Vintage Milk Glass Lamps

Happy New Year's Eve everybody!

Last week, while we were down at my parents' river house, my mom and I decided to pop into a local consignment shop in one of the tiny towns nearby. Being the frugal shopper that I am, I was torn between looking for a good deal and telling myself I did not need to spend any money. (You know, since Christmas shopping just took a nice hit on the ole wallet.) Then, in a corner full of other junk, I came across these awesome vintage milk glass lamps. They beckoned me to come take a closer look at them. Have you ever had that happen? (Or am I just a crazy person?)

I was intrigued enough to check and make sure they worked, which they do, which was good. :) They're in near perfect condition - no chips, scratches, etc. I knew we didn't have room for them in our apartment - boo. If there's one thing we have an excess of, it's lamps. If I bought them, we couldn't keep them, so I left the store empty-handed.

But I kept thinking about them, so a couple of days later, I went back to see if they were still there...and what do you know? They were! Small town consignment shops don't move merchandise all that quickly I suppose. I snatched them up, dreaming about ways I could spiff them up. They were a little dingy and dirty, so once I got them home, I scrubbed that milk glass, and they're already lookin' mighty purty. Since I can't keep them, I'm planning to put them up for sale in my Etsy shop (they are vintage, after all!).

Here they are after I cleaned them up:

Pretty nice, huh? I love the hobnail detail on the milk glass. 

Here are some closeups so you can see a little better:

One thing I'm not crazy about, but somewhat reluctant to change, is the wood piece in the middle. I did a little Googling to see if this was a common "look" for these kinds of lamps, and many do seem to have that wood section...so my dilemma lies in whether I should paint that part. I did some more Googling to see if others had painted the wood pieces on similar lamps. I found two that I thought looked great, which is helping me decide whether to go down the painting road or not, but I want some more opinions before making a final decision. So this is where you, my dear reader, come in. I need your help! Take a look at the next couple of photos, and let me know in the comments whether you like the "au naturel" look, white, or gold.

White:

{source: Dwellings by DeVore}

Gold:

{source: Like a Saturday}

What do you think?

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*** Update: I listed the lamps in my Etsy shop and they sold very quickly! Thanks to all for the feedback on updating them. I ended up leaving them as is with the wood section au naturale for selling purposes. Seemed to have worked out! 

Playing with Bokeh

Before Christmas gets too far behind us, I thought I'd share some of my photo experimentations with bokeh. My parents' lovely tree provided the perfect background to play with this effect, so I went to town while we were there. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, have no fear. I'll explain it as best I can (as a non-pro photographer!).

Bokeh is simply a fancy word that has to do with blurring the background of an image. Of course, this can be a part of the composition of any photo, but the cool part about taking photos around this time of year is the chance to capture beautifully blurred circles of light in the background because of Christmas lights.

Like this:

See how the present is in focus in the foreground while you get that pretty glittery-light effect in the background? That's the bokeh effect. There are a few keys to achieving this (again, non-professional here!), so I made a list of what I've found works best. These tips are for DSLR users - I'm not sure how you'd achieve this with a point-and-shoot. If you do, leave me a comment because I'd love to know!

1. Place your camera in "aperture priority mode." I have a Canon, so for me, this is the Av mode on the settings dial. This will allow you to change the aperture, but the camera decides the shutter speed for you.
2. Set your camera on its lowest f-stop (or widest aperture). I have a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 prime lens (which I also mentioned back in this post), and I find that it works great for achieving this effect. I set my aperture on 1.8 for all of the photos in this post. This will make it so that your camera focuses on what's in the foreground, and blurs the background significantly.
3. Place the object you want to remain in focus (in the foreground) closer to the lights for smaller circles of light, and farther away for larger circles of light. For the photo above, the present was probably 6 feet away from the tree.
4. To make sure you focus on your subject and not the background, make sure your focus point is lighting up on the object and not on the background. (That's the little red dot you see blink when you press the shutter button halfway down before a shot. Your camera does its best to guess what you want to focus on, but you may have to play around with it.)
5. Play around with different objects, distances and aperture settings - see what you like best!

