Last night, I played Mad Gab with a bunch of church friends.  It’s that game with short nonsensical phrases that is supposed to sound like a song title, a common phrase or something like that.  The reader called out “Sale May Eye Act”.  I was so sure of myself…getting a little too excited and yelled out “SELL MY KAYAK”.  Boom I was a winner.  And then everyone laughed…the answer was Selma Hayak.  But surely boat sales are way more common place, right?  That has nothing to do with this post.  Just a snippet into the life of Katie Bower where I randomly yell things out loud that aren’t funny.

Also.  Max has learned to say more than just “LOOK” and it is so sweet.  He can say a whole bunch of other things now and my newest favorite is ‘I don’t know’ which comes out more like ‘Ida know’.  Ask him a question and it’s his number one answer.  It’s adorable.  So now I just make up weird questions like “what is 269 plus 208?” and “is the moon made of cheese?”.  The look on his face when he pauses is so cute….like he is really trying to figure out the answer….then the Ida Know.  I get pleasure out of such simple things.

Speaking of simple things….this light fixture has lived in our guest bedroom for a while.

It actually is a light my mom gave me….I painted it, switched out the shades and it lived in our old dining room (CLICK HERE TO SEE IT).  But as the guest room was decorated, it never really felt like it was meant to be.

I originally thought that maybe I should order this light from West Elm.  I love the graceful look about it.  The single wire thing irritates me a little tiny bit and I saw a couple photos where it was installed and the wire looked a little loose or bent.  Was that installation error?  Maybe.  Maybe that is why I never ordered it.  Maybe it was the size.  At 29″ diameter, it seemed really big for my space.  But the simplicity of it was exactly what I was going for.   (y’all…don’t get me wrong…I still love this light.  I think I actually might order it for LJ & Max’s room in black especially since right now it is 20% off and free shipping!!!)

But then when I saw this guy from World Market, I just knew that this was the one for the space.  At 23.5″ diameter the size was perfect. The arms weren’t long and graceful – it definitely is more compact of a light…but it has 8 bulbs vs. 6 so I didn’t doubt that it would provide sufficient lighting.

Plus, the ad shows that the arms do pivot so that meant I could do a slightly turned action to give it that West Elm vibe.

The arms being the right size really helped push me into the purchase but it also helps to know that the color is usually spot on for World Market and they have decent prices so I knew it was the one to pull the trigger on.

The only awkward part about World Market lights is that they are notoriously hard to shorten.  Like SERIOUSLY HARD.  This one came preassembled and the key was taking off the metal bracket (2 screws) and the ceiling plate (this little stack of nuts and washers)…

And then clipping the wires to get the mounting bolt thing off.  I have no idea what it’s called but the wires go through it and it holds the whole light fixture up and screws it onto the plate so it’s kinda important.  Let’s just call it the important thing.  Cutting the wires short meant rethreading them through the important thing….which was ridiculous.  The hole was too small and jamming the wires in took us stripping the sheathing off one wire and using pliers to get it through.  As someone that is a pro at stuffing things into holes (easy there Shelby…I’m talking DIY) this was FAR from easy.

Finally we did get the extra rod removed and everything reassembled….and then Jeremy mounted everything back up.

We decided that the arms would look best at an angle.  And I love the bulbs that came with it.  (that was a surprise by the way since I didn’t read that in the description)  The amber glass is really pretty right?!

Here is the before and after for a comparison…

But now I am thinking that I don’t love the animal print window thing.  What do you think?  Too much?  Lots of fun?  I’m hoping that I can do the last few things I need to for this room and then share a big reveal with y’all.  It would be majorly epic….calling it done.  I mean….I never do that….finish a room 🙂

Also….I was thinking about something recently.  Would you guys like it if I posted like every day at a certain time?  I am thinking 10am.  And it wouldn’t be all DIY all the time…sometimes it would….sometimes it would just be a post without pictures…sometimes a post entirely of pictures…sometimes just random ramblings.  Is that dumb?  I kinda miss the good ole days where I did that and I thought I should put it out there to you….yes or no?