The Happy Lamp and... How to Wallpaper a Horse

Running the junk circuit last week, the hubby (aka the Hub) and I stopped at a roadside yard sale. I found a few things like a little wooden rocking horse that was painted in an unfortunate way:

Now let me just say that when I bought the thing, it didn't have the elegant "up-do" shown in this picture, either. I just didn't take a pic of it before I prepped it for "wallpapering," a.k.a. "I'm going to use some more of my endless scrapbook paper supplies." When I was working around its tail I kept wanting to say, "excuse me." She didn't even seem to mind too much, all this ado about something; and once it was all done, she was happy. After all... no pain no gain, beauty is pain, and all that stuff we girls tell ourselves when we primp and carry on with the craziness & nonsense that goes along with being Of Matching Chromosomes.

Here is how she turned out:

I didn't take pix while I was doing this- it was simple decoupaging- but it took a LOOONG time, my friends. It was quite a pain in the butt challenge because there was so much cutting with my handy dandy trusted little X-Acto knife. Working on each LITTLE section at a time, I painted on the ModPodge with a small paint brush and then cut a piece of scrapbooking paper to somewhat fit the section (precise? I think not), then laid the paper on it. As it was drying, I did prepared another section. When a papered area was dry, I took the XActo knife and cut off excess right along the edge of the wood and it made for fairly quick & easy cutting, but I must warn you if you should decide to wallpaper your own horse, make sure you wait until the paper is DRY- it makes all the difference in the smoothness of the cuts. Makes sense, but it's worth noting. This piece had a lot of curves on it so it was  a pain in the butt challenge, not to mention it's TINY at 8" tall and 8" long, and since I have MAN HANDS working on little bitty things can be a bit annoying of an opportunity for personal growth.

While I was running around the other day in Blogland, I ran across a tutorial for making a ruffle lampshade. One must remember how long I'd lusted for gazed in awe and wonder at ruffled lampshades in the Anthropologie store here in Atlanta, where I have to admit, I could just positively DIE there. Can I get a witness?? (hand goes up somewhere in the crowd). There is not a more Very Sherri store on the planet, I'd venture to say.

As a part of our Junk Circuit Adventure, the Hub and I found a little thrift store somewhere near Tiger, GA. Apparently the thrift store benefits some sort of home of some kind. But I digress. This thrift store was the kind you probably think of when you think of a typical thrift store, complete with piles of crap stuff everywhere, and little organization, no prices on ANYTHING and no signage. UGH. But all was not lost. Because of my keen observation skills and uncanny ability to sniff out the good stuff (not an easy or pleasant task in a smelly- trust me- thrift store), I found a few worthy items:

YEAH!! STUFF TO DO!! You'll probably see these same images sometime in the future, I'm betting.

And here's what I've got done so far... The Happy Lamp!

 

Recall the riveting ruffle lampshade comment? Cue dramatic swell of music. The lamp now looks like this:

TA-DA!! The Happy Lamp! Ruffles are VERY quick and easy to make and I have to say I am pleased with how it turned out. I'm sure I'll make more ruffles now that I have done it one time am an EXPERT. I'll post a tutorial if you would like to see it.

Happy trails!