CB2 Pendant Drum Shade Update in the Style of Tord Boontje

This is what a half million dollars
gets you in NYC - a bathroom closet
in the dining area and faux wood particle
board kitchen.  Geez!  Oh, right, I added this to
show the original light fixture, not to complain!

I have trust fund baby taste on a public school teacher's salary.  It could easily stink, but I consider it a challenge to create custom things, close to the original, pricier versions, on a budget.  It will never be immediately gratifying, but I usually get what I want eventually.  Back in 2009, we bought our home, and it was gross, especially the kitchen.  One of the first things to get replaced was the kitchen light fixture, which was faux pink and white stained glass in one of those 1950's, upside-down tulip shapes.  The whole kitchen was a disaster, but the light I could fix right away.  CB2 had a nice, modern drum shade for, at the time, $59.95, now $69.95.  It may have been the one saving grace of the space.  Now, six-plus years later, it's become a bit dingy, and in my snazzy new kitchen, it was receding into the background.  Time for an update, but the dreamy Emil Stejnar snowball pendant goes for over a grand, so, what's a girl to do?

am I right?

Pretty close to the actual thing,

If there's an upside to the alarming pace of rental price increases in New York City, it's liquidation sales.  Yes, we've lost many an institution (F.A.O. Schwartz, Toys R' Us Times Square and the Subway Inn are some of the latest casualties), but I scored two great pairs of shoes at an ousted Aerosoles location, and today, at my local A.C. Moore craft store "relocation" sale (to an as-yet-undetermined site) I got me some sweet bling for my boring shade.  Yay, mercenary landlords!  I scored a Tord Boontje style laser cut felt border for the low, low price of $0.60, normally $3.99!  What?!?!   The downside?  I couldn't find any two in the same color, but isn't that the reason spray paint was invented?

And, I'm off!

So, first I started by spraying down the blotchy Eden pendant with bleach, then plain water, because I've learned from experience that the whole enchilada needs to get wet, or the stain will just move to the edges of where you wet it, plus, I didn't want the shade to disintegrate from remaining imbued with bleach.  Then, I grabbed my nearest can of silver spray paint, and soon all the felt borders matched.  In a fortuitous bonus, it came out looking like a French metallic silver lace bracelet by Paz Sintes that I swooned over at the Bastille Day Festivities, until I learned its price, and then, regrettably walked away.  Since the felt was self-adhesive, I just peeled of the backing and put it in place.  

So, to recap, I now have a custom shade, with faux silver lace in the style of Tord Boontje, and the update cost me: $1.20.  Eat your hearts out, hedge funders!  Unless you have the snowball, and then, call me!

Ho-hum.  And stained!

Notice the Orla Kiely knock-off design
in the right of the photo

"Inside Out" Movie Review

How many ways was this movie made for me?  Amy Poehler, check.  Pixar, check.  Movie about an 11 year-old girl who moves far away from her friends, check.  Made. For. Me.

Dad's emotions, with Anger front and center.  His brain
looks like the panel from a sports show.

See, I moved from my home at 11, also.  It's a tough time in a girl's life to begin with.  Add to that the puberty button, and it becomes something of a mess.  Goofball Island, Friendship Island, even Family Island crumble.  Oh, how I related to this movie.  Riley cried in front of her new classmates; I spoke with a Rhode Island accent.  The entire class was mocking me when I said that a noun was a "person, place, thing, or idear".  "Idear!  Idear!"; I can still hear their voices.  Did anyone else notice that Riley, the daughter, has Joy running the controls, while Mom has Sadness, and Dad has Anger in charge?  How true, how true.

Oh, Bing Bong, it's so sad to say goodbye.

Watching this as a mother of an 8 year-old girl put me over the edge of reason, man.  Spoiler alert, when Bing Bong martyred himself as a forgotten memory, that was my first cry of the movie.  Tootie Pie has pretty much abandoned her belief in Santa Claus; the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy can't be far behind.  The second tear-jerker moment was when Joy relinquished control to Sadness, because what Riley really needed was to express her sadness.  That's something I'm still learning.

Up until now, my favorite Pixar movie was "Finding Nemo".  The irrepressibly upbeat Dory was my hero.  She always found the bright side of things, but maybe that's because she had short term memory.  Maybe that's the key to happiness.  Riley and I don't suffer, or enjoy, the same affliction, and so sadness affects us, because we remember.  Ernest Hemingway said, "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know"; I swore I'd be different.  I could be smart and joyous, but, alas, it's an unattainable goal.  I'm a mother, and Sadness is at the helm of the ship.  There is no other alternative.  But...Joy is her right hand woman, and I feel like the two of them can come to some sort of arrangement where Sadness doesn't interfere too much with the warm, happy, core memories.

The boss of Mom's brain?  Sadness.  Oh, dear.