So with those in mind, here are some of my favorite bokeh shots from Christmas using some vignettes my parents had up around the house:

You can see in the shot above that the lights are larger, blurrier, and overlap more. That's because my foreground object (the cows, here) are more like 8-9 feet from the tree instead of around 6 like the earlier photo.

And a few more for your viewing pleasure...

I got such a kick out of taking these shots. It's really amazing what you can do with a little patience, a little practice, and a good camera!

Like I said earlier, I am not a photography pro by any means, but I have had a few years of practice and feel like I am learning more all the time. If there's something you have a question about from this post, or anything I can clarify, let me know by leaving a comment. I really do love hearing from readers!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that each of you is having a wonderful Christmas! I'll be back in a few days with new posts, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of our Christmas card from this year.

Merry merry Christmas!

Jackson's Christmas List

Hey there! Jackson here. I high-jacked my mom's blog while she's at work today to share my Christmas wish list. I want to make sure she sees it sooon because according to her, Christmas is only four days away (which is like, minutes in dog years!!). Gotta get my requests in, ya know?

1. Treats.  Duh. And these have peanut butter in them, which is my favorite. I promise I'll be extra good and not go all crazy at the other dogs in our building if you give me these.
2. Portrait. Call me vain, but it would be super cool if I had a portrait of myself. My parents would totally hang it in the living room. I know it.
3. Bed. I love the bed my mom made me (maybe she'll show you sometime), but I'm thinking it might be time for a new one since I dig in it all the time. I tried to pick one out that would go with my mom's taste, 'cause I know that's important to her (but no way would I let it be too girly-looking!).
4. Duck. To practice my hunting skills on, of course.
5. Collar. Don't get me wrong, my Guy Harvey collar is awesome, but sometimes I just want to dress it up a little. My dad likes bow ties too, so I figure I'll wear mine when he wears his.
6. Leash. My parents started using this short leash with me recently so I'd behave better on walks, but the one they have makes me look like a girl dog (yuck!). This rope one looks like a better option, and maybe I could chew on it when we get home.

My paws are crossed that some of these things will be in my stocking on Christmas morning!

- Jackson (ruff!)

Wedding Invitation Christmas Ornament

Man, I didn't realize until I hit publish yesterday that all my posts this week have been downers! I meant to turn things around after Monday's post, but clearly that didn't happen - even if Tuesday's post was a little more humorous. 

Well today, we're back to a more fun topic: ornaments! This project was actually something I made last year for several people. I posted it on my old blog, but since I didn't migrate those posts, this is its first appearance on the {new and improved} May Richer Fuller Be. I made these for people who got hitched in 2011. It’s a glass ball ornament with a wedding invitation inside.

I originally got the idea for it from Caitlin Graham via Pinterest, which linked to a fantastic tutorial. So if you want to make one yourself, there are good instructions and more detailed photos there. 

Supplies needed:

• Empty glass ball ornaments (I got mine at Hobby Lobby)
• Wedding invitation (or some other memorable piece of paper that you want to use)
• Scissors or rotary paper cutter (I recommend investing in one of these if you don't have one. They've come in handy for soo many projects)
• Pencil or marker to curl your paper strips

Instructions:

1. Cut the invitation into narrow strips preserving the lines of text so that you'll be able to see them in the finished product. 

2. Curl them around a pencil or marker. Put the curled strips aside. 

3. Take the tops off of your glass ball ornaments. 

4. Feed each strip individually into the ornament. This takes some finagling, but you just have to be patient. It will work. Eventually, once all the strips are in there and you put the top back on, you will have a finished product that looks something like this:

Or this:

5. Put a pretty ribbon on it and call it done.

This makes a great gift, is inexpensive, is pretty and is super personal. It's a gift that preserves something like a wedding invitation in a special way that the couple can always hang on their tree at Christmastime.

That’s it! Now go take down those pretty wedding invitations you've been keeping on your fridge and go to it!

Off To the Races!

Foot races that is. File this post under random and meandering thoughts from yours truly. Forgive me if you came looking for a home/DIY/Christmasy-related post. I'll be back to regular programming tomorrow.

