't read them all.  

At least now the books are being used and appreciated.  

I can even say they're well-loved.  I LOVE my new floor lamp!

Yes.  It's kind of snowy and blowy out there.
But we're warm and cozy--with newly-improved lighting--in here.

Linked with Your Turn to Shine at Anderson + Grant

Linked up with DIY Show-off That DIY Party

Linked with Beyond the Picket Fence Vintage Inspiration Party
Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal
Project Inspired at An Extraordinary Day