I found a pair of lamps at my local Value Village Thrift Store.
This particular Value Village has not shown me any love in months. I didn’t even want to go in but my husband was looking for T-shirts so, I figured it couldn’t hurt. And then the angels were singing and there was a bright light shining down. Not really. Contrary to cartoons, that rarely happens.
Here’s what I actually saw in the store. Only they were separated by about 12 feet with a bunch of other stuff packed in between. And remember the first rule of thrifting: everything looks worse in the store. I had to look past these mildewed, rotted lampshades {anyone have a hazmat suit I can borrow to remove these?} and try to ignore the weirdness that is packed within. But, feast your eyes on a shapely pair of demijohn style glass bottles. Truly a treasure hidden in plain site. Whenever you find one lamp in a thrift store, always scour the store to see if there is another one, it’s even worth asking an employee just in case because a pair of lamps is thrice the find of a single lamp. I’ve always wanted to use the word thrice.
I find it hard to believe that anyone would ever pay $279 for one of these bottles. These lamps were a whopping $8.18 each.
They each have a hole large enough to stick my fist through. I guess that’s so people can stuff it full of junk. I like them empty and you can’t even tell there’s a hole when you turn them around. The wire is completely broken on one of the lamps so I’m going to attempt to replace it. I’ll be sure to document that when I get to it.
Here are the lamps I had before. I really like those lamps and I wasn’t looking to replace them. Although, ever since we got that Ikea shelf they felt less substantial than when I had them on the big dresser. As you can see I’m trying to compensate for their scale by adding tchotchkes~a sure sign that something is amiss.
When I bought these lamps it was so they could sit on my $18 yard sale dresser flanking the $20 sunburst mirror I made. I loved these lamps on the dresser but we had to use it for our tv a few months back and then I got that Ikea shelf and it never felt quite right over there. The shelf is a few inches shorter and I’ve considered adding casters to make it higher.
When I first saw the glass bottle lamp I knew it would be perfect for a spot in our breakfast area. But, once I noticed there were two of them, I HAD to buy both. And there wasn’t room for two lamps in the breakfast area so I popped off the shades from the lamps you see up there {including the harp that squeezes into the part the holds the light bulb and popped them onto the new lamp bases.
I’m going to have to change what’s on the wall though because all I see when I look at this is a cyclops with a moustache and embarrassing small antlers flanked by a pair of pears. And that will be another post.
PS, does anyone else think that the word moustache/mustache is the funniest word in existence?
I hope you continue to follow my sister and the other compassion bloggers this week. And if you haven’t experienced a good round of the chills lately, read this post.
