Faux Capiz Shell Chandelier

I don't know if it's my personality or something that's hard-wired into my brain - but, why don't I ever go for the quick and easy projects? Produce 1 or 2 little round wax paper circles? Nah, I'll make hundreds and hundreds of them. Then I'll sew them together in rows and rows and rows....and then wonder why it's taking so long!



But, look at the result! It looks pretty close to the real deal.

As I mentioned, I had my camera stolen. On it were a stack of how-to photos for a couple of projects, including this one. So, knowing that I'd spotted this project online at some point I did a Google search and found this tutorial by Freshly Picked .



I made my chandelier basically the same way. A couple of differences include using a great little wire fruit bowl for the base and securing the basket using the existing threaded screw system that held up the original glass fixture.

Who knew that ironed wax paper could look this good?!

Thanks to my friend, Sylvia, for letting me borrow her hole punch for so long!

DIY Lighting - Challenge #1

I woke up one morning last week and, amazingly for the first time, admitted the light fixture in my bedroom is super ugly. Which led me to look around and let sink in that all of the lighting fixtures in my house are super ugly. So, new challenge – DIY myself some cool lighting.

My first DIY light is a small pendant light for my little ones bedroom renovation. I’ve been pining over the very lovely Swarovski Schonbeck pendant light for a while now. But, with a hefty price tag of just over $1,400, the closest I’m going to get is a DIY knockoff.

For some reason I have been carting around an old wrought iron planting pot hanger for years. It was one of those “it could be good for something someday” things (my collection of things drives my husband crazy!). But, couple the pot hanger with a $5 IKEA Hemma cord set and you’ve got yourself a frame for a light.

I made and tied on a slew of beaded strings around the frame of the hanger for shimmer. The colour choices match the bedroom’s new fabric.

To hide the string ties I then wrapped the whole frame with a thin turquoise ribbon.

I still have a few finishing touches to take care of – including tracking down a tin snip to get rid of the extra chain, evening out the beads and installing the light above E's new bed.

So, while I’m not going to be showing off this light fixture at any glamorous exhibits, it does the trick.

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