By Clarissa Allison | May 20th, 2016

As nice as it is to have a professionally made, artisan crafted item proudly displayed in your living room, being creative and producing a work of art on your own has a unique appeal. If you need a cool project to try your hand at this weekend, take a look at the following 4 best lighting hacks you can make at home and their professional counterparts!

The Sparkleball!

The sparkleball project is a quick and easy way to create mood lighting for a party, holidays or fun and eclectic home decor. It takes just a few items that you likely already have laying around the house to create this dazzling disco ball.

The Fredrick Raymond  Twelve Light Polished Chrome Frosted Cubes Glass Up Chandelier

The Mason Jar Lantern!

Pinterest wedding boards and hipsters may be the genesis of the popularity behind the mason jar light phenomenon. It’s an easy and fun idea with beautiful results!

Professional Counterpart: The LBL Lighting 573 Mason Classic Line Voltage 120V Pendant

The Wine Bottle Candle Holder!

In this green age, upcycling items that you’d normally throw out is not only common, but expected. Check out this fun video on how to make beautiful and romantic hurricane candle holders with your empty wine bottles.

Professional Counterpart: The ELK Lighting 14040/1 Vintage 1- Light Chandelier in Dark Rust

The Spoon Lamp!

Professional Counterpart: Lite Source EL-50077 Bubbles Crystal Flush Mount Lamp in Chrome

One of the best opportunities to save money is to convert Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium High Mast lights over to LED. A typical high mast light consists of a tall pole, 50-150 tall and contains multiple fixtures attached to the pole, typically 4 to 12. The lower poles may be equipped with 400W Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium bulbs, the taller poles typically are installed with 1000W Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium bulbs.

You may not believe this, but my time machine is over fifty years old and I have never needed to repair it. Built in the 1900’s it is one of the electric models. My great uncle, who died about twenty years ago, built it right here in Pasadena during WWII, and not only was he one of the best electricians in Pasadena, he built things to last. When I stepped inside this morning with the intention of heading back to 1967, something made a funny click and then everything went dead. I should have visited Uncle Frank, my trusted Pasadena electrician, last week for an evaluation when I was doing some errands that I neglected in 1979.

Because I could not use the machine to fast forward to 2030, when requests are as easy as wishing them done, I had to resort to using my laptop and a search engine that could respond to “electrician Pasadena CA,” a slow but fairly accurate method. After looking over my choices, I decided to take a chance and call a company called The Electric Connection. I could hear a bit of hesitation over the phone when I mentioned time machine, and they asked be if I meant a an electric timer, or if it was for a modern security lighting system, or if I needed an electrical rewire to bring my home wiring up-to-date, but after explaining that it wasn’t any of those, they went ahead and made my service call appointment. I am pretty sure they thought that I didn’t know what I was talking about, and that they figured they would sort it out after they arrived. I did confirm with them that the problem was definitely an electrical issue, though, and that it would most likely need some skilled electrical troubleshooting.

The Pasadena electrician arrived promptly for his scheduled appointment. He tried to cover up his surprise, but I was sure he had never worked on this kind of electrical project before. After he looked it over, he forgot all the intrigue and discovered that it needed an electrical conduit replaced. Well, that was easy enough. We also discussed the possibility of renovating it to function like an electric car. He told me they were the electrician in Pasadena that was doing most of the electric vehicle charger installs these days. That just might work for trips into the future, but for the ones heading back in time, there would be no electric charging stations.

Then he asked the big question: would he allow me to let him test it? He looked like a capable fellow with exceptional integrity, so I agreed. After much thought as to whether he wanted to visit Benjamin Franklin in the mid 1700’s to learning about electricity through lightning or Thomas Edison to see him inventing the phonograph and light bulb in the 1870’s, he chose Ben, and this electrician in Pasadena took off with excitement. We even set the timer to get him back without missing a beat for his next electrical service call appointment; I love that feature.

I was able to enjoy two cups of tea and a pastry before my Pasadena electrician returned. It would be insufficient to describe the look on his face as he stepped out of the machine. He could not put into words the incredible meeting with old Ben Franklin himself. Besides having an educational one on one, he was also asked to participate in a few of the famous kite experiences. This young Pasadena electrician would never be the same!

As we parted for the day, he asked if he could come back sometime and fly off to meet Thomas Edison. He looked like he could keep a secret, so I agreed as long as he told the office that he had replaced the electrical conduit and all of my clocks were working just fine now. I knew my search for electrician Pasadena CA was over, and that I finally found an electrician that I could trust at The Electric Connection in Pasadena CA.

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