Sparkle & Shine

My husband and I were able to go out to Rosi and work on her a bit this past weekend.  Every time I see her & spend time in her, I love her even more!

This weekend's project was one of my favorite projects yet!  I updated one of Rosi's  light fixtures.  I really like the fact that Rosi still has some of her original fixtures & that everything works.  The previous owner was an electrician.  He updated all of the electrical and wiring which is great as that was one project we knew we would have to hire out. 

 

Above the sink, there was a simple silver light fixture.  Rosi needs something chic, sparkly & boho, not something simple.  I had two chandeliers from my old house that I was saving in case I wanted to use them in our new house.  After a year and a half, it is obvious that I just do not have a need for them.  I took all of the crystals off to use for my project and donated the fixtures to the Salvation Army where I imagine they will become someone's fun project for their house.  I also had a candle chandelier on my front porch.  Some of the pieces were rusting and falling off so I saved those crystals to use as well.

These crystals certainly would have given Rosi the sparkle I was looking for but not the boho, hippie feel.  I decided to have a custom beaded chain made for Rosi by Kay Adams at Anthill Antiques, my very favorite store in the world!  I let Kay know what colors I was looking for and she created a beautiful colorful chain for me with a pink, turquoise, clear & silver color scheme.

Before I even started this project, I draped a beaded necklace over the fixture to see if I liked the general concept I had or not.  I decided this definitely had potential, so I started to work on it.  I attached the crystals to the fixture first.  I then separated the chain into pieces of varying lengths adding crystals to the end of some and leaving others just beads.  I kept one section of beads longer and added a sparkly pink bangle that my sister in law had given me as a gift and attached this to the pull.  I LOVE the finished product! 

It was perfect timing for me to have completed the chandelier...I consider it a chandelier, my husband disagrees.  I had contacted a Facebook friend who makes stained glass.  I asked her to create a custom piece of stained glass for Rosi that I could give to my husband as a Valentine's Day gift.  She made a beautiful piece for us and brought it out to us this weekend.  I wanted a rose and a connection to the Grateful Dead (the bolt) as her name Ramblin Rose comes from a Dead song.  This piece is absolutely perfect!  Thank you Maggie!

I had ordered the stained glass a size that could be hung in front of the window above the sink.  We want to be able to open that window to allow for air flow.  We will attach it from all four corners once we frame out the window...we hung it temporarily for now as we couldn't wait to see it up!  I also ordered sticker lettering of the quote "I love you more than words can tell" as part of my husbands gift.  I will attach this to the wall just above the window once all of the painting is complete.

Rosi is starting to slowly look in reality the way she looks in my head...like a boho hippie goddess!