I have been sick.  I don’t know what got me, but the only thing that helped me survive Friday is a roll of scotch tape that Jude used to strap down his cars to the top of his monster trucks while I laid on the couch.  At one point I must have nodded off because I woke up with Jude snoozing next to me.  It was a rough day.  Damon took charge over the weekend, and I am now on my way to feeling myself again.

So, the chandelier.

As always, the name of the game is… don’t spend a lot of money!  I found a brass chandelier for $12.00 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I was a bit worried when I got it home and really inspected it, (something I definitely should have done at the store) and noticed that one of the wires was frayed.  I knew it could be fixed, but I didn’t want to have to spend the money if I could have bought one that didn’t need to be repaired.  Too late.  Oh well.

I cleaned it up really good and spray painted it with…

I forgot to take a before picture because I was supposed to be doing this in secret, but I was being daring and decided maybe if I spray painted it in plain sight she wouldn’t think twice about it.  I was right, but I also tried to rush through… juuust in case… and forgot to snap one.  Boo.  Sooo… this is first pic I have of this project.

I already started stringing some beads on it.

   The big beads here are actually acrylic gem vase fillers.  I was surprised and happy to find that they had holes in them and were perfect for this project.  When I was searching around online for a picture of the gem packaging (because I threw mine away. Again, without a pic.)… I found something interesting.

This picture is from Pottery Barn, and although they are no longer available (it looks like they sold them during the holidays and put them on clearance) I’m sure they were more expensive than the identical pack I bought at Walmart for $3.00!

{Happy Dance!}

But I needed a lot more beads!  I looked all over for a good deal on glass beads, I guess what it comes down to is.. I’m really cheap.  I rummaged through my bead box and found a pack of plastic clear beads that I must have bought a long time ago. I fought with myself for days on whether or not to use them.  In the end, the cheap side of me won and I started stringing them up.

Once they were strung, I just didn’t know if it was right.  Is it going to add that ‘sparkle’ I wanted?  My neighbor and I agreed that it did… and so here is how it turned out.

I did end up having to replace the ground wire, but that was very inexpensive.  I’m happy to report that the total cost of this project was $22.

The nail pop guy came out yesterday, so I should start painting soon!

On a completely separate note… if you were a female and had your child with you while loading groceries into your car… would you offer to help a man, who is alone, who appeared to be having car trouble?