For today, we'll be talking about running.

I have a love/hate relationship with running. I've never loved running for the sake of running, but it is, in my opinion, one of the best bangs for your buck in terms of a whole body, calorie-burning workout. So I do it. Or rather, I did it, until this summer when I got a stress fracture in my foot. (Cue the boos.)

Before we get to the fun event that caused my stress fracture, I figured I'd give you a little history of my running career (and I am by no means a pro at this - but I do have a story to tell!). Competitive sports were always my thing growing up. If you gave me a lacrosse stick, that was all the motivation I needed to get in shape and run up and down that field all day. Because of my love of field sports, I would have classified myself as more a sprinter than an endurance runner throughout high school. Then, when I went to college, I didn't have a sport to play anymore, so I started running and power-walking. By my senior year, I figured out that I do best when I have a goal, or a benchmark to hit. So, a friend and I decided to start training for half-marathon. There's a goal for you. Halfway through my training though, my friend got hurt and I lost my motivation (spoiler alert: she has since run a WHOLE marathon - yeehaw!). After graduating that spring, I decided that I still wanted to run a half, and started training. I gained a new training partner in the process - my dad. He's been a runner for as long as I can remember, but had never run a half. I'm happy to say that we did it, together in the fall of 2008.

Here's my proof of us approaching the finish line:

13.1 miles was quite a feat. You know how some people finish a half and say, "Man that was fun. How 'bout a whole marathon next time?" I'm not one of those people. Just being honest. It was hard, and if I didn't have my dad with me, I think I might have given up at some point.

So instead of moving up in racing distance, I decided to move down thinking maybe a 10k was more my speed (pun totally intended). Turns out that's a pretty ideal distance for me, and my hubby and I ran an awesome 10k every year we lived in Richmond. (It was the Monument Avenue 10k in case you were curious.)

Fast forward to this past summer when we were in Italy on a family vacation. We took several awesome hikes while we were there. We were staying in a little town on the northwest coast that had awesome trails up and over (very) large hills, and one day, we decided to hike to an ancient abbey called San Fruttuoso. The only way to access this place is by water or by hiking. No roads. We planned to hike there and take a boat back since it was a long hike - around 2.5 hours - straight up the side of a mountain. 

So off we went.

{these little signs were our guide along the trail}

We had a great time on the way admiring the beautiful coastal scenery. We stopped to take a photo at the top of the trail...

And a few hour later, made it to the abbey!

What we didn't know ahead of time was that the boats only ran a couple of times a day since it was "the off-season." By the time we got there, there was no boat to take us home. Talk about a sinking feeling. We were counting on that boat because we were tired! We had no choice but to hike back. Not ideal. And at some pint, along that very, very long hike back, I realized that my foot was hurting. I didn't think much of it until I realized that it wasn't getting better. We got back home from our trip and I had a negative X-ray. No fracture (phew), but the doctor said that it could be a stress fracture or a strained ligament and it likely wouldn't show up on X-ray. Rest and ice were the only medicines. Bye bye running.

Eventually, after a lot of rest, it did get better. Better enough to run a 5k in September - the super awesome Color Run!

Then a month or so later, when I was feeling really good about my running again, I somehow aggravated it during a flag football game. I guess all that stopping and starting caused it? Anyway, it. hurt. Frustration!

So, long story short, I think I'm still on the mend. Who knew it would take so long to heal a silly, seemingly small injury? Not me. I really want to start getting back into running shape though, so I'm starting a new program that maybe some of you have tried: Couch to 5k. I think it will be gentle enough to ease me back into shape. Anyone had any experience with it? It seems to be a pretty popular thing. You alternate running and walking (running for increasing amounts of time each week) for 30 minutes. Eventually you build up to be able to run a 5k without walking. I have an app on my phone that will give me voice commands on what I'm supposed to do. I like that kind of motivation.

So now I want to hear from you! Any Couch to 5k-ers out there? Anyone with persistent (and annoying) running-related injuries out there? How 'bout any cures for stress fractures? Hope I didn't bore anyone to death with my long-winded running saga!

