Monday, April 15, 2013

Illumination!

Okay. I'm going to let you all in on a secret.

An embarrassing secret.

John and I have literally been reading with flash lights since Jules was born. I would like to say that I'm proud that we're reading at all, given that we have an eight-month old, full-time jobs, two real estate ventures, and a genuine interest in each other; but all of that pride comes to a screeching halt when I mention the flash lights. Well-- to be precise-- they are actually clip-on flash lights that hook onto our books, so that we can read without turning on too bright of a light, for fear of waking up Julian. Because although he sleeps in a separate room, it is essentially a fish bowl, and the window between our room and his leaks A LOT of light, despite my grand planning with black out curtains and roller shades. A good plan, but not an exact science, and after the first 4-month of post-traumatic-sleep-drama (YES, we are suffering from PTSD at our house) we were both left a little overly cautious about the prospect of waking Julian up unnecessarily.


Well, enough is enough. We've graduated from clippy-lights to sconces, and I couldn't be happier. I've actually had these vintage sconces for ages-- purchased from (guess where) Craig's List eons ago, but they've been sitting in our building's basement gathering dust, waiting for the perfect application. And VOILA! I finally figured out what I wanted to do with them, and got to work making it happen.



The sconces were originally intended to be hard-wired, so first I had to re-wire them so I could plug them into an actual outlet, and then John suggested I also add little clickers, so they were easy-on-easy-off. Then I did a little fancy footwork with the cord-brads, so that they look like they are hardwired, and BADA-BING! We're reading books like normal freakin' people. (Granted, I put 25 watt bulbs in them, so it's still pretty dim. Yes, we will eventually go blind, but at least we won't be worried about waking up Jules in the meantime.) Surely sleep is more important than sight, right?

Small victories, people. Small victories.


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