Drum roll for a drum shade...

Well, technically it isn't  a drum shade because it is tapered but it's what Tar-jay had to offer therefore what I had to work with.    
When we moved into our house the light over the kitchen sink was a blindingly bright canned light and if we tried to change out the bulb for one with less watts it would blow in a couple of days!  This is a picture we took of the house just after we bought it.  Check out all that white (and not in the good, white marble clean kinda way white)!

To be honest with that bright light reflecting off all those white surfaces I felt like I was ready to perform some sort of surgery when I turned it on so I just left it off most of the time.  Then the hubsters came home with a conversion kit for canned lighting - he really can't take credit for it, I threatened to buy the one out of Ballards for a gazillion dollars if he didn't go out to home depot and get one.  But who is keeping score? 
So, for awhile we had this:

The hubster picked it out.  It wasn't exactly what my Ballard's mind was picturing but at least I could stop doing the dishes in the dark...yay!  Then after looking longingly at all the bloggy gals out there I jumped on the drum shade band wagon (sort of- come on Tar-jay, get with the program).  Even though it wasn't a drum shade per se I liked the burlap look of it:

Each little step has made the kitchen more us.  Looking back on the two pictures the old one makes the kitchen seem brighter but it is only the difference in times of the year and day. Believe me when I say all that white laminate cabinetry combined with all the white Formica counter tops was a bad, bad thing.  The new light, not to mention the new counters, new appliances, and new sink (I'll be writing up a post about all that at some point) have all helped to make the kitchen more homey and a little less sterile.  After all, the only surgery I wanna be performing  in this joint are taking care of scrapped knees and boo boos that can be fixed with a kiss.