Remember that piece of Studio McGee art I added to our dining room this year? I still love it. But, ummm, the wall looked a little underwhelming. Still. Even with the new art.
It needed a little more.
I toyed with a wireless, battery operated art light. They are so popular on Amazon and have thousands of good reviews.
But somehow it still wasn’t the look I was going for.
And then, also inspired by Studio McGee, I found the perfect sconces on Temu. For around $30.
I needed sconces that coordinated with my fancy PB chandelier. It’s not going anywhere. And yet, my dining table and the art are rather contemporary.
These brass sconces really fit the bill. Just the right size, material and style.
But. The problem. I’m not hard wiring, nor am I hiring an electrician. There goes my affordable project.
Our solution? Battery powered puck lights from Walmart. These lights just sit on top of the shade frame. And they are remote controlled so no fiddling with switches.
They have a number of color options, but that looks a little too odd, so we’ll just go with white.
Tweaking
To hang the sconces flush and have everything tight, the wires need to be removed. Since we never intend to hard wire them into our electricity, permanently cutting off the wires is fine.
Installing
We marked the wall to hang the round center base to be centered with the art.
The drywall anchors that came with the sconces were flimsy and actually worthless. They fell apart just trying to use them.
Hub used two smallish anchors and they worked perfectly.
So the only tools we (by which I mean he) used were a tape measure, a hammer, wire cutters and a Philips screwdriver. I’m sure it was quite disappointing to do a project and not use one power tool. Darn it!
I think our new sconces with no electricity are just perfect.
What I’m Eating
Ever since I first made the no-knead artisan bread I shared here, I have been experimenting with different recipes. The crunchy artisan style, bread machine for toast and then yesterday, I made a loaf of soft sandwich bread.
While I still won’t consider entering any baking contests, this recipe from Emma Fontanella turned out the best yet. I’m going to refine it a bit with better rolling and a tad more milk.
Emma uses Italian strong bread flour. I don’t have that, so I used the organic all-purpose flour I have in the pantry.
Other than that, I followed her instructions using the KitchenAid and it was so easy and smells so good.
DF Julie sent me a pic of her Egg Bites. She said she uses:
- Eggs
- A bunch of veggies
- A little mozzarella on top
Sorry I don’t have further details on baking, but I imagine you bake them in the oven until they are done to your taste. I like my eggs well done and cheese crispy. That’s how I’m gonna do them.
Thanks, Julie for sharing!
Wrap Up
The past week felt a little busy doing chores. We capped off the weekend getting our taxes done. While it feels good to have that completed, it’s such a depressing task. I’m sure nobody is delighted thinking about it.
I cheered myself up with a glass of chard and a grilled cheese made with my new sandwich bread. Yep, I did.
Wishing you and yours a cheerful, sunny week ahead.