About a year ago I bought a pretty, pressed glass lamp (okay I realize that I ALWAYS use the adjective pretty when describing pressed glass – well it is). I bought it from an antique vendor that specializes in vintage lighting – no restoring though so when you buy something you get the original wiring.
This plug scares the bejeebies out of me so I never plug it in. I can just picture some burly fireman, all bedecked in his slicker and hat standing in front of our burned out house, sadly shaking his head and talking about stupid people and improper wiring.
So this morning I ran over to Wal-Mart (my LEAST favorite store on this planet but they have stuff and they are open at 7:30 am when rewiring urges strike so what are you going to do?) and picked up a lamp repair kit.
I’m going to segue for a second here – since I was already in Wal-Mart I decided to wander down the kitchenware aisles because they carry Anchor-Hocking and I love Anchor-Hocking. I spied a shot glass and thought to myself I should buy it. It’s one of those items I always think I already own but in actuality I don’t and even if I did already have one it was only 99 cents. So I tossed it in my cart along with my electrical supplies.
There was one manned checkout open with a line of people so I went to the self checkout station and started ringing myself up. Some Wal-Mart guy wanders up and announces "Whoa! A shot glass? Isn’t it a bit early in the day for a shot glass?" I don’t shop at Wal-Mart and expect public commentary on my purchases so I shot him a look and he scuttled off to go humiliate another shopper.
Reason 1,257,837 why I hate shopping at Wal-Mart.
I am not a handy person. I can’t paint to save my life, if I tried to use power tools I’m sure I would permanently damage myself or cause reason for that burly fireman to show up but I’m fairly confident I can pull this off.
So I enter the manly environs of the garage and stand in front of Rick’s tool chests. He has two of them actually, each about five feet tall with a dozen drawers, each labeled with the contents of that particular drawer. Which would be really useful if I actually knew what a drive socket or a squangle (seriously – I didn’t make that word up – it’s on one of the labels) was. I need labels like ‘one of those doohickies with the clampy deal for hexagon shaped bits.’ Now THAT would be useful.
Turns out all I really needed was a wire cutter and a screwdriver and I was good to go. Yay me.
Did you actually rewire it yourself??? Impressive.
Yay…I know…it seems like it should be a lot harder than it really is. It looks pretty! Cute tablecloth too!
Andrea, thanks for the chuckle. I know exactly what you mean, my husband’s and my technacial jargon are languages apart. Congrats on doing the job yourself. Impressive.
Nice job! Congrats! The funny thing was when I learned a little tool terminology and found my husband’s names for things and my names differed–we still didn’t know what the other was talking about. Now I’ve reverted again to either charades to describe what the thingy does or explanations as to the outcome I’m trying to achieve. But that’s okay–he has only a minimal grasp of quilting terminology and (I certainly hope) even less idea of the cost of a yard of fabric.
Oh you brave woman, I never go near Davids tools (or wal-mart) if I can help it. Love the lamp, so pretty !!!!! Clarice
I cannot believe you had the courage to rewire that thing yourself! Wow! Hmmm, I have a couple of vases I would love turned into lamps….
You made me smile with this one! Great job and very Pretty pressed glass lamp!
Thank the lord there isn’t a Wal-Mart even near me!! My sister and I can’t even stand the name of it. Any thing with Mart in it,seems to have a creepy feeling to me. Target rules over them anyway….but hey if they are close and a one time thing,what the heck.
Wow great job, I am totally impressed. The lamp is beautiful and you did a fantastic job. I also hate THAT STORE and just hearing th name sends chills. I’ll go out of my way to buy something somewhere else. See I won’t even type the name. Have a lovely day!!