A Great Way to Spend Time During the Hurricane

When I was sorting through mine and my brother's childhood possessions at my mom's a couple of years ago, I ran across two nightlights that my Grandma Guard had given us when we were very young.  Instantly, a flood of memories came rushing back. First, they were of my Grandma Guard. I absolutely loved visiting her when I was a child and looking though the knickknacks that she had picked up on her various trips. I also remembered the orange blossom perfume that she had.  It smelled just like the Florida orange groves. The next memories that came flooding back were from our family home on Jackson Street. I remembered my room, my brother’s room, his record player, and this really awesome vanity that I used to have when I was little.  I was incredibly thankful that my mom had kept the nightlights.  I quickly found a place for them in her guest bedroom closet along with my other prized possessions - Zip the Monkey, the Charlie Brown encyclopedias and the doll crib that my grandpa made for me.  

This fall when we drove up to Indiana to visit everyone, I decided that I wanted to bring the nightlights back to our home in Florida.  I felt like it was a true homecoming for them as it was the state where Grandma Guard bought them over fifty years ago, and Bunk's fit the decor in our Ocala home perfectly. I knew that it would take some time to get them back to their original state again as a lot of the beads had come off and the cords no longer worked.  I didn't mind as I was really looking forward to the project.  

Last week, I started to investigate what I would need to refurbish the nightlights. I had looked through all of Ocala's craft store for replacement beads but couldn’t find what I wanted. After doing a lot of research I thankfully found some on Amazon that would work.  That solved problem one. The cords were a bigger issue. I couldn’t use them anymore because they did not have a safety plug at the end, but I also couldn’t just put in another nightlight cord because it wouldn't fit in the bottom correctly. The original chords came out the side and had connecting wires to the light bulb. The other issue I had with it was that the cord had gotten stuck up inside the ceramic nightlights and the prongs on the bulb were almost impossible to get out. After taking the cord completely apart and getting out pliers, wire cutters, and tweezers, I at least had a plan to take out the bulb. It took about an hour of manpower, but I finally got both bulbs out without damaging the ceramic figures. Amazon had battered operated fairy lights that fit perfectly inside our prized childhood objects.  I then reglued all of the bulbs and soon my brother and my nightlights were shining once again. I was so happy that I worked on this project this week. It kept me busy during the hurricane and it was a great way to remember my brother on his 61st birthday.