Found Funnel Fun!

 It all started when I found this big galvanized funnel in my parent's greenhouse. It was not being used, so I kind of cabbaged on to it! 

 I knew instantly what I was going to do with it. I brought it home and "cleaned" it up....As much as you can an old galvanized piece. 

 Then I promptly set about ordering a kit to make lights. The reason I opted for this kit over the average Lowe's/Home Depot kit was because of the red cord. A red cloth cord. Really. Brand-spankin' new, but made to look like an old time cloth cord. (And for those of you that don't love red, the cords come in all colors.) 

 You can also opt to get the cords hard-wired or plug in. Obviously, I chose the plug-in. It also comes with a little on/off switch that goes on the cord, that you can put anywhere in the length of cord.

 The cords come in different lengths as well. I chose a long cord so that it would give me more options....And because I love that red cloth cord. It was super easy to make the funnel into a light. 

 Then I had one more idea. Why stop at a red cord?  Why not "brighten" up the funnel a little? 

 So I used my Annie Sloan Emporer's Red chalk paint to paint a stripe. 

 The chalk paint gives it that not-too-new-look. Perfect for an old funnel. 

 My original idea was to put it over my washer and dryer. But then we have this "room" that needed a light. It is our pantry. It is actually a mini-room that we turned into a pantry. EVENTUALLY we are going to put in permanent shelves and then barn doors to cover all the food products. In the meantime, the room/pantry needed a light. 

 So I put a hook (well my son did) and we ran our super-cute-red-cord down the wall and to the plug-in below. 

 It will probably. maybe. eventually. get moved into the laundry room. In the meantime it is doing a good job illuminating all our food in the pantry room. 

Do you have something that could be made into a light with a super-cute-long-red-cloth (or any other color) cord?

By the way, I looked on Etsy just to see if there were any "funnel lights" for sale. There actually were. Let me tell you, those things are pricccceyyyy! 

Linking to:

Thrifty Treasures

Metamorphosis Monday
Wow Us Wednesdays
Open House Thursday

Simple Sundays

Please keep Oklahoma and her people in your thoughts and prayers. We have not had rain since May. We have had OVER 100 degree temps since July 15.  The last three days have been above 112, with many communities reaching 115 for three days in a row. Unfortunately there is no end in sight. As you have probably seen on the news, we have wildfires burning out of control all over the state. Entire towns have been evacuated. So many people have lost homes and businesses. The worst part about it is that while many of the fires are from the extreme heat and drought,  some of the fires have been intentionally set. I only hope that those people are caught and brought up on every charge that can possibly be filed against them. There are so many firefighters (my own son Fielding included) and volunteers that are working around the clock to try and help others, that it helps us remember there are wonderful people in this world. Our state is very much a state of Native American culture. I  so often think when teaching their literature that the Natives had it right. They understood about the environment, LONG before it was "cool" to do so. They understood about working together. They understood about the world. I thought their quote was very appropriate for today's world. Once again, I ask your prayers for our state and its people. Thank you. 

Make No Bones About It....

 Our daughter, Taylor, graduated from radiology school last week. Oh my gosh. I thought the day would never come!  (Notice her skeletal shirt? It also has pants and socks to match that she did not have on. The ensemble not only has every bone, but list the scientific name along side it. I told her to wear the outfit when she takes her national boards. Ha. Like that would be unnoticed!)

 We were SO excited that Taylor graduated that we celebrated in a big way. For the past two years, I had been buying (as non-Halloweeny as I could find) skeletons, after Halloween was over. (Get it?  Radiology...skeletons..... Just making sure you saw the connection.) I kept them all together in a closet. (Yes, skeletons were in my closet!!) I had forgotten how many cute ones I had until it was time to decorate. 

 I bought flowers at Sam's before I even went through my skeleton bag. When I got the flowers home I realized that they went with a couple of the skeletons like I had planned the whole thing. (Shhh...I let the guests think I had!!) 

 I had the cake made very plain on purpose, so I could put (a very-matching!!) skeleton on top. ....Like he was just resting there. 

This skeleton held the napkins for the guests. My little niece, Caroline, found these napkins when she was out with her mother and insisted on bringing them to the party. I mean really, could they match any better?  Again, not planned!!

 I also bought these plastic (heavy-duty, I might add) plates at Sam's and the cups to match. Again, they matched many of my skeletons, and of course the bouquet. We had 50 people over to eat and there was no way I was going to use real plates. 

 This guy met the guests at the door. I am sure my neighbors wondered what the heck was going on with a giant skeleton hanging from my front door!

