Let There Be (Super Pretty) Light

I need to go away more often. This weekend I joined some old friends for our annual trip to The Festy, a music festival at Devil's Backbone brewery near Charlottesville. The downside was two nights of sleeping in the rain and a second wind for the cold that's been haunting me for two weeks.

But the PLUS side was coming home to:

(Thanks honey!) The Harlowe Wire pendant lights I ordered from Pottery Barn are even prettier in real life! (Tip, look on Ebay for people selling Pottery Barn coupons. Worth it for bigger purchases.) These lights add just the right amount of sparkle. Now we can see Edison bulbs peaking through without being blinded by the light. Crud, now I have Manford Mann stuck in my head...and you can too:

Sorry, back on track. Glad I did a little bit of extra shopping around and decided to fudge the budget the tiniest bit. These are the first thing you see when looking at the kitchen and one of the first ones when walking in our home, and they totally dress the place up. Woo and hoo. 

Ceiling Bling

Maybe it was the heady rush of realizing how much I'd saved on my yard sale cabinet pulls, or maybe it was the need for something SPARKLY to look at  on this dreary fall day. Oh wait--I blame my friend Liz for letting me know that Pottery Barn had 20% off their lights this week. And thus, I found myself pushing our lighting budget up by about $40 (or about $120 if you go by the price of the lights we purchased but are returning) so that we could own three of these: 

We'd gotten a great deal on some copper-look lights with Edison bulbs, at just $40 each including the bulb. And they look nice--if you don't look at them. With the exposed bulb at eye level for adults seated at the bar, the effect was a bit blinding. So the lighting search re-started.


We looked at Ikea, back to Lowe's, Amazon, Etsy, round and round. I think the extra money we are spending on the Harlowe Wire & Glass lights is a small trade off for the time I will save by ending my internet search!

Also alleviating any budget busting guilt was finding these EXACT lights on Ebay, new in the box, for the sale price, but with no shipping or taxes. That saved over $30. Which is just enough to make me feel like I got a good deal and enjoying checking another item off the list.