Light For Working

I got the desk into its corner of the living room.  I got it covered.  I got my sewing supplies in place.  I didn't have enough light.

So I spent a couple of hours one afternoon hanging a lamp.  This is a premade cord for hanging.  It only had one problem.  It was designed for a special lampshade.  I've had the cord for years but I can't afford the special lampshades.  I used to have a paper lampshade over it, but that's not what I wanted in this room.

So I completely disassembled the light socket and threaded it through the hole in the lampshade.  Then I put it back together again which, of course, led to the typical stages of two steps forward, one step back.  I finally got it all assembled - correctly.  Then I hung it.  Then I had to take it all down again and repeat because something I did kept the on/off chain from working correctly.  So I fixed it.  I hung it again.  Then I realized that I had the cord for plugging facing the wrong plug.  So down it came again.  And back up in the right direction.

Now I only have two steps left to do.  I have to hang a cup hook at the edge of the wall to take some of the cord weight and control it.  And I have to get one of the clips that attaches the lampshade to the cord rather than having the weight of it on the lamp fixture.  I should have both done by the end of the weekend.

And my workspace has good overhead light.  So I'm getting some sewing done.  But that's another post.

Oh, and I guess there is a third thing.  The metal between the shade pieces is gold.  I'm going to get a paint pen in dark bronze/copper and paint them.  Light has made a big difference in that corner but despite a low wattage bulb it seems very, very bright.  So it only gets turned on when I'm working.

And a matching hanging lamp will eventually end up on the other side of the room in between two chairs.

The Living Room & Fabrics

Ok, the decision has been made to finish the living room before I move on to the dining room.  The reason for this is because fate has provided me with solutions for some of the conflicts I had with the living room.

The first conflict was the limits on the amount of fabric I had that matched.  While I did have large quantities of two good upholstery fabric and they would match ok, one wasn't a color I really wanted in the living room.  I preferred to save the second color for the dining room.

The second conflict was based on something I noticed about my son.  My son really, really likes Grandpa's couch.  After a few different occurrences and observing him, we all came to the basic conclusion that he likes the texture and softness of the material.  Well, material of that type is well out of my price range but I threw it out to the fates.  I really wanted to be able to cover our couch, or our chairs, with a similar fabric for him.

The third conflict was that the fabrics I had were light colored fabrics.  Light colored fabrics show stains easily.  And my son is a stain creating machine some days.  In addition, due to his disability, I don't see his stain creating days ending any time soon.  So darker fabrics that won't show stains easily are really needed for the furniture cushions.

This is the fabric I'm happy with for the living room.  It has more yellow tone to it than the picture shows.  The background isn't white but rather a light creamy yellow.

All of the conflicts were partially resolved by our local thrift store today.  Over the past two months the store has started having a fabric section.  Well, it always had a small area for random fabrics but now it has a much bigger section.  Apparently fabric donations have gone up.  When I stopped in today for their 50% off sale, I found something we could use.  Somebody had donated two lengths of a soft corduroy like material.  The first length is definitely upholstery fabric in a beautiful forest green.  And while the pattern is different, it's very similar to what is on my Dad's sofa.  The other length is definitely corduroy in a dark milk chocolate brown.

 Despite the differences in color in the pictures, the green is a very good match to the fabric I want to use in the living room.  And the brown would work.  Unfortunately there is not enough of either to redo the cushions for the couch.  So sometime in the next week I will use the green to recover the cushions for one of the chairs.  And I'll start making curtains with the print.  I'm still debating on the corduroy.  It may just become extra cushions, it may become the cover for the second chair.  That's a wait and see at the moment.

I have faith that other fabrics that will work will come our way.  Especially since the lady in charge of linens for the thrift store told me that she had more fabrics in the back.  She promised to try to get them out by the end of next week.  So I'll stop in next Friday and see what she has.  She knows what I've been buying, and I told her what I was looking for.  She thought she had materials that would work.  She may, she may not.  But since the universe/fate/whatever has decided to help with this problem, I'm going to be patient and trust.  I've learned to wait and see what happens when outside forces jump in.  Making the one set of cushions, and curtains will take some time.  Oh, and I found some window scarves in a creamy yellow that are wide enough to be used to make the roman shades.

So I will be working on the living room in my spare time for the next week or longer.