It’s been a hot second since I posted anything. I’d like to tell you it’s because I’ve been working on so many projects that i just haven’t had the time, but that would be a lie. The real reason I haven’t posted is, I live in Michigan and it’s winter.

It happens around this time every year; winter gets the best of me and I get really blah feeling and wish I could hibernate for a month or so. It has hit me a little earlier than normal this year, which is a real bummer. I think it’s because in the last 20 or so days we’ve had about 16 days of 100% clouds. For me, lack of sunshine equals lack of motivation, ambition and happy. I did however, manage to summon the energy to do a couple small projects, which brings us to the title of this blog.

I have recently fallen for the black and gold color combination for accessories, and it all started with a lamp I already owned. In my winter funk, I forgot to take a proper before picture, but I do have some that will give you an idea of what it looked like.

As you can see the lamp was already gold with black accents, so it just needed a good cleaning. But the shade…it was burlap. I decided to DIY it and make it look better. I originally started out just looking for a new shade but did not find one that I liked and that was willing to pay for; that’s when I started thinking about ways to improve the existing shade instead.

In the end I went with paint because burlap takes paint well and it seemed easier than trying to recover the shade with a different fabric. I went to one of my favorite stores, Menard’s, and picked up some RUST-OLEUM black gloss paint and a metallic gold paint. I painted the outside of the shade with the black and the inside with the gold. It only took one full coat and one touch up coat for the black, but the gold took four coats and I could probably still do one more and it would look even better.

Guys, it looks so good! I loved how it turned out so much that I painted a little owl, that I picked up on clearance for a dollar, to match it.

And here is the finished lamp:

I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out and now I’m thinking I want to do a whole room with black and gold as the primary accessory colors. If I end up doing that, I will definitely make a post about it.

One last note on the winter blahs. I am doing my best to practice self care; eating right, taking some extra vitamin D, getting plenty of water and rest, as well as regular exercise. It’s rough some days, but I know that spring will eventually make an appearance, it will chase away the fog and I’ll feel more like myself again.

If you are suffering the winter blues along with me, do what you can to take care of yourself and definitely don’t be too hard on yourself. Winter is dark and cold and sometimes it just gets to us. If you can muster the energy, create something…even if it’s just coloring a page in your favorite coloring book; I find that creativity can really help my mood.

Alright guys, hang in there and…Keep. It. Creative.