This is an update, on my chandelier project. Unfortunately it has taken me longer than I expected to get this baby under way. But I am on it! It's still taking a little extra time, it needs more lovin than normal.


   I took off the "candle wax" covers to the arms where the bulb goes first. Also I made sure to wrap the exposed electrical with some craft paper and tape it off with some painters tape to protect the area.Then I gave it a good rub down with paper towels and a damp towel. I found some little critters living in the crevices, so I sprayed them out with some air. After this I had to stop for the evening since I kept feeling creepy crawlies all over me. I couldn't shake the feeling, so I left it until the next day.
 
      I soon found out that the lovely piece is actually mostly made of wood to my surprise. It was covered in a lot of gold flake and paint, that came off with just a little water. I cleaned the whole thing down again and took it outside to start the whole remodel. I consulted with my friend and decided on an Oil Rubbed Bronze look. I had a can of the spray paint in my garage so I thought I would start with that. Word of warning, don't spray paint in Oklahoma. The wind decides to blow and every piece of dust and hair in the world follows wherever your paint goes. Needless to say it got frustrating, I am going to have to sand off some of the paint again and try all over. Woops!

   But in the midst of that debacle, I came up with what I thought was a pretty awesome solution to painting a chandelier. Since it is so wobbly, kind of like the weebles, I couldn't get it to stand up straight for the life of me. I decided first to let it lean on some paper and to paint each side, let it dry, and turn; repeat over again. This my friends does not work with Okie wind. So once I was fed up with the chandelier looking more like a dust ball than a light fixture, I literally had a light bulb go off. Congrats to you if you thought of this before me, but I feel pretty awesome still.
    We had a garage sale a while back, and couldn't figure out how to show off all the awesome clothes that everyone would die to have, right? Well I found a carabiner and some extra rope in the garage, and figured why not string it across the garage from the door tracks. The tracks are bolted into the ceiling, so it couldn't hurt them. So thanks to my hubby we strung it across the garage high enough to hang clothes on it and walk under too. This same contraption was laying around when I couldn't figure out how to properly paint this chandelier.

   Thank goodness, it's exactly what I needed! So I looped some other rope through the chain on the top and knotted the heck out of it so it wouldn't drop on my feet and shatter into several pieces. It was so-so-so much easier to paint. I could get at it from every angle. Now there are parts I am going to have to sand and patch, as with painting I found a couple of cracks that need to be repaired. It's all okay though since this is part of the project and the learning experience. There is much more planned for it right now, so much more. I feel it will be beautiful and so glad it will have new life!

I love these little flowers and leaves on it, I have GRAND ideas for them.

  Have you guys ever had that "light bulb" moment and feel a little brilliant? What was it, and did it end up solving your problem at hand? Let me know! I want to hear your stories and read your comments.