This is Truly Amazing!

I kid you not.

It's the little things that really make your day, right?

For whatever reason (some shortcoming on my part, I'm sure)

 I cannot for the life of me get lampshades to fit or sit straight

 on all the great lamps I find thrifting.

Like ever.

Does that happen to you?

I was straightening lampshades constantly.

I would look at photos I had taken at parties and get-togethers 

and there in the background was a lamp with a wonky shade.

Then a couple of weeks ago I read a blog post - and now I honestly can't remember which blog- about this very same thing.

They had posted about a moldable, air dry clay that you could wrap around a lamp socket and it would hold the lampshade in place. 

They gave the name and that it could be found at Target. 

I was off. I found it.

 It cost $11.99.

 It was on sale for $9.99. 

It was a small pouch and I have a lot of wonky lampshades. 

I couldn't do it. 

I kept thinking there had to be a more cost effective solution.

(I'm sure their product is awesome - I was just being cheap!)

I thought about moldable air dry clay to create the collar that would hold the shade in place but I was concerned about the heat generated by a lamp socket and burning the house down.

When my handy hubby came home that night I asked him if there was an inexpensive, moldable air dry adhesive or whatever that was heat resistant that would do the same thing.

He said, "Yes, the JBWeld that you used a while back to repair the pond."

Duh. It's less than $5.00 for a tube of the putty and bonus - he had some downstairs. 

And the stuff at Target hardened in 24 hours. JBWeld is just minutes.

You can run around your house eliminating wonky lampshades in no time flat.

And it's formulated to use on cars and things that get really hot

 so my concern about something catching fire or melting was alleviated. Whew!

( Please read the JBWeld product information for yourself and decide if it's something you feel comfortable using in your home. I am not a fire safety expert)

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It comes in a clear tube and is like medium-soft clay.

It is comprised of two different colored materials which you work together by kneading

 and then it's ready to use.

I rolled it into a little tube and pressed it into a collar around the socket.

The thickness of your JBWeld tube depends on the lampshade and how much area you need to provide to hold the lampshade.

 

( I realize now that I could have adjusted the size and thickness of this ring to be a little less obvious because the JBWeld is really strong and hardens rock solid. This was a learning curve.)

 

You can barely tell in these late night, bad iphone pics but if you look closely you can see the gray JBWeld showing up inside the too big ring of the lampshade.

I'm sorry the pictures aren't better but I was so excited to solve the lampshade dilemma that I almost forgot to take pictures.

But a saner mind prevailed and I snapped these because I knew you would want the deets. 

This is amazing. 

( Looking up under the lampshade. If your lamp is somewhere that you might look up under and see the gray putty then you could paint it the color of the lamp socket. In this case, gold. I may give it a try and let you know. Most lamps don't require a putty collar this large but I was determined to pair the wicker shade and the blue and white lamp)

There is one little thing you need to remember - this stuff hardens pretty quickly.

You need to create your "collar" around the socket and be sure that when you rest the lampshade on the collar and press it in ever so gently that it is perfectly straight from all directions because in a few minutes your shade will be bonded to the collar.

Another option is to create your collar and press your shade gently into it and then quickly remove the lampshade while the JBWeld hardens. You can then rest your lampshade back on the collar. It will be much straighter than before but it will be removable. It would possibly still wiggle a bit. I don't have to remove the lampshade to change light bulbs so I let it harden and bond .
 

No more wonky lampshade on
 my cute little blue and white lamp!

See? Amazing!!
#gamechanger

Linking up at Craftaholics Anonymous

From My iphone...

... randomness.

If you follow along on Instagram then you may have seen one or two of these. 

Maybe not. 

Instagram moves pretty quickly.

 I always find missed posts when I check on my favorites.

1. I found two brass pineapples  while thrifting a couple of weeks ago.

 I've looked for ages and nada. 

Then 2 in one day and none since!!

They were practically black but look at them now!!

2. Mollie collected letters and put this together above her bed. 

She's adding travel photos to her gallery wall and her blanket from Honduras is at the end of her bed. 

We always have a bad case of wanderlust, see here.

3. I am painting this humongous orange-y bed for a client. It fills the entire room.

It has steps to climb in and out of it. Big, I'm telling you.

4. If I were still a "room mom" I would be all over these.  I love their cute ideas.

So stinking cute!!!

5. I am going to give these a try. 

Hopefully today.

#glutenfree

6. If I were going to drive 2 hours to have lunch then this place would be my first pick!!

It's in Birmingham - not that far - so maybe someday!!

Check out the website.

It makes me want to hop on a plane to France.

( OK, I always want to hop on a plane to France, but this place looks amazing!!)

7. I saved this picture and told my husband that it is my dream bench and if you ever see one... 

In my mind you can never have too much bamboo. It's practically a neutral. 

I love it. 

There's a decorating mantra out there that says every room needs a touch of black

Mine is that every room needs a touch of bamboo.

 Well, check out #8 and see what happened on Tuesday!!!