O Christmas Tree {Sigh...}

Confession: We took down our Christmas tree on Sunday.

Yes, before Christmas. Sad, sad day. But it was for good reason. We were unintentionally creating a pine needle carpet all over our wood floors because... our tree. was. dead. Sigh.

Christmas tree fail. Here she is all wrapped up so as to avoid creating another green (and spiky!) carpet.

{excuse the blurry-ish iPhone pictures...too sad of an event to be captured by my real camera}

If you read my Thanksgiving Rewind post awhile back, you'll remember we got our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. In my excitement, I may not have thought ahead to how long that Christmas tree would be up. Turns out, a tree doesn't survive an extended period of time without its roots. I also may have been a little delinquent in checking the water level in the tree stand. (Man, those things suck up water so fast!)

So on Sunday, down came the lights and tinsel garland...

{see the needle accumulation in the tree stand? that's just a fraction of what our floor looked like.}

...and the pretty ornaments...

Then we swept and vacuumed that carpet of silly pine needles like there was no tomorrow.

And we're still finding them ever-y-where. Including Jackson's hair. Poor guy.

So that's the story of our sad Christmas tree. I've learned my lesson about buying one early. I won't do that again!

In other {happier} news, I'm glad to report we've received many lovely Christmas cards from family and friends recently. I found this gold "Christmas tree" last year at a thrift store after Christmas for less than a dollar. At the time, I wasn't sure what I would use it for, but turns out it's perfect for displaying Christmas cards! Now I get to see them whenever I'm in the living room, or the kitchen, or the "dining room" since - let's be real - our apartment is pretty tiny!

Grieving for Newtown

I'm still in shock and deeply saddened by the horrible events that happened in Connecticut on Friday. I cannot begin to imagine what each of those families is going through right now. There are no words to describe this event, but after a few days, I am beginning to process. Please know that these words that follow are my own. I cannot put them on anyone else. Each one of us feels grief differently...this is just my take. We are in a tender, fragile time where words can bring people together or tear them apart. I hope for the former. So with that in mind, here we go.

Yesterday, I read through the names of the children and the teachers that died, and thought to myself - that's too many. Too many lost their lives. I heard the President speak to the community of Newtown on TV last night and as he read off each individual name, again I thought - enough. Was it really that many? And the photos. Sometimes I forget how little six and seven-year-olds are. Such innocence. I'm grieving along with these families and this community. I'm praying fervently for healing and wholeness.

Last night, our church had its annual Lessons and Carols service, and it felt especially pertinent to sing songs that speak of longing for a Savior. Longing for this world to be made right. We all know, regardless of our belief system, that we live in a broken world that needs fixing. We need Hope to get through times like these. Each year, the season of Advent reminds us of this, and after Friday's events, I have an even deeper longing for things to be made right.

In this midst of this tragedy, there is one place that provides this Hope we long for - Jesus. When we sing hymns like "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" and "O Come O Come Emmanuel" during Advent, we sing knowing that that has already happened. Jesus came. Emmanuel means God with us. Because he came, walked on this earth, and was human in every way, he can identify with us in the midst of tragedies like these. He suffered extraordinarily and died on a cross. Yet, because he was also fully God, his death was not just for the sake of suffering; his death was for our sake. He died so that we could have access to God - access to Hope. Hope for healing in the midst of tragedies like the one that occurred in Newtown. I know that it can be extremely difficult to think about Hope and healing in the midst of heavy, heavy grief, but my prayer is that those who are suffering would see that God meets them where they are, that he understands their grief, and that he does not leave them to deal with it alone. That may be hard to see right now, and everyone grieves differently, but I hope that these thoughts will bring comfort.

"He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed."

- Isaiah 53:3-5

Today I mourn with those who mourn. I pray for healing and wholeness for those who have lost so much, so unexpectedly. 

Come, Lord Jesus.

Christmas Concert: Andrew Peterson

Quick post today, friends! Happy Friday!

