It's so preeeeeettttyyy!

Oh, I love it so.  My new lamp.  I had a few hours this weekend to visit a great "no touch store" run by an old neighbor and really wonderful lady named Adelaide.  Her shop is a delightful mishmash of a little of this, a little of that, all priced to move.  This fellow is heavy-- he's still standing up on the front porch despite the fact that the traffic lights here are actually blowing sideways.  I paid $45-- which is truthfully more than I usually pay for anything.  I also scored a great spindle bed, another very cool floor lamp, a mirror and a glass thing tagged as a wine tester that I plan to use as a cloche for under $150. 

But oh, it's so well-loved.  And very, very dirty, still.  It's freezing, freezing cold here.  And for some reason I was taking these pictures on my porch barefoot.  Wearing short sleeves.  So no time to stop and make it nice, and there's no way that flaking lead paint is coming into my house.  Unfortunately, I think my dog ate my steel brush (and he's fine.  This should say a lot about my dog, I think.) 

Moment of confession here.  I wish (oh, how I wish!) I was one of those bloggers who could follow up every single "ugly" shot with a stunning "after"-- but I'm doing pretty well these days to keep us all fed, clothed and happy. (And JH has worn mismatched socks for the last three days, and 2 of the last 6 meals my kids have eaten came from Chick fil A.  Luckily, there has been, indeed, a surfeit of laughter in our home, despite Daddy working two trials in two different cities, freezing winter weather, and a dog who had chosen what I like to call "voluntary incontinence" as a means of dealing with his angst at not being allowed to eat out of the recycle bin.  Anyone want an aging, crochity but beautifully brindled greyhound?)  But if good intentions count for anything, I'm doing OK.  And I'm looking forward to a weekend of puttering around the house, the few extra hours of childcare I've gotten for John Harper next week, and some much-needed uninterrupted studio time.  And painting time. 

And scraping lead-based paint off my beautiful lamp and then painting the iron white and cleaning off the jadite and papering the back of my incredible new glass-front bookcase that I bought at the Goodwill for $30 in jadite-colored marbled paper time.  That will be time well spent indeed, I think.