Verilux Lamp

Over the past several weeks, I have been battling my allergies.  At this point, I am on my second antibiotic, steroids and have been put on an inhaler.  If it gets worse, I'll be going in for asthma testing soon.

Obviously, this has not left me a lot of time to create, but I have picked up some neat items over the past week for some great deals.  I wanted to share some with you, along with some of the projects I have been working on for the past couple of months.

My find of the week: I actually came across last weekend at a shop called Tuesday Morning.  If you do not know of it, Tuesday Morning has fabulous deals on everything from linens, home decor, kitchen items, kids toys to even craft supplies.  While I was browsing through a brand new one that opened up a couple of miles away (this is very dangerous for me), my mom called me.  I told her where I was and she immediately was directing me to go to the craft area to look for a Verilux lamp.  I had bragged on her Verilux (also from Tuesday Morning) while home over Christmas that she uses to crochet beautiful purses and scarves.  She insisted that if I found one for a good price, it was going to be a gift.

Sure enough, I finally found a couple of boxes. The version that I picked up is the Original Full Spectrum Floor Lamp. 

At Tuesday Morning, the price was $49.99!  A great steal!  The only thing missing from my lamp, and I'm not sure if it was supposed to be with the box or not, is the diffuser that goes over the light bulb.  I haven't missed it a great deal and will probably pick it up separately from Verilux.  The other awesome thing about this lamp is you can buy some accessories for the stand, including a table and a stretchable magnifier for those detailed projects.

Okay, so it's a lamp, you are saying.  What's the big deal?  I have a hand held natural light that I got for on a great sale at a craft store last year. It's been nice for illuminating my work, but it has a clip on it...it's impossible to position and my photos still don't pop with that device.  It also throws off a horrible glare that makes it hard for me to work long term with it.

This is one of my latest hermit crabs that I've been working on.  The two pictures on the left were taken with my portable natural light, balanced precariously above the subject.  The two pictures on the right are with the new Verilux lamp.  I am hoping this is going to improve my pictures a great deal, especially if I set up some reflectors around the edges.  These photos are not altered in any way, except for being grouped together in Picasa 3.

The Verilux, obviously being a floor lamp, is much easier to position, it doesn't throw so much glare to disturb other people in the room when I am working.  We can still watch television or work on a computer without it distracting us.  Also, it shows Amazing colors!  I can flip it on and instantly see where I need to make repairs or find out how a color combination is really going to look under natural light.

A picture of some daffodils I rescued before the freezing rain tonight, taken under the new lamp!

And finally, my mom did warn me that the cats love the Verilux lamp.  Bedlam proved this within a few minutes of me turning it on, he was sunning himself under it.