Christmas and a Lamp Before/After . . . possible fail?

Sorry, no lady's leg lamp, if ya got the joke.  Though that would have been pretty funny.  Hmm, maybe next year?  We spent Christmas with my sister and her family.  It's usually a chaotic time of the year for the kids and adults, but this year went smoothly.  No tree fell down, which happened a few years ago.  No screaming or crying over presents, which seemed to happen every year.  No fighting during the family picture, which also happened every year.  We had a great time playing games and just spending quality time with family.  It was also a short holiday.  We got to my sister's house on Christmas Eve.  We left early in the morning on the 26th, so my husband could work.  We could have stayed longer because there was not much work for him, but we didn't know that.  :(  Sorry Liz!
I may have mentioned this before, but I am the worst when it comes to remembering to take pictures.  Hence the very few photos I did take.  I swear I could have the camera wrapped around my neck, and I would still forget that I have a camera.  It's that bad.  We took a few of Owen opening only two of his presents, and we had my niece take a quick photo of us.  Yep, that is our only recent family picture (see note below pic for more info).  I'm placing family portrait on my 2012 goal list, which I will share with you.  The goal list that is.  Also, I am creating a budget.  Something I haven't done.  Like ever.  I will be sharing that with you too.  Are you creating a 2012 goal list?  Do you budget your money?  I hope you enjoyed your holiday.  It's back to work for us tomorrow.  We are tiling our kitchen, which I will share photos of that as well.

 So this is another attempt at a family photo.  Just before Thanksgiving, a good friend of mine offered to take pictures using her new camera.  I accepted, but we had to postpone for the week after Thanksgiving.  My husband and I got into this nasty fight that week, and out of spite and anger, he shaved ALL of his hair off.  I mean we are talking skinhead here.  And it looked BAD.  So this meant another year without a family picture because I was too stubborn to allow any photos to be taken that would remind me 1. of the fight  2.  how awful his new hairdo was.
Speaking of hair, I rarely wear my hair down.  I recently paid $130 (which is a lot for us) for a cut and color to help me get out of my "mommy" rut, but alas, those darn hair bands keep finding their way back to my wrist.  Are you like me?   Oh, do you notice my necklace?  My husband got that for me for Christmas, and it is the same necklace that I featured on my Wish List.  Aw, how sweet. 

Okay, that last picture of Owen Hercules just cracks me up.

The Possible Lamp Fail

Update:  I moved the shade to my living room and the lamp will get spray painted down the road. 

Over the holiday before we left, I painted a lamp in Owen's room to give it some more color.  I liked the before, but I just needed that pop of color in his room.  It's truly amazing what paint can do.  The color was left over from a custom paint mix I made.  I think I would have like the color to be a little lighter, but it is what it is.  It took me two days to transform the lamp, but I think anyone could really do this in one day.  I applied fabric to the Walmart shade.  The fabric I chose I had forgotten about, and I am so glad I found it in my closet.  It will work perfectly with a mirror that I am painting for his room that will be white and black.   I have never recovered a lamp shade before, and here's the one tip I will pass along to you.  If you choose to use a horizontal pattern (though I could have made the design vertical), keep in mind that some lamp shades are CONES.  This means the top is smaller than the bottom, which means it is impossible for a horizontal pattern to be even from the top and bottom of the shade.  Did that make sense?  I hope so.   I am waiting to pull out my black paint for another quick project in Owen's room, so I can paint the yellow cord.   Here's the before and after along with the cost breakdown if you were to purchase everything.  My lamp redo was FREE because I had everything on hand.  Gotta luv free.

Lamp: Free, we got it from my mother-in-law.
Shade: $15 from Walmart, but I don't really count this a cost for the project since I bought the shade a year ago and was already using it in Owen's room.
Fabric:  Queen Duvet purchased from TJ Maxx for $30, but I hardly used any of it to recover the shade.  I think I used maybe a dollar's worth, if that.
Fabric Adhesive: $6 (I used Aleena's Tacky Spray), and I still have much left over.
Paint: Custom color from Sherwin Williams, and I used very little.
Primer: Zissner around $20/gallon, and I used very little.

So is this a fail?  I'm not certain.  Some days I like it, and some days (like today while typing up the post and reviewing photos) I don't like it.  I do like the contrast of the blue curtains and the green base.  Luckily, the parts are interchangeable, so I could opt for a white base with a detailed shade or a colored base with a simple shade.  Or I could put it in a different room.  Or I could burn it.  But ultimately, that corner of the room is a little happier. 

You may have noticed that his room is a different color too.  I loved the green that we had in there.  There was nothing wrong with the color, but I opted to go lighter for a brighter effect.  It sure has changed the mood of the room . . . drastically.  I feel much happier in his room now that the walls are white.  But they are not bright white like the doors or molding.