It never ceases to surprise me when something I think will be easy turns out not to be easy at all …
and, in fact, so much more difficult than I ever imagined.
Take my son, for example. Silly me, I thought once he entered high school that things would be easy. For me, that is. I imagined he would be able to operate 100% on his own. That I said goodbye to my days of involvement with editing essays and setting study hours and nagging about getting homework done right along with my goodbyes to his elementary school teachers.
And, yes, I can hear you all laughing at me from behind your screens.
And don’t even get me started on the whole college search process. Another thing I thought would be easy. On me, that is. I envisioned him taking the lead … doing the research and legwork … providing me with a list of schools he might like to attend … pushing me to schedule weekend road trips to tour said schools … pulling together a list of application deadlines …
Um, no.
Next week he enters his senior year of high school and the only thing he’s done is taken the ACT (which he did amazingly well on) and written a starter essay (a project required by his counselor last year). I’ve been ‘told’ that he’s researched schools on the Naviance system and has a list. An elusive list that I have not yet seen …
Loud sigh of frustration here.
I’ve let the college search nothingness go on long enough. Looks like I’ll be taking the lead this fall.
Second loud sigh of frustration here.
And while my lamp makeover project is not nearly as life-altering as, say, applying to college, it did elicit a few loud sighs of frustration of it’s own.
You see, my lamps started out like this …
A 50% off steal of a deal at HomeGoods I couldn’t resist. I’ll just paint them, my inner diyer voice said with a cocky confidence. I envisioned something beachy …
… and ended up with something baby blue.
Bleh.
Then I had the bright idea to paint them navy. I thought for sure that that idea would be the solution. The answer to my baby blue lamp blehs …
and here is where I should share a picture of that disaster. Because that’s what it was. For me, that is. The look didn’t work. For me. Too formal. Too traditional for this city-coastal-cottage look I’ve been going for.
And then it hit me. White.
And I’ll be honest, I held my breath as I painted these suckers for the third time.
Luckily, turns out third time was the charm …
The burlap lamp shade was the perfect finishing touch …
It’s amazing what a can of spray paint can do. If only there was as simple a solution for that whole college search project …
Loud sigh of frustration here.
Feel free to pin this image … you know, to share the third time’s a charm lamp makeover love!
Sharing:
* The DIY Showoff *
Love the new look!
Yep. Third time was the charm. If you get bored with that, try the lime green. ACT scores got my daughter a FULL ride to college. Use them to your advantage.
it sure was a charm. looks good white with the shade. will if the college thing dosn’t pan out maybe he can paint mason jars in the backroom? 🙂
I concur.
So glad you finally got what you wanted it to look like. Really does look great with burlap drum shade. perfect compliment for lamp.Did shades come with lamps?
Some times it’s hard to see what something should look like especially when being bombarded with college situation, hard to keep mind on lamp. We just have to face our kids rely on us and are waiting for us to “help” them. Let him do work of looking for a scholarship. He’ll appreciate what you do even more then.
Our grandson got full ride scholarship and he had to do all the work on his own. He knew what he wanted to go for and got it. His Mother is not person to rely on at all, she’s too busy doing her own thing. Our grandson even told his Dad his Mom has moved on with her life, not concerned about her sons. They do what they want without any guidance or rules in KY.
His Dad, our oldest son, lives in so Ca and grandsons in KY. He got more help and encouragement from his Dad and is being reassured he’ll have financial back up should he need it. Our grandson made sure he kept his grades up on his own and had 8th. highest grades in United States of all high school kids. He wanted to go to college and made darn sure he could. He’s going for chemical engineer degree. When he keeps a specific grade average thru 4 yrs. he has another 2 yr. scholarship at another college to get his masters. We are so darned proud of him.
Your son could do same thing but maybe he’s a little scared/overwhelmed and knows he has you to fall back on. Our grandson knew he didn’t have his Mom to help especially since his parents divorced and his Dad left KY. His Dad tries to be there for him but it’s hard being so far away, he’s in contact with his boys weekly. I try to be there for them on Facebook and phone.
It can be quite overwhelming I can imagine. But it will work out and your son will come to some decisions to do things on his own.
Not being condescending of you, please don’t think that, We had 3 kids in high school at once, knew we would not be able to pay for college for any of them. Real life is what it is. Felt pretty crappy about it but that didn’t change reality. They all got jobs right out of high school and are all responsible adults that work hard. Our oldest is only one not married but works hard,she’s still bit of a party beach girl but son tells me she’s growing up some. She’s 54. Still have hope for her, she felt we owed her a car, college, money. Makes me wonder sometimes who she was living with that she didn’t notice our financial situation. We have a younger daughter also who’s 44 and younger son with very good job who’s 50. His brother with boys is 51 1/2.
Good luck to you about the college stuff. It will work out. Keep telling yourself, this too shall pass. Happy weekend.
I’ve done dressers 3 times ( in a week LOL ) I love it white and that burlap lamp shade is perfection !
xoxo