A new/old standard lamp.

I’ve been looking for about a year now for a timber standard lamp base.  I’ve been on eBay and Gumtree, trawled op shops and secondhand shops but had no luck.

but…

Mr F was driving home from work this week and found it sitting out for the kerbside collection.  Woo hoo!!.

I wish I’d managed to take a photo of it before he started attacking it.  It had two bendy lamps  like tentacles coming out of the top.

I sanded all the varnish off and gave it an undercoat.

The colour I’ve used is called Marquise – Taubmans.

The velvet shade came from Freedom about five years ago.  I’m not 100% sure about the shade yet.  I’m thinking it might not be big enough.  I’d appreciate any thoughts.  should I add some pom-pom trim?  .

Or am I going overboard with the pom-pom thing??  as the blinds and Beryl the Cockatoo lamp have them.

Day trip to Bangalow.

Oldest son has his L plates, he has to log 120 hours of supervised driving before he can sit the test for his P plates.

So a few weeks back while we were all still on holidays, we decided to pack a lunch and go for a day trip to Bangalow and Nimbin so he could get a few more hours under his belt.

We’ve been to Nimbin before and found it quite interesting and we were all keen to go back for another visit.  We went for a walk, exchanged pleasantries with one or two of the locals, had a coffee in a grungy cafe and then drove back towards Bangalow.

Bangalow is such a contrast to Nimbin!   It’s  a lovely little town approximately ten minutes from Byron Bay.  The main street is lined with beautiful old  buildings full of boutique shops, cafes and restaurants..(with big city prices to match!)

Up one of the side streets is a rather overpriced antique/collectables shop but it’s an Aladdin’s cave of treasures and worth the look. I took some photos anyway.

On the same street is this leaning building.  It’s an old Masonic Temple.

How cute is the Bangalow RSL.

Last year we brought as a souvenir from our travels two cast iron rockets from a shop called Waxjambu Emporium.

This year I came home with Olive Oyl and a cowboy .  Sadly they’d sold out of Popeye’s

…

Bangalow is also the home to a Lazybones shop.  Its full of beautiful clothes, homewares and collectables.  I was very tempted and even tried on a dress, I love the pom-pom trim (above) but knowing that Mr F and the three boys were waiting outside  bored and hot, kind of put me off.  I need to go back with some female friends I think….

the lounge and dining room continued…. Window shopping!

All of the windows in the house except one in the lounge were replaced at some point with aluminium sliders.  They’re awful!!  Slowly we’ve been able to source replacement casement windows and take the others to the dump!  We really like the chaps that run the Demolition Yard at Cavendish Road, Coorparoo.  They are very helpful and its very easy to look at their stock.  We are also on the lookout for a nice front door.

   

We replaced the windows in the lounge and dining room.  We took them to a place in Salisbury called Earth Safe Paint Removal  to  have the paint removed.  Many people would advise against this process as it dissolves the old  glue.  We did re-glue some of them that did need it.  The owner of this business John has an enormous amount of stock there too .  He is also a very nice man.

My mum made the blinds for us.  The fabric and the multi coloured pom-pom trim came from Brisbane Fabric Market on Stanley Street, East Brisbane.   They also have a shop at Wilston.  It was hard to take a photo to show you the blinds.  I will try to take a photo of them when the light is better.

Speaking of lights.  I have a thing for Lamps and have brought three this year.  This is Beryl.  She was brought from a shop in Bulimba called Just Plain Gorgeous.  I think she’s fantastic.

Here are some photos of how the lounge and dining room look at the moment.  If we do get to build, these two rooms will change.  As both the living room and the dining area will be down stairs.  These rooms will become a study and upstairs living area.  The black footstool has gone to live at my cousin’s  house and the red chair now lives in a bedroom.  Oh and the youngest boy broke the lamp in the corner.  I’ve saved the  turquoise velvet shade though and am looking for an old wooden base that I’d like to paint yellow.