DIY Mercury Glass Lamp Before

I found this little lovely at a thrift shop a couple weeks ago. I have wanted a mercury glass lamp forever. I have pieces throughout my house and love the stuff. Most mercury glass lamps are pretty pricey and if they are not I don't care for the shape. I found this for $8.00. It's pretty heavy and I liked the shape a lot. Now most DIY for mercury glass have you painting the inside. As you can see that isn't possible for this lamp. So I have to find a different way to accomplish what I want. I also plan on updating the shade but, using the same one. I have a couple ideas rolling around my head. I have a ton of fabric stashed away and may use some of it to repurpose this shade. I'll do the reveal soon so check back!

Re-purposing Thrift store Finds

I tend to be a pretty thrifty person and love to hit garage sales and consignment shops. Beads and finding are getting up there in price so I always keep an eye out for items I can re-purpose. I found a long beaded necklace that was about $5.00 at goodwill about a month ago. I liked the individual beads but wouldn't wear the necklace myself. I took the piece apart and created a memory bracelet for a relative for Christmas.

I added a couple elements that weren't in the original piece but also made two other pieces for a gift and have more beads left. The necklace had a lot of very distinctive beads to use.

This is a great way to be green and save money. The memory wire goes along way and I have several more bracelets that I will be making off of this package. So for about nine dollars so far I've made 3 pieces and could use the left over beads to make several sets of earrings. When using memory wire don't use your regular jewelry cutters. They will be damaged by them so I just used regular metal cutters from the garage and filed the end if needed and turned the end into a loop.

My Son's 3 Yr Birthday Cake

My son is really into Buzz Lightyear and I wanted to try my hand at it for his birthday. All of the mixing to get the colors right was a real pain but, it came together. Unbeknownst to my guests I had forgoten to add the milk to the cake so it was a dense almost brownie like cake. Really, really good but so rich because I had also added chocolate chips. I bought the black icing which I find to be better and easier than trying to mix it myself.  I have one of the ball cake pans that you can make basketballs or soccor etc. out of. I have seen it made into a pumpkin and may do one for Halloween and I have a tree and I think a church also. I had bought a lot of these pans a couple years ago at a garage sale. I re-sold the ones I didn't think I would use and kept the others. If you use one of these pans, really oil and flour it so the cake releases easily. I also recommend having double cardboard under the cake to keep it level. My DH held the sides too far apart and craqcked the cake. Wouldn't you know we ate it anyway! LOL