My Christmas Project

Normally the lamps in my den look like this:

Plain Jane lamp shades

 In years past I would have been perfectly happy with my lamp shades over Christmas. But in November, I went to the Houston Quilt Show. And in the course of wandering around all the vendor booths at the show, I happened upon a couple who were selling what had to be the cutest lamp shades in the world, covered with old Christmas tablecloths and trimmed with red and green braid. I totally fell in love with these lamp shades. I knew that they were just what I needed this year in my pale vintage green den. But I needed three shades and those babies weren't cheap. I had a very vivid mental image of what Larry's reaction might be if I splurged on those lampshades. I did ask the very nice woman if they had a website and was told that they did not ship anything. So, I decided I needed to take matters into my own fairly crafty hands. After all, I have a studio just perfect for a project like this.

First step was to find lampshades to cover. As it happens, I remembered seeing self-adhesive lampshades at various craft stores. So, I located three of them in the size I needed. Next step was fabric. I looked at a fair amount of new fabric, but nothing looked like the poinsettia Christmas tablecloths the ones I had seen were covered in. So, I went online to Etsy and found the perfect little square vintage tablecloth at a bargain basement price. Once it was delivered, a quick trip to the fabric store netted narrow red cotton binding for the top of the shade and some very delightful red bobble fringe for the bottom of the shade. A bottle of fabric glue and I was ready to go. And the end result is this:

Is this not cute?

The lampshades look just as adorable as I thought they would. I am beyond happy with them.

Is it a bit over the top? Maybe. But it makes me happy. And admit it: You know you wish you had these lampshades too.