Serendipitous illumination.

Mr. Fabulous found a brass lamp at Goodwill for 7.99. It's so very obviously very old, with areas for two bulbs, and it adjusts to the height you'd like, for book-reading illumination or whatnot.

Here's another view. It's made of heavy brass, its body is a Grecian column, with lots and lots of detail. I put my Virgin Mary-in-progress pin next to the lamp, so you can see just how big the lamp is. Mr. Fabulous spent quality time this afternoon cleaning the brass to make it so very sheeny.

Isn't it cool?

The story doesn't end there. This bloggy blog isn't about a cool lamp Mr. Fab found.

He found just the lamp's base. He'd seen a shade that looked like it would work, at a different thrifty location. So we picked it up today. Here's the completed lamp, from a downside view. Check out the duel attachments to the two bulbs. Those accents didn't come easily...

We went to the bins today. And there was a crappy-ass lamp among all of the other crap. It had all of the elements that Mr. Fab had found earlier, plus a finial and some hardware. So we snagged the finial and the attachment hardware that you see in the photo above.

What are the odds, really? An antique lamp that Mr. Fab found, bare bones, in one location. A lampshade that looks like it was meant for the lamp in another location. The detailed hardware to finish the piece, found in a completely different third location.

I think the lamp was meant to be here, illuminating the house. And I think Mr. Fabulous has an amazing eye for attaching some elements to other elements. One of these things belongs to another...

Mr. Fabulous spent quality time taking the raw elements of this lamp and bringing it back to its cleansed, beautiful state. He attached all the other elements we'd found at the bins, and voila. A completely fabulous antique lamp, with an age-appropriate shade.

What a day.

I also found a The Principles of Knitting book at the bins today for 49 cents, and it's apparently quite rare. I intend to turn it around for a tidy profit.

All in all, it was a good day.

We slapped together an antique lamp for less that twenty bucks. And I found a priceless book for 49 cents.

And adding great to good, the brief spring break respite I had with my kids was so very nice.

My past few days have been illuminating, on so many levels.