On Saturday afternoon Jemima and I took an emergency trip to the $2 shop on Station Street to pick up some prizes for party games. I’d forgotten to buy any when I did the supermarket run earlier in the day. We went on our bikes.  Down Rushall Street.  I spotted a red lampshade on the side of the road, and said to Jemima,

‘Remind me to pick that up on the way home’.

And she did. And I did.  It was a little awkward to ride with, but not too bad (I am still on the lookout for a cool bike basket).

It inspired a bit of reorganising/reusing/redocorating.

I pulled out an old lamp base (which I have had forever.  Really.  I think I got it in my student days from somewhere). And added the shade to it.  I was happy enough with the combination. And when it was on the base you could see that the shade was actually in good nick. It sits straight.  The fabric is clean.  There are no underlying watermarks when the lamp is in use.  Perfect.

Then I hunted around for a home for it.   I tried it in a few places before settling on the bookshelf in the corner of our loungeroom that stores board games and videos (we still have them because we don’t scratch them) and DVDs and other bright and annoying stuff that hangs around and needs an accessible home in a house with children.

And then I moved this print by Monique Keel over the bookcase.  Because it was red too.  And I thought it would look good with the lamp shade.

It’s been in place a couple days now and I am very happy with the new arrangement.

Another corner sorted.  All thanks to a little red lampshade and a kind person who put it out on the street for someone else to use when they didn’t need it any more.