Tag: light shade

Tatting in the dark

Remember when I added tatting to several lamps shades?
I posted about them several times, here, here and here.
 I had gone to a bit of work to come up with a way to show it off , finally decorating cans.  I like how they turned out, but they didn’t give out a lot of light, more of a glow. 
I ended up using one of the lamp shades this weekend but displayed it a little differently.
This is a Dollar Store goblet with the puck light inside.  It’s a smaller puck light than the ones I had tried last time, but it turns on the same, by pressing the center.  The goblet puts an interesting pattern on the shade, doesn’t it?  It also allows it to be quite a bit brighter.  What a way to show tatting in the dark.
Why didn’t I think of this sooner?
Okay, I saw the idea on Pinterest, but it was saying to use tea lights.  I’m sure this is a bit brighter than using a tea light. 
And I wanted brighter.
Because we didn’t have any power.
A thunderstorm went through the area early, early Friday morning (April 3) and did a lot of damage to some of the area.  We were fortunate that we only had a bit of rain and not all the strong winds that hit not very far from here.  But we did loose power for 22 hours.  Which isn’t bad, as the electric company was projecting over three days before power would be restored. 
This put a kink in our weekend, to say the least.  My husband got out the generator and we rotated what got plugged in – well house, refrigerator, freezer, etc. We grilled our lunch and went out for supper Friday.  We were prepared for no electric for several days but were very happy it came on sooner. 
But everything I was going to do Friday pretty much didn’t happen.  And then Saturday we celebrated Easter over at one of our daughter’s house, which was for most of the day.  There was no time Sunday to do everything we had planned for the long weekend, so lots of things didn’t get done.
But that’s okay. We are okay, didn’t have any damage, had a wonderful time visiting family and had a blessed Easter.
That’s a lot of light to go with the dark.
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.”
Og Mandino
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Once again

Yes, another lamp shade.
Tatted decorated lamp shade in Lizbeth black, size 20
I have had such fun decorating these lamp shades and the cans they sit on.  The tatting seemed to go quickly and easily, probably due to how excited I was to see them completed; even decorating the cans went quickly.  You see the cans as decorated very simply, which is true, but I have a tendency to over think things like this, but this time I didn’t.  I just went with the ideas as they came to me, keeping them simple instead if getting elaborate as I tend to do. 
I’ve been getting a lot of tatting done, mostly making edgings for cloth runners.  I’m using size 10 thread, which seems huge after using size 20 almost exclusively lately. I ordered several rolls from Handy Hands a few weeks ago specifically for the runners but had to order again yesterday.  I forgot that as size 10 is so much bigger the balls don’t go as far as I expect them to.  I have only completed one runner so far but am working on the edgings for a third.  The hardest thing doing edgings for me is it’s not really done until it’s stitched to the material.   
It’s a sunny day today, but cold and blustery.  Yesterday afternoon it was over 70º F but dropped 40º in less than three hours.  We’re actually pretty lucky here, there were only a few snow flurries, not like the snow they got farther north.  I’ve gotten rather spoiled with the mild weather we’ve had so far this autumn.  It is November so I should expect colder temperatures – just not temperatures we usually see in January!
Today in America we celebrate Veteran’s Day.  One of my daughters put together a poster for work to recognize and thank veterans for their service.  As I helped her collect pictures of family and friends who served I realized how many in our family have been in the military.  I want to thank them and all veterans and active duty military for their service.  Their service and sacrifices are recognized and appreciated.
Thank you!
“For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.  It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.  It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.  It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.”
Former Georgia Senator and Governor Zell Miller

A little shade

Here is another lamp shade I decorated.  I’m not as happy with it as the Ecru one – the tatting didn’t go quite as I envisioned it (and I think I glued it down crooked….)
This one is in Lizbeth size 20 black.  Even though it didn’t come out quite as planned I felt it was still usable, I just hid part of the disappointing part under a bow 🙂
The flat-backed gems are from my in-laws’ 60th wedding anniversary party a few years ago.  We sprinkled each table with these “diamonds” and I could not throw all of them away when we cleaned up.  Plus I had purchased a bit more than we ended up using (okay, way more), so now I have a lot of these left.  I haven’t used many of them yet but thought they added a bit of sparkle to this little lamp.
Dressing up the cans to go with these shades has been fun.  I’ve been cleaning up a few cans to keep for crafting purposes for a while but hadn’t gotten around to dressing any of them up until I did these lamp shades.  So far they’ve come together quickly and I’ve been happy with all of them.  Reusing tin cans, using up bits and pieces of craft-y stuff, easy and comes together pretty quick – Family beware!  They will probably  be showing up in gifts for all occasions soon!
“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.”
Thomas Jefferson
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Seeing the light

Or at least that is the plan.
Every year my sister and I try to do one craft show together; she with sewing and hand embroidery and I (of course) with tatting.  We get two booths together at the local Christmas craft show and spend a day seeing the cool things other people make, visiting and – hopefully – selling a few items.  There are only a few booths that have electricity available and they cost a few dollars more, which we’d rather not pay, so I’ve been thinking of ways to bring light to our booths without the cords.  We’ve done the battery powered Christmas lights the last several years, which is great, but there should be other, inexpensive ways to bring more light to the booths if we can just think of them.
A light bulb ☼ came on for me about a month ago – the battery powered lights that are advertised for closets and under counters might just work. 

I bought a package of these push-on lights, and sure enough, they give off quite a bit of light even in a lighted room, especially if they are aimed at something not too far away. 
Then I thought that it would be a little more aesthetic to have shades over the lights instead of them being bare, so I picked up enough little shades for the lights I’d purchased.  The shades were very plain and had to be dressed up a bit – besides, people would be able to see these easily from a distance and be drawn over to our booth, right?  Which was the point in the first place.
I made an edging long enough to go around the bottom of a shade in DMC ecru size 30 as I had two shuttles already wound with it. I put it on a shade (without glue) to see how it looked, then placed it over one of the puck lights.
Oops.  The harp of the light shade hung down so low it hit the puck light, so the light shade sat crooked.
I had to come up with a way to hold the shade up high enough the harp was clear of the light.  I thought and I thought, and I played and I fiddled until I finally came up with something that works.   I’m sure there are better ways but craft sticks, buttons and beads are what I ended up with.  These are for the display only, not for sale anyway, right?  They just had to hold up the shade.
But the whole thing did sit kind of low on the table.  Maybe I needed something to make them taller?
That’s when I thought of the tin can. It had to be decorated, too, of course.
I sure am putting a lot of work into the display this year, especially as I’m not sure just how much light will be seen from these in a lighted room – but it’s such a kick to decorate those lamp shades!
“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”
Fancis Bacon
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