Tuesday, August 14

lurvely lampshade lanterns...

the past few weeks have past in a blur of shuffling, for the shed has undergone some serious shuffling. the sort of shuffling which requires all hands on deck or else they won't be fed. the massive shuffling is coming to an end and in the aftermath is a trail of piles. piles still looking for a home, lost on their way to new surroundings. every morning i arise with high hopes i will tackle one of these piles but alas, i get sidetracked by others who call my name. 

vintage wallpaper doing a grand job of staying where i put it
my side tracking ways have been spent with a roll of vintage wallpaper and several old lampshades. where my old studio once stood, (which relocated upstairs to Our #1's old bedroom over a year ago, only to be relocated once again in the recent 'grand shuffling event of 2012 at mossy shed') was a blank page waiting to be decorated. it had for well over a year not been a blank page but covered in 'bits and bobs' who had babies and spread their 'bits and bobs-ness' around the corner towards the kitchen. before i winged it over the pond earlier in the summer i downsized my 'bits and bobs' wall to make a 'mini me bits and bobs' wall in the hallway, thus leaving a blank canvas or page if you will. (if you have followed that, then a jolly good 'well done' to you)

any old trimming or ribbon will do the job nicely
so papering was done with a wing and a prayer due to my iffy wallpapering skills and then i set to work making a few 'lurvely lampshade lanterns'. i do like a cluster of dingly dangly things and i do love lanterns and such like. armed with a few vintage frames with their covers removed (found as-is, or stripped by moi), a few faded paper lanterns, some strips of frayed fabric for wrapping, some trimmings and one left over christmas bauble, i got to work.

use frayed fabric to wrap around old frames and then use left over strips to string them altogether
hang paper lanterns outside for several days in the sun to fade their colours and add a vintage charm
original trimmings are worth saving when stripping the frame
i noted several things as i was lost in my lurvely lampshade lantern making moment. thing one: i do like nothing more than pottling about with leftover things to make other things come to life. thing two: if i had a bricks and mortar store i would make a whole gaggle of these sweeties to hang in the window. thing three: i could indeed still do so and hang them in the window of my old studio if it was not for the very inconvenient thing of having 6 foot lads and low ceilings in the shed. thing four: when did such a small detail ever stop me before.

i left some parts of the frame 'as-is'
other parts of the lampshade frames were wrapped in lace or frayed fabric
dingly dangly tassle made from pretty peachy trimmings
today as my 'lurvely lampshade lanterns' dingle dangle away, kindly placed in corners to avoid lads who may be short sighted i have several more things on my mind and plate (besides the piles which keep mocking me). thing one: going to the eye dr after last weeks vision test to order my new lenses knowing full well the transition to wearing them could drive me to not get out of bed for a very long time and thing two: buying some sticky price labels for the very thing which caused the 'grand shuffling event of 2012 at mossy shed' to even start in the first place. 

so there it is, avoiding the midday heat, i will take the plunge with lenses, labels and yes, yes, i will take the plunge with tackling at least one pile of 'jumbly bumbly' for if i do not do so now, it could spell disaster for when i don my new specs and immediately trip up due to 'piles' lurking in the 'blurry side bits' of my new specs.

Tif