Look what I did

When we were in Texas we made a visit to IKEA where we found a clearance wall light with out a shade.  I could not find one at the stores that had a ring instead of clamping onto the bulb, and began to wonder if we had wasted our money on the lamp.  I finally found one the right size with the right ring on top to fit.  However, it was in a beige and I wanted a white pleated look.  So here is the process of remaking it.

First I took off all the glued on pieces

Next I pulled off the inside lining, which was glued, leaving three spots where it was attached to the inside ring. Then I pulled off the outside fabric, which was also glued.

I picked up a piece of white material from JoAnns for 67 cents, cut it to size and ironed in pleats.

I also pinned the pleats.  This is a view of the bottom side of the piece. Next I basted across the top and bottom of the pleats with my sewing machine about a 1/4 inch from the edge.

Using my trusty glue gun, I glued the bottom pleats to the frame of the shade.  That was after I pinned the whole thing to the frame to check on fit.  If I had it to do again I would have glued the top first and then spread the pleats out on the larger bottom.  As it was I pulled the pleats a bit tighter on top and then glued.

At the end I glued the edge under about 1/4 inch and glued it down over the beginning edge.  I had begun on one of the metal bars that joins the top and bottom of the frame, so that gave some stability.  Then I glued the inside lining to the bottom ring of the frame, pulling it around the outside of the shade about 1/4 inch.  Next I pulled the lining tight and glued it down to the top bar, pulling it over the pleated material on the outside. Finally I glued white bias tape to cover the rough edges.

Here it is completed.  The only other thing I did to it was to find another ring that was the right circumference for the lamp and wire it to the inside of that top ring.

Now I have great lighting for my sewing area.  Cost of the lamp at IKEA was just over $10.  The shade cost $2 at a thrift store, and the materials to recover it were about $2 bringing the grand total for this light to $14.  I only saved $1 over the cost of a complete IKEA lamp, but when we bought it we did not know finding a replacement shade would prove to be so difficult.  I did have fun making it though.

August 2015~by Beth

August marked the end of summer and the start of the new school year.  Jonathan did a major car repair on the Rodeo and got it back working just in time for David to use it.  He is house sitting for some friends, he began reffing again as the soccer season kicked off, and he got a dish washing job at a local restaurant.  The best part of that is the place he works is not open at night, so he only works mornings till 2pm.  On August 17th our home school started up the new year.  Here are my 6 students, down from 7 from last year since David graduated.  Christiana is a senior so next year we will be down to 5 students.

Jonathan began back at his school on August 12th.  His school begins 3 days earlier than the county since they are a Title 1 school.  Makes the summer a bit shorter but then he also gets paid for those days.  With school starting so also starts football season.  Jonathan has already covered two games for the local newspapers.  It makes a long Friday by the time he gets his story in and gets home.  Last week, due to weather, the game was delayed for quite a bit and he never left for home until 12:45am. He had decided to cover a game in Naples, which also added an hour commute to his time.  We get a lot of lightning around here.  This is a photo of one strike lighting up the sky.  It is actually night here, but the lightning is so bright it looks like day.

Jonathan is still working on cars too.  Our van is getting a thermostat replaced, and then we need to figure out the cooling system issue on the Suburban.  To top that off it looks like one of our refrigerators died last night.  We need to find a new one today before all my food thaws in the freezer.  I pray we can find a reasonably priced one since we have not had a paycheck all summer.

July 2014~by Beth

The word for July would have to be summer projects.  When we got back from our vacation up north in June we began on our long list of things to do.  Two of the biggest included painting the garage walls and ceiling, and the exterior of our house. Sherwin Williams sells mistint paint for $2 a gallon.  That is how the garage walls became blue.  We had actually never painted the walls of the garage in the almost 17 years we have lived here.  Some of the big things we moved away from the walls had not been moved since we moved in.  Yuk!  I did some major cleaning there.

Right in the midst of this came Independence Day.  This year 4 of the children rode bikes in the parade.  They are, left to right, Johanna, Stephen, Emma, and Abigail.
When we finally finished the painting we took the children for a reward to the Yacht Club pool.

The other thing we did this summer is help our neighbor Betty.  The children have always called her Aunt Betty.  Her husband, Uncle Ned, died in May.  She put her house on the market, had a garage sale and ended up selling the house very quickly, along with lots of furniture and Uncle Ned's truck.  We helped a lot during this process.  She paid the older 3 girls to come in and clean, helping them earn money for going to a retreat in September.  Being the generous soul that she is, Betty gave us a lot of things she no longer wished to keep.  As a commission for Jonathan helping in the sale of Ned's truck she gave us her hutch.  I always wanted one, for decades, and now the Lord gave me one. I love it.

While we were in the midst of helping Aunt Betty, she gave us permission to use her pool.  She was no longer staying there so we were not bothering her with noise.  Jon taught the children to dive at the deep end.  Here is a video of their progress the day they learned to dive.

The children again played golf at the  Coral Oaks Golf Course.  The end of year party was the same day that VBS began, so only Dave, Christiana and Johanna participated.

Our local craft store also did summer projects.  Our children made tie dye shirts and cupcakes.  Here are the cupcakes.

There were free movies, and our basketball end of year party, and several car repair jobs that seemed to fill up our days.  We were also given a 2001 Chevy Suburban.  God is good.