Exciting happenings and lamp reveal!

Good morning!  Today is such a busy and big day around here.  We're getting all dressed up to go see this:

*swoon!*  In this building:

I'm guessing most of you know of the first photo, and seriously, be jealous.  It's the 25th anniversary tour and it's their second stop on the tour since returning from Europe.  *sigh*  However, if you don't know, the second photo is of Grady Gammage Auditorium.  It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Baghdad - but they flaked at the last minute on payment, so Tempe got it!  It's now on ASU campus, and has the most perfect natural acoustics of any auditorium ever designed.  I once took a tour when I was younger, where we stood in the back row of the third balcony perfectly quiet while someone on stage dropped a pin.  And I'm not kidding you, people, we heard it so well it was like it was right next to us.  It gave me the shivers!  And did I mention this beauty is about 2 blocks from my house?  We don't even pay to park.  I feel so lucky!  Anyway, we're seeing the 25th Anniversary Tour of Les Miserables at Gammage tonight.  Pinch me!

I'm trying not to be preoccupied with this, because I promised you the lamp reveal, so... here we go!
If you don't remember, the lamps started looking like this:

Love the classy black light?  Me too.  I showed you my progress pictures a few days ago:

All primed and ready to go!  See the lovely glossy blue Krylon paint in the bottom left?

Well, hello, beautiful!  Who decided to put glossy paint in a can?  I want to kiss them!

Cheesy shot of me happy to be done spray painting!  Apparently I have weak phalanges - my fingers were pooped!

Finally in our living room!  Loving that shade?  Me neither.  We slapped an extra on the lamp to get a feel for the size of shade we'd need and to see whether the color of the lamp would really work in our room.  We LOVED the color, but the shade needed to be thrown in the dumpster and forgotten an update.  So, here's our final product!

I can't say enough that my camera is terrible, but I hope you can see past that to my new royal blue lamp and the new (from Target) linen drum shade.  I think this is a lamp WIN!  Also, do you love the cord hanging down in the back?  What do I do with that??  It has to go off to the left since that's the nearest plug.  Suggestions please! 

You can see that the shrink wrap is still on the shades.  Eric insisted I wanted to leave it on a while in case I suddenly decide that don't like the shape or color (not going to happen).  So here's the cost rundown.

Cost:
Lamps at Goodwill: $6.50 each
Krylon Primer: $2.50 (used about half the can for each lamp, so one can was perfect)
Krylon Royal Blue Gloss Paint: $3.00 (used about half the can for each lamp, also)
Shades: $25, each

TOTAL: $34.25 for each custom lamp - BOOM! 

I know the shades were a bit much, but the lamps needed a pretty large shade (at least 10" vertical height), and I wanted one that actually looked nice.  I saw some shades that would have worked for about $14.50, but they were pure white (meaning I would have needed to tea-stain them), and honestly, they looked cheap.  I feel like the color of the lamps is so full of personality, I wanted a shade that would add to it, without distracting.  The linen shade is perfect, since it's similar to the texture of our couch (from Crate and Barrel via Craigslist).  For those of you who don't know me personally, this is me justifying paying more than I wanted to for something.  But Eric was on board, and he usually isn't when it comes to spending more money, so I felt OK about it (LOVE that I can trust my husband with everything - I know how lucky I am!).   

What do you think?  I'm so happy with how they turned out!  I'm hoping to bring you the pillow reveals on Thursday, but that may be wishful thinking.  Eric's and my two year anniversary is next Monday (the 13th), and we're preparing for a trip this weekend!  I hope your day is wonderful so far - happy Tuesday, friends!