Last weekend, my parents took us to a Christmas concert put on by singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. It wasn't your traditional Christmas carol shindig; it was a performance of a very unique and powerful album he wrote called "Behold the Lamb of God". And if you want to know what it's about, just take a look at the subtitle on the album cover. It says it's "the true tale of the coming of Christ." And he's right. He does a brilliant job telling the Christmas story though songs. He starts all the way back with Moses, moves through the story of Israel's longing for a Savior, and ends with a triumphant celebration of Jesus's birth. He tells it like it happened, without romanticizing it. If you need proof of that, just listen to the track called "Labor of Love" (sung beautifully by Jill Phillips). My personal favorite track is "While Shepherds Watched their Flocks." It's been one I've listened to over and over the past few weeks.

If you buy one Christmas album this year, buy this one. Can you tell I'm a fan?

The concert itself was awesome. Andrew brought along several of his other singer/songwriter friends too. They spent the first half of the concert singing their own music in a "round robin" fashion (they took turns - each singing one of their songs), which was really fun and unexpected. It helped me get to know these people in the context of their own musical style, and hear some new music. Then, after a quick intermission, they all sang/played the whole Behold the Lamb of God album start to finish. Andrew sang the leads and played guitar on most of the songs, and the rest joined in on harmonies and other instruments. Powerful stuff. It was one of those experiences I won't soon forget!

So go on out and get yourself a copy of this album! (Did I say that already? Whoops.) Just do it, ok?

Easy Peasy Christmas Present (And A Shameless Plug)

Hey there! Looking for a last-minute hostess gift for that Christmas party on Saturday? Teacher gift? Gift for someone who has everything? Boy do I have something for you - a beeeaaauutiful desk calendar! (Do I sound like an infomercial yet?)

I'll just get it out there and say yes, this is a shameless plug for my little graphic design hobby. But, I have a fun new tip to give you, so keep on reading...

As you may know, I've got a humble Etsy shop called CSW Designs where I sell pretty, downloadable desk calendars. Here's a screenshot of my shop:

I currently have two designs in the shop. Modern Patterns and Ombre Dots Calendars. See?

The beauty of purchasing one of these is instant gratification. Once you make your purchase, you'll receive an email with all the calendar images attached (one for each month in 2013). Great, right?! But then you might say to yourself, "Ok, now I've got these images, but obviously I can't give it to someone in this format. How in the world do I get them in paper form?" Well, I've got one solution for you today that couldn't be any simpler (and it's fast).

Have them printed as 4"x6" photos. You can do this anywhere that has a photo center (think CVS, Walgreens, Walmart...) and pick them up within an hour.

In fact, I did it today as a sort of test run, and I was very pleased with the results! I walked into my neighborhood Walgreens with the images on a flash drive, used their kiosk to have each one printed as a 4"x6", and 10 minutes later walked out with these babies for about $4:

Put a ribbon on them and you're done! Perfect, easy gift. And of course, you can print as many as you want, making it a great "bang for your buck" deal. (Just don't sell 'em, ok?) So head on over to the shop (there's a button on the right sidebar). Try it out. And spread the word to your friends, family and neighbors. It's a gift they'll be able to use all year long!

West Elm Window Shopping

Last night I swung by West Elm to do a little Christmas shopping errand, and boy was it hard to resist doing a little shopping for myself! West Elm has really grown on me during the past few years as I've become more tuned in to and defined my taste and style. There were a lot of items I just loved as I was looking around, so I thought I'd take you online window shopping since I figure some of you like West Elm too. Ready? Here we go!

1: Winter Flower Wreath // 2: Ceramic Owls (I like the white ones best, but they have tons of colors.) // 3: Colored Stripe Lacquered Boxes // 4: Andalusia Dhurrie Pouf (love the Andalusia rug too.) // 5: Organic Chevron Duvet (yep, still into chevron.) // 6: Glass Jar Pendants // 7: Stripe Favorite Throw // 8: Modern Bowls // 9: Flow Dinnerware // 10: Lacquer Trays (one day I'll just bite the bullet and buy one of these. I think I look at them every time I go!) // 11: Ikat Zig Zag Printed Napkins // 12: Organic Diamond Texture Duvet and Shams

Anything strike your fancy? I think a few of these would make great gifts for people who are, let's say, challenging, to buy for, but love items for their homes. Worst case scenario, they can always return it for some West Elm store credit - which I'm sure they could easily use!

