Or, the project that took 2.5 years to finish.
Once upon a time, I decided I loved texture. I wanted to make lamps for my apartment bedroom, so I went out looking for cool pieces to become the bases. I found 2 vases at a thrift store and bought them- they were paper mache and wrapped with a twine. I loved them, and then I went and bought 2 lamp kits for bottles- they came with stoppers to fit inside several standard size bottles. I also found 2 shades that I liked, and I bought them too. Then, I took everything and started to make my perfect lamps- until I realized the stoppers were too small. I spent months looking for the right things to fill the void in the top of the vases- I bought metal washers and plastic tubing and even spray foam insulation. Nothing worked- the lampshades would wobbly ominously back and forth, threatening to top over at any minute. In frustration, my lamp pieces sat in a box for years, moving with me from my townhouse to my husband’s house to our new place. Feeling defeated, I turned my attention to other projects, and every once in a while, would revisit the lamp project with some new tool to help, always in vain, it seemed. Over time, my failed attempts accumulated many random hardware pieces, and my boxes changed from cardboard to plastic totes, following me as a shameful reminder everywhere I lived. And still they sat.
Finally, we signed up for a wine making class with some friends. We loved the class, so much that we searched for a supplier in the area to buy the things to make wine at home. When we went to the brewing store, we perused the aisles in wonder, until I stopped in my tracks. Could it be? Had God finally looked with pity on my plight? Rubber stoppers as far as the eye could see, in every size imaginable! We bought 2 in a large size and took them home, trying not to be too excited. We reassembled the lamp, using our newfound piece. And- it WORKED! Finally, we had 2 lamps that worked, that stay upright, that didn’t sway back and forth like they were tipsy college girls listening to Lady Gaga in some teeny bopper nightclub!
We plunked them down on our nightstands, and a 2-and-half-year battle came to a victorious end. Every night, when my eyelids grow heavy from reading and as I reach up and click the switch on my lamp to the off position, a small voice in my head whispers “booyah!”