8. I walked in to a thrift store and this was sitting there in perfect condition for under $25.00 

Not the same but fabulous anyway and that price??? 

I'm not sure where it's going but I grabbed it and crammed it in my car like a boss!!

I usually like to know I have a home/place for something

 but in this case I will edit, rearrange, sleep on it, whatever.

9. Love this IG account for great GF ideas. 

( I am not compensated by Udi's but we have tried every GF item we can find and we love their products. This feed has great tips.)

These look delicious and would be great for entertaining.

They also remind me that exactly this time last year  we were headed to France.

We ate radishes there because they taste better in France than anywhere else.

"French - style" with butter and coarse salt.

10.  Mollie went to her first football game as an alumna and said it felt pretty  darn good to sit in the Faculty/Staff section. :)

Every Flood Has A Silver Lining...

If you follow along on Instagram

then you know

 that Mollie's apartment flooded -

while she was away for a few days.

 So it went from college apartment to indoor swimming pool.

The people next door started seeing water in their apartment

 and the maintenance guys tracked it to her place but by then it was a mess.

I got the call and we took off to see what we could do.

 The maintenance guy jumped in and started "saving her stuff"

and ripped up the soggy carpet and padding.

(The hot water heater was the culprit

and those guys got her HW back up and running in a few hours!!)

( This thing ran non-stop.)

Then came 2 weeks of non-stop fans and dehumidifiers

 and unreturned, frustrating phone calls to the leasing company. OY!

Mollie had to live upstairs and try to function due to work commitments.

But finally she got her carpet put back down and after repeat visits from the carpet guys to deal with a horrible lingering smell we gave up and cleaned and treated it ourselves.

A friend gave us some products from her company, ZEP, and they did the trick!

Frustrating experience.

But the silver lining was that we had fun fixing up the little, under stairs powder room that was trashed in this event :)

I had found an adorable elephant lamp while thrifting this Summer

and Mollie had been planning to use it in that powder room eventually.

Sadly, the poor elephant lamp was a victim of the flood.

He was broken beyond repair in the chaos.

So we just went elephant hunting... in a good way!

This is the replacement elephant lamp. 

After searching high and low this one was the cutest one for the money

 (and some lamps we googled were hundreds of dollars - wow!)

This is actually from Wal Mart ( I know??) 

It is from the Better Homes and Gardens collection and the one Mollie liked best.

We adored the one that was destroyed but this one works.

Please pardon the dated sponge painted walls - it's a rental.

 In a college town. 

You get what you get.

We skirted the cheapy plywood cabinets just like before.

We had the fabric but luckily had not gotten around to making the skirt.

The towel ring came with the rental :) but we found the cute little elephant shadowbox at a favorite thrift shop.

 And the pretty hooked rug survived the flood - I just had to dry it out and clean it.



A close up of the happy elephants on the fabric. It is indigo blue and white. 

But the real thrift shop score was this vintage bamboo shelf for the wall opposite the sink.
It is in perfect condition and so cute.
And just a few dollars!!

The little blue and white jars and bowls were scored at yard sales and Goodwill. 

I'm sure she'll add some other goodies as she finds them 

but for now the powder room looks good again.

 My dad used to bring me little figurines and travel mementos when I was growing up and he traveled (a lot) for work. Quite a few of them were elephants and I stumbled across a couple when I was cleaning before the big graduation party.
 The elephants are still my favorite animal to visit at the zoo.
One of my all time favorite photos from when Mollie was little was taken in front of the elephant habitat at Zoo Atlanta.
I fell in love with this guy during the ORC!
And I have been a longtime fan of the elephant rescue program at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

You can follow them on Instagram for daily updates with adorable baby elephant pictures and updates of successful rescues from elephants caught in poacher's traps.

How about a baby elephant kiss??



Sign me up!
A visit to see these guys in Africa is totally on my bucket list!!
If something closer to home is more your style then
watch the Youtube video of Shirley and Jenny being reunited after 20 years -
have Kleenex handy. No, really.
 It happened in Tennessee at an Elephant Rescue Sanctuary.
Tennessee? How cool is that?

So elephants never forget and I haven't forgotten how much I have liked elephants through the years.

Other than the flood part of this redo, the elephant hunting ( in a good way) has been fun.

...And Coming in at Number Three!!!!

The air has been clear and crisp in Atlanta the last few days.

A change from our humid, Summer days

 (which I love and I'm not ready for Summer to go)

but everyone else  is excited for Pumpkins Spice lattes and

 Pinterest is one big Pumpkinfest!!

This blog post about this stack of pumpkins from a few years ago

 is my third most popular post of all time!!

If this seems a bit too large or involved then

 you can always make these - a much smaller scale!

But if you are into bigger and better than I "mustache" you to make this guy!!

or you can keep it simple and squishy fun

and just make these with the kiddos!!

Linking up:
at Zevy Joy's Fall Inspiration!
and  White Spray Paint Blog!