BAMBOO VENETIAN BLINDS

Kids Line Mosaic Garden Lamp Base and Shade

Kids Line Mosaic Garden Lamp Base And ShadeThis mosaic garden lamp provides your nursery with a cheerful glow, hand painted with novelty baby blocks decorated with a mosaic butterfly, flower and ladybug, topped off with a charming fabric shade of a pink and white polka dot pattern, coordinates with the Flower Mosaic bedding collection (sold separately), features a 60-watt bulb maximum (bulb not included), and is UL/CSA certified. The lamp turns on and off with a convenient switch located on the 46" cord. Requires a 60-watt bulb maximum (not included).

This is a lamp that my mother made. I don't remember a time that it wasn't around in my childhood. When I left for college and my parents were moving into a new house, they were going to throw it. I saved it, and it's been with me since. I've always called the "Bistrolamp", because the style reminds me of a wine bottle candle you'd see in an Italian restaurant, with wax dripped down the sides. (Not necessarily an accurate image, but the idea stuck in my mind.)

When I moved in here in 2006, I never found a place to put the lamp. So it's been sitting in the turret of my attic room, collecting dust. I was cleaning that area out today, and saw the lamp. The shade is busted up; I did worse damage to the shade trying to untangle it from the lamp itself.

I think I've decided to throw the lamp out. The switch has always had a bit of a short in it: it's a three-way, technically, but it tends to short out one of the filaments in a three-way bulb very quickly, becoming a single-intensity lamp. And, realy, it's not nearly as cool-looking as I've always through it was. Wherever will I put it in the house?

As I said, it's quite old; my mom once said that the lamp was older than I am. I thought she'd said that there was a stamp on the bottom somewhere that said the date. I tore away the felt piece across the bottom that covers up where the cord comes into the bottom of the base, but I didn't find a stamp.

I know it's time to throw the lamp away. In a way, it's symbolic of buying a house: a way to move on from some of my child-like tendencies. I'm not a kid or a college student anymore, but I've never really stopped living that way. (Somehow, I don't think I ever really will.)

On the other hand, it feels like I really am throwing away a part of my past. Mom made this, and it's always been with me. I'm not ultra-close with my family, but I do love them--at a distance. With my mom's recent diagnosis with breast cancer, it seems really weird to throw something out that's so connected to her in my mind.

a tiny attic room for a five year old boy -- with hand me down space bed linens and shades from an older brother, and a hand me down land of nod bed (making do, a bit), a target 'art' piece over a vintage hardware store cabinet (powder coated orange at the auto body shop and used to store lego and playmobil and transformers these days), a vintage signage star from sarasota architectural salvage, a robots lamp from oopsy daisy, some hanging planets disassembled from a pottery barn mobile, some kid-made art, and a very mork-from-ork ball chair . . . oh. and hand cut scrap metal salvaged letters, done by a guy named elvis who lives in la . . . . in short, a bunch of disparate 'things' loved by my little guy, and tossed in to the mix (did i mention he's 5? and his favorite color is orange?) all told, it makes for a bit of a mad space -- pun intended!