 As guests walked in, they were greeted by a skeleton poster (again sporting the scientific names). The poster is one of the Staples $3.00 specials. I took a picture on my flashdrive and blew it up on their engineering copier. 

 I simply taped the poster behind the huge gold frame I have on the mantel for the summer. 

 There were skeletons in every single room I thought a party-goer might be in. This silver glitter skeleton (oh-so-cool in real life) sat on the mantel. 

 I did not take down my seashells and driftwood theme I had going on the mantel. Instead, I just wove the skeletal strands through the summer decor. Yes, there were some skeleton heads sitting throughout the house as well. 

 Something funny that I had not expected were that many (or most actually) of the skeletons glowed in the dark. 

 Friday night, as I was up all night getting ready for the party (because I have mentioned before how I am the World's Worst Procrastinator ....and I never sleep)....I was "surprised" several times as I walked room to room getting things ready and a huge glow-in-the-dark-skeleton was staring back at me. (Cue the scary music). 

 And because I am an English teacher and have to have words everywhere, I put the word "BONES" around the house. This is just two examples. 

My mother, bless her heart, was one of the stars of the party. I have mentioned before that my mother is handicapped. (Some day I will write an entire post about it.) She became that way through a mistake by a doctor. Over the last ten years, she has had MANY surgeries. When Taylor got into radiology school, my mom gathered up some of her X-rays and let Taylor take them to use for practice. You can see some of my mom's "hardware" in the above X-ray. 

 Each of these envelopes holds at least 10 x-rays, and that is just part of my mom's collection she gave to Taylor. I used some of the x-rays to decorate with, therefore making my mom (and the skeletons) the stars of the party. 

 My mother did not mind at all. She found it funny. She enjoyed telling people which operation and what hardware was involved in each of the x-rays. (Even if they didn't ask!!) ha! I put many of the x-rays in the large windows. (Again, I wonder what the neighbors had to be thinking!) 

 I also used the x-rays as both table runners and placemats. They worked out perfectly! 

 I had several (ok, many) people question where in the heck I got so many skeletons. Really, I only collected them for two years and bought them ALL after Halloween. Because I had such a fun collection, I put them everywhere! 

 This little guy was a stick-on skeleton. I did test just one bone before I put up the entire skeleton. Talk about glow-in-the-dark!  He almost lit up a room! 

 He came from Hallmark and I did not even remember getting him. He is reusable and very cute! 

 I even had skeletal dishes, but I used them only for serving pieces. I put all the flatware in the cups, and the food on the plates. We had all kinds of black plastic serving pieces as well. 

 We served lunch to the crowd. We had people all over the house. Everyone seemed to have a good time...make no bones about it! 

At the end of the day, this is how I looked. Bone tired!!

Linking to:

Wow Us Wednesday's 

Tablescape Thursday

Open House Party

My Checkered Past revisited!

 I am desperately trying to get this posted while it is still August 1st! I took the  COPY CAT challenge of Debbie to show something we have made that we copied..............only the twist was, we had to have copied it from another blogger. What better person to copy from than Miss Mustard Seed herself? 

 We both started out with Chinese checker boards. I got mine for $1, and she paid $2 for hers. 

 I made my Copy Cat checkerboard back in August of 2010. We lived in a different house at the time. This picture is from the original post. The computer screen shows the checkerboard from Miss Mustard Seed's site (May 2010). Even two years ago, I was proud of my copy!!  

 I painted the checkerboard with cheapo bottles of acrylic paints. That was before Chalk Paint had arrived on the scene!

 Last July (2011) I brought the checkerboard into another room and layered it with different star pictures and a small star for the red/white and blue summer season. I have told you before how I love to decorate for the 4th of July. We had only been in our new home about a month. 

 This year (July 2012), I used the checkerboard once again. This time it was the base for my red/white and blue arrangement on the dining room table. It works out great for 4th decorating apparently! 

 I had not really thought about the fact that I used it last year too, until I was pulling pictures for this post. It just "shows to go 'ya" that if you have something you love, you can use it many different ways to decorate!

 Usually, the checkerboard just hangs out on a wall in the den. It hangs underneath a giant "5" woodpress. (This picture was taken this week.) There is a little red child's chair with a "3" pillow sitting up against the checkerboard. 

 If I ever run across another one, I would quickly scoop it up (if the price were right) and make yet another revised star. 

You just never know when it is a good thing to proudly tell everyone that it is indeed a good thing to be a Copy Cat! 

Linking up with 

Debbie at Copy Cat Challenge

Wow Us Wednesday's

Open House Thursday