A Few Favorite Craft Finds

Marching right along with the crafting theme from the last several posts, I figured I would post a few of my favorite finds from last week's Christmas craft linky parties that were held over at Centsational Girl and Nesting Place. I had so much fun looking through the many, many projects and was so inspired by all the very creative and talented people out there. If you have a few minutes, be sure the click on over to these bloggers' sites and check out the details on their crafts. Also, if you pin any of these like I did, make sure you're pinning from the original source, not my blog!

In no particular order...here we go. Be prepared, this one's more of a marathon than a sprint!

Cork trivets from Design, Dining and Diapers:

DIY Christmas tree skirt from Homey Home Design:

Christmas countdown calendar from jones design company:

Glitter reindeer from My House and Home:

Three different handmade Christmas tree sets (can you tell I was into those?)...

These from Shauna Mailloux:

These from Like a Saturday:

And these from House of 34:

{I couldn't make this one any bigger! Sorry!)

Getting inspired yet?

I'll finish up with my favorite wreaths. Warning, I'm on a wintry white wreath (say that one 10 times fast) kick...

How could I not include this one from The Nester?

And this one from It's Overflowing is oh-so lovely.

Last but not least, one more from Thrifty and Chic:

I think that oughta do it for  today. I hope you enjoyed this little tour de crafts! 

Weekend Craftivity: Paper Bows

I've been on a crafting kick lately, can you tell? I think my brain is saturated with ideas thanks to Pinterest, Etsy and all the bloggers who've hosted craft link-up parties recently, and it makes me just want to do something already. Not just ooo and ahh (although that's nice in and of itself), but do. Create.

So that's what I did. I made something. And that something would be paper bows. I used And Here We Are's tutorial I posted on in the Creative Bits series from a week-ish ago. I pretty much followed the tutorial's steps exactly, but I did make some minor adjustments that made making the bows a little easier for me. If you make it to the end of this post, you'll find them there :).

Pssst...If you'd like to make your own bows, I would suggest reading And Here We Are's tutorial first so that everything I refer to makes sense.

The materials I used were:

• 12"x12" scrapbook paper (I had this Martha Stewart variety pack on hand from years ago. I used several patterns in the same color. Yes, I admit, I'm a self-proclaimed crafting materials hoarder.)
• Paper cutter
• Stapler
• Glue dots (They come in a roll from craft stores like Michael's.)

I started out making a single bow for a gift box. In case it was an utter failure or wasn't as easy as it looked, I only cut up enough materials for the one bow. I used six long strips of the scrapbook paper and one short strip. Each strip was 1" wide. I formed loops and stacked them on top of each other by placing the center of one loop on top of another in a circular pattern. After stapling the six long loops together in the middle, and gluing the short loop on top, I ended up with this:

I love how it turned out! It was so easy that I decided heck, why not make six more and stick 'em on a wreath for the door? I already had this fall wreath on the door...

...So it was obviously time to change it up for the new season being that it's December and all :). I removed the ribbon rosettes so that I had a blank, burlap-wrapped wreath to work with. Then I just placed the six paper bows evenly around the wreath form and pinned them on from the undersides of the bows to form this:

It almost looks like snowflakes. Winter-esque without being too Christmas-y - at least to me. This way, I can leave it up long after December until it starts warming up again (then I'll have to make something new!) It looked so pretty hanging off the rocking chair against the Christmas tree, I almost didn't want to move it; but that wouldn't have worked too well considering it was completely blocking the hall, ha. Here it is from another angle and a little closer just for good measure:

After the wreath had its photo shoot, it went up on our door:

Yay!

And here are my pointers to add to the tutorial for making these if you decide to take on this little project yourself:

Did you take on any winter crafts this weekend? Decorate for Christmas? Spend hours detangling Christmas lights? Leave me a comment below!