More attempts at my lamp altering

When you date a veteran…

Or live with one,

Who’s done several tours in the middle east,

who’s had enough of the goddammed sun and/or other bright lights,

Understandably,

You may find yourself constantly and at least for me, with much interest and creativity, finding ways to “dull” the lamps. I get it. Totally. 

But when I am home alone I have all the lights on to see what the hell I’m looking at.  (ahem..Makeup, face inspections, is that mole growing? Ingrown hair? ….or I’m just losing my sight slightly with age as this runs in my family.)(sexy Tina Fey reading glasses coming soon…I’m sure of it)

Anywaaayyss, no lamp I have ever purchased or brought home has stayed with the same wiring, shades, bulbs, or hardware that it came with.  I once knew a boy in the Sunset who covered his lightbulbs in his bedroom with colored plastic bags…I was horrified. At first.  But I think I learned, with enough light bulb knowledge, flammability research, and lots of “turning this lamp on for a few while I’m home to make sure it doesn’t start smoking, while I am out smoking” type experiments, I’ve found myself quite the random little hobby.

Lamps must be turned down or off upon the arrival my man in black, which is fine with me.  Less pressure to look flawless, amIright?  But while he’s home, and I am my normal ADHD, anxiety ridden, crafty self, I do need some type of lights somewhere to work on things.  Preferably while sitting down.  Don‘t want to be darting back and forth in front of the tv, our “condo” is small and also owned which makes no sense to a Michigan girl such as myself, so I try to find one or two zones to do my thang in while he’s home.

It started with using those funny black paper crafting books from my childhood. Where you would use a wooden pointed pencil thing and drawdoodles to expose multi surprising colors underneath.  Those work great with LED night light bulbs. Because those don’t get hot.  But eventually as my …ummm…crafting area…aka entire house, grew into my own project zones I found I needed more than just night lights. 

I really don’t know why this is so interesting to me.  Maybe because I’ve spent what seems like my whole life tinkering with miniature electronics and lights in order to make little lamps for my dollhouses?  Wires and batteries, man! What a riot!

Here are some more pictures of my lamp-dismantling and random things I’ve found to glue to onto dusty shades and topped off with the lowest light emitting bulbs I can find.

pizza boxes are always a thing to craft over.

look at all that ooey gooey hot glue gun mess! I love it!

another random light I am always fiddeling with...

reminds me of plastic tumblers from the 70s.  and i always have gold chains and chunky beaded necklaces lying around, you know, just for this sort of pendant lamp tinkering.  look at those cool designs it makes!