Torche Lamp Makeover Tutorial

Happy Monday, friends! I hope that you had a restful weekend! I enjoyed just padding around the house and doing a little meal cooking for the upcoming week...I LOVE it when I can get all of the meals for the upcoming week all lined out in advance!

Today I am going to share a trash-to-treasure project with you. The lamp shown in the photo below was actually saved from going in the trash. A few years ago when I worked at Special Services, we were moving to a new building and my friend/co-worker Kristin no longer wanted this lamp and was going to throw it in the dumpster:

I asked her if I could have it for my son Justin, and she happily gave it to me. (Thanks, again, Kristin!!) Anyhoo...when Justin bought his house last fall, the modern look of this lamp didn't go with his rustic outdoor/western décor, so I decided to give the lamp a makeover for him.

I started out by purchasing a "hammered metal" black spray paint that I found at Hobby Lobby; then my sweetie painted the base and lamp pole with it. I then painted the glass shade to give it an aged/antique look. Here's how I did it:

Begin by carefully removing the glass shade and placing it on old newspapers or a paper sack that has been cut open. Gather all of your supplies...I used various acrylic paints, a stipple brush, a sponge brush and a sponge dauber:

Wipe the shade down to remove any dust. Apply your darkest color to the glass shade first. (You will build the color/texture from darkest to lightest colored paint.) Don't stress over being too perfect with the paint...that's the beauty of this! You want your project to look rustic/imperfect...like it's got some age to it!

Once you've completely covered the shade with the darkest color, allow it to thoroughly dry...

I then combined a pearl-based paint with a golden brown paint, and stirred it together to create the color that I wanted to use for the next layer:

Here's what that color looks like when the 2 paints were combined:

I applied the second layer of color using a dry stipple brush. Once that layer dried, I used the sponge dauber brush to add a light layer of just the pearl paint, and this is how my shade looked:

Once everything had dried, I re-assembled the lamp and took it over to Justin's house. It looks GREAT sitting at the end of his sofa in the corner of his living room! Here's what it looks like with the light on and shining through the shade:

I love the old/splattery/rustic look this lamp has now! Best of all, the total transformation only cost about $8.00 - SWEEEET!

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today! Have a TERRIFIC week, and don't forget to do something nice this week for someone who would least expect it!! :)

Blessings,

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

Have a fun weekend...be sure to make time to laugh today!

"My Father" Scrapbook Page...

Good morning, friends! Today is my daddy's 70th birthday, so I thought I'd share a scrapbook page that I created in honor of him. This page describes favorite memories that I have of him, a little about his personality and how we are alike, and some of the things he has taught me over the years. (You can click on the image for a closer view to read the journaling.)

Wishing you a WONDERFUL week ahead!!

Blessings,

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

Have an AWESOME weekend, friends!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Wishing you a sweet and special Valentine's day! :)

Recipe of the Week: Lovin' From My Oven Buttermilk Biscuits From Scratch...

To show my sweet hubby just how AWESOME that I think he is, I made him some deeeelicious made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuits. (Cutting them out in a heart shape, of course, since it's almost Valentine's day!) Is there anything better than a warm, flaky biscuit slathered with butter??? YUMMMM!!

Anyhoo...made-from-scratch biscuits are really easy to make, so if you've never tried your hand at them, then why not give my recipe a try? (Trust me, your family will thank you!) The trick to soft, flaky biscuits is not handling the dough very much. The science behind this is that when the dough is handled too much, the butter melts into the flour rather than being suspended within the flour, thus causing a tough biscuit rather than a flaky one...make sense? (Just a note...this is also true with pie dough, so if your pie dough always turns out tough, try handling it less and you'll achieve better results.)

Now, let's make some biscuits!!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, (plus more to dust the counter)

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 

•  1  Tablespoon baking powder 

• 1 teaspoon salt 

•  6  Tablespoons VERY COLD butter, (plus an additional Tablespoon of melted butter to brush over the biscuit tops before baking)

• 1 1/4  cup cold buttermilk 

Method:

Place cold butter into a mixing bowl. (I like to use a metal mixing bowl that I've chilled in the freezer for a few minutes, but a glass bowl works too.) Using a pastry cutter or fork, carefully cut up your butter.

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add flour mixture, a little bit at a time, to the cut up butter until it is crumbly. (Here's another one of my biscuit tricks...I feel that if you use cold flour, your biscuits and/or pie dough will turn out better. When flour is on sale I stock up and I store extra bags of flour in my freezer. I just scoop some out of a bag when I am making biscuits and pie dough.)

Using a fork, stir in the cold buttermilk until mixture is just combined. The dough will be sticky, but that is okay! Dust a little flour on your counter and then rub your hands in the flour to keep the dough from sticking to them too much. Carefully turn the dough out on to your floured counter, folding and turning the dough about 4 or 5 times before patting it out with your hands to about 1/2 inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter of your choice, (I chose a heart-shape over a round one this time!), cut out your biscuits and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush melted butter over the tops of the biscuits.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and bake biscuits for 8 - 10 minutes, or until a light, golden brown. Yield: About 10 biscuits, depending on the size of your cutter. Serve with butter, sausage gravy, honey, jelly or jam...soooo good!!

Here's another fun little biscuit trick...toss some cinnamon and sugar into the biscuit dough and use a gingerbread man cookie cutter when cutting out the biscuits. Make a powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over these when they come out of the oven, and come breakfast time your kiddos will think you are the BEST momma ever!! ;)

I hope you have a WONDERFUL Valentine's Day! Be sure to let the family and friends in your life know how much you love and appreciate them...the little niceties that we can bestow upon others really can make a difference in a person's day! A simple smile, "hello!", opening a door, etc. for a total stranger may be the only nice thing that person has had come their way in a while. I am a HUGE believer in "Nice Matters"! :)

Thanks for dropping by my blog today!


Blessings,

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

 

 Hee! Hee! Have a GREAT weekend!!

The $1.00 Mirror Makeover...

Hi, Friends! I hope that you are staying safe and warm if you are in one of the areas that has recently received a blast of cold weather. On Sunday we got about 3 1/2" of snow here, and then received sleet this morning. Our temps are dipping into the single digits...BRRRR!!

I have been working on several projects, but I don't have all of the photos for the tutorials uploaded yet, so in today's post I'm going to share with you a quick and inexpensive way to dress up a mirror.

While shopping at Hobby Lobby I came across a bronzed looking letter "B" on sale for just $1.00. I bought it, not really knowing what I would do with it, but for a buck I couldn't lose, right? This letter "B" was tucked away in one of my craft drawers until I got the idea to attach it to the mirror in my foyer, which also has a bronze finish. By simply looping an organza ribbon through the top part of the "B", I was able to attach it to the mirror by tying a pretty bow. I really like how it looks:

So there it is...a SUPER easy and quick upgrade to my foyer mirror for only $1.00!

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today...have a blessed week!

Quote Sunday

Silly Saturday

 

 

Wishing you a fun and safe weekend!!