Wait Until You See What Happened To The Chinoiserie Vases!

Remember early last December I gave away two of these beauties to one lucky winner?

It was Geoya. What is funny is that the email always said George and there is a photo of a man and so I thought that Geoya was a man until it dawned on me that Geoya is a woman and George is her husband. Phew. Glad we got that settled.

The other day, I received a lovely surprise. Geoya had told me that she was going to do something with the Chinoiserie vases.

And here’s what she did.

Just plain WOW! I love it! The colors, the mix of fabrics and whoa! As you can see, she turned the vases into two gorgeous lamps!

One of my favorite parts of the room is the fun fabric on the shades. Some would be fearful of this, but it really works! I think if she had gone the safe route with white or cream, they wouldn’t have been nearly as cool. I love the use of neutrals which are very tone on tone. The pops of bright color are wonderful. The lamps look perfect here! And I also love the grass-cloth backdrop.

To complete the look, Geoya included a photo of her $2.00 dollar chair she purchased from a defunct law firm. The original chair was brown and sat around for 2 years because she had no idea what to do with it. The Chinoiserie vases provided the inspiration she needed.

The fun, crisp fabric complements the lampshades, kilim fabric and Chinoiserie vases wonderfully. It came from JoAnn’s. I tried to find it, but couldn’t. But, how fresh does this stodgy law office chair look now?

It’s kinda funny, but I remember when it was cliché to turn a Chinese vase into a lamp, but now, they are highly coveted and in vogue. The vases from Legend of Asia do not come as lamps. Some companies do sell their porcelains as both vases and lamps.

However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do as Geoya did and make your own lamp!

To that end, I found a fabulous tutorial on the Between Naps On The Porch blog.

It was the only I could find that showed how to do this with a wider opening at the top of the vase.

[note: If you happen to have an old vase, please make sure first that it isn’t some rare antique. Turning it into a lamp will destroy its unaltered value.]

And there it is! Brava Geoya and thank you for your sharing! Please check out her lovely pinterest boards!

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I want to thank the many people who offered me such kind condolences for my dear friend Elaine who passed away last Friday. She was an incredibly special person.

This is an example. As sick as she was, she sent me a text message at 10:00 December 1st, the night before Peaches died wanting to know if she could come to the animal hospital and sit with me. Then, only one month ago–even sicker, she offered to get me supplies when I had a cold. Oh, I could go on and on…

Yesterday was the wake and today was the funeral. As we left the church,  another friend [more of an acquaintance] whisked me away, took me to her lovely home and made me a cup of tea. In death Elaine has brought people together that wouldn’t have found each other otherwise.

She would be so pleased.

Elaine and her father taken on father’s day 2013. She was 64 here. Yes, I know–amazing and always, always this elegant! She was even more beautiful on the inside. So kind. She made me a better person.

She never smoked and yet, when she was diagnosed a few months after this photo was taken, she had advanced stage lung cancer. I want to know why.

In loving memory of Elaine M. Sticca – October 29, 1948 – February 6, 2015

Love to all,