Tag Archives: lamps

Let there be light.

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In a previous post I shared photos of the lamp my husband gave me for my birthday. And though I have no reasonable explanation why it should be so… that was not the first lamp I’ve received for the occasion.

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It started with this ridiculously expensive hand done reverse painted Fenton. It’s pretty, if a little froo froo for my taste.

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A few years later? Another froo froo reverse painted frosted glass lamp.

Did we require more bedroom lighting? No.

Did I have the heart to tell my husband I wasn’t overly thrilled with these floral ( and paisley! 😳 ) gifts? Again, no.

But somehow he got the hint and no girly lamps were given for at least 5 years. Because that was when he switched to stained glass.

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A definite improvement, but one must ask…

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How many lamps does one girl need?

And mind you, every time I receive one of these low level, don’t use a high wattage bulb or you’ll damage the shade! gifts I have to remove the existing enough light to read and not bump into furniture lamps. So basically, our home is a dimly lit cave.

Traverse at your own risk.

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God help me, this one looks like a giant fish scaled helmet.

I try to hide it behind a plant.

* Note to self – buy bigger plant. *

I’d like to tell you that’s all of them.

I really would.

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Happy birthday to me.

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Yes, I took another trip around the sun this month. Nothing to celebrate at this point in my life, but I woke up to a (not so) subtle gift reminder all the same.

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The large box was a present from my husband, from my very favorite store. They sell high quality handmade jewelry, pottery, art, crafts etc. and every trip we take there includes a round of oohing and ahhing . I rarely buy anything for myself as the prices make me swoon, but the husband makes a yearly pilgrimage… and who am I to complain? 😉

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This year’s gift was a fabulous mesquite wood lamp with hazed copper cut out shade.

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Both sides are inlaid with turquoise veins and it really is a lovely piece.

(If you’re wondering just how lovely? Here’s a similar lamp from the same company with much less turquoise on their website.)

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Yeah. That lovely.

😳

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Needless to say I love it, and shall enjoy its light for many years to come.

The original birthday plan was to hit my favorite restaurant for dinner, but Mother Nature said no by melting the snow and dropping a solid afternoon’s worth of sleet and ice.

Alternate plan?

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Pizza and beer in the man cave…

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With a stellar game of whip your husband’s ass with a double letter Q in ‘quay’, a triple score ‘quiz’ and an almost superfluous ‘zeal’ for a total of 102 points Scrabble.

A very happy birthday indeed.

🤣

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Are you ready for a vacation smackdown?

 

You had 2 days off in between trips… and I threw in some Bambi pics as well. Are we good?

Good!

I admit I might have gone a little overboard with the Williamsburg, Virginia vacation photos this time…. like 3,089 pics overboard.

So sue me.

It was a fabulous trip, a marvelous Christmas and a wonderful place to explore. What can I say? When I’m old and feeble I’ll enjoy looking back on them all. (If I can remember why there are so many pictures of rocks…. and who that strange man is of course.)

Time to fasten your seat belts and loosen your pants!

The trip starts now.

 

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Okay… but fair warning, that may not be until June.

Not wanting to put the miles and wear and tear on my car, we rented one. Well, I rented one. A mid size SUV like I always do… but when we arrived at the lot, they didn’t have any and had to upgrade us to luxury.

Cool beans!

We could pick the Audi or the Infiniti.

So what did my husband pick?

 

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The Chevy Suburban.

 

 

Which happens to be the biggest, thirstiest, most annoying  lumbering behemoth vehicle ever made. A nightmare to park. A horror show for short people like me to board. A useless third row seat we didn’t need and couldn’t figure out how to fold down. Gas stations? We dreaded the mere sight of them after a few days. So why did my spouse choose it?

Because it was big.

And he’s a man.

Enough said.

Our trip from Maine started out like this:

 

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With buckets of the same for the first few states.

 

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When we were nearing Hartford, Connecticut it let up, but we hit road construction….

 

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And this rather precarious way of shoring up of the highway made me cringe.

 

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I guess I should be glad they didn’t use duct tape, but still.

 

 

Next up was my least favorite part of the trip….

 

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New York City.

Don’t get me wrong, I was born and raised in New Jersey… I can hang. But riding shotgun with my  (leadfooted, 2 centimeters from the car in front of us, switch lanes like it’s the Indy 500)  husband…. in the Black Brontosaurus?

Would test Ironman’s nerves.

 

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Though I can honestly say it’s the only time in my life I’m thankful for bumper to bumper traffic.

 

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Reduce speed?

 

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I don’t think that’s possible.

I’d post some great pics of our trip over the famous George Washington bridge, but the husband always takes the upper truck level…. so basically this was my view:

 

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But here’s one peek through the fog.

 

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After the bridge? It’s New Jersey…

 

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And the swamps they built the Meadowlands on.

 

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If you’ve ever wondered where Tony Soprano and his boys dumped the bodies?

It would be here.

 

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Oil refineries aside, you have to admit that the foul, smoggy New Jersey air does make for a dramatic sky.

Onward through the evening we drove, with the husband choosing our route. If you know me…. you know I’m type A and like to plan. Letting him pick a spot for us to spend the night was torture, but I sucked it up and endured.

I endured him picking a random town in Delaware because he liked the name, Red Lion.

Did Red Lion, Delaware have any hotels you ask?

No.

It did not.

And trust me, we drove around for almost an hour trying to find one even though I Googled it and came up empty. We did however find this:

 

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A Christmas extravaganza house that was blocking traffic.

 

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I can barely keep 2 reindeer lit… WTH?

After admitting defeat, the husband drove another 40 minutes to Dover, Delaware and pulled into the first Holiday Inn he saw.

 

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I had my doubts when I saw the lounge was decorated in early bordello. Yes… satin furniture and rhinestone encrusted mirrors.

Thankfully our room was toned down from that…

 

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But it did have some interesting features.

 

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Mainly, the lighting.

 

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Is it me?

 

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Or did this over the bathroom sink fixture look like deer hooves?

 

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Come on…

There’s no reasonable Martha Stewart explanation for that.

 

 

And while this corner lamp reminded me of my mother and her pull down hair dryer of the 1960’s…..

 

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It was these over the bed reading lamps that were a little too proctology/gynecology themed for my taste.

 

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And don’t get me started on the art work.

 

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Really, don’t.

What the…. what?

So ends day one.

(And before you start screaming Martin…. road trips with my husband consist of a McDonalds lunch eaten in the car doing 90 mph and a perfectly horrible turkey dinner at a Bob Evans next to the hotel late that night. Neither were photo worthy!)