~ Mix, Mix, Baby ~

About 6 years ago I received a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas! Yay! I bake and cook a lot so I was super excited when I received the coolest mixer ever! I have used and abused this poor thing so that it is starting to crap out, the motor anyway. We looked into it and have decided to instead of getting a new one entirely we are going to purchase a new motor for it, because, who has that kinda money in this economy now, am I right?

So I have been thinking, why not spruce this ol baby up a bit? Change up the color and make it at least look "new" for now. 

I somehow got this handsome man to help me out a bit with the whole process...

Jack decided that he needed to "help" as well. And then Rileigh was the ever present "assistant".

I hit the store and purchased some sandpaper and spray paint. 

I then grabbed a screw driver and started by taking off all of the metal pieces I could. 

I tapped up whatever I couldn't get off of the mixer and I began to sand it. 

Now I didn't strip the paint off, I just took off the gloss so that paint would adhere. And when I say "I" I mean Lorren, my helpful husband.

I wiped it off with a dry towel and then I grabbed my spray paint and started to shake, shake, shake!

Let the spraying begin!

I had some issues with drips, so after it dried I sanded those down and reapplied the spray paint. ( This could have been because I was enjoying some "Moose Drool" beer...) 

When I was happy with it, and let it dry over night I screwed on on the metal pieces and it was all back together.

The finished product has made me a very happy camper! I love the Blue Much more than the red and hey, who knows, maybe I will paint it another color when I get another whim!

The knock off lamp

So let's just focus on the front part of the table full of junk. You should see a bad ass lamp, fabric and a lamp shade. I purchased all of these at Goodwill. Total price $20. So if your a Woman, girl or even a dude you've probably seen or heard of http://pinterest.com/ and let's just say I frequent it often...who am I kidding, I am OBSESSED! But who cares? I find lot's of helpful, handy and yummy things on there! 

So I saw how some crafty peeps made "anthropologie" style lamps bedding etc and thought, well crap, I can probably do that too. So here's how I took a stab at it. 

This cool lamp was $14, which is kinda spendy for me, because I am cheap as hell but I LOVED it and couldn't live without it so in the shopping cart it went. 

I found this shade and thought, boring but a great base for what I was thinking( anthropologie style).

I found this fabric which is close to the texture of cheese cloth. I cut it into strips then chucked it into the wash machine and dryer to fray the edges.

( please pay no attention to the very, very dirty window, Izzy my 1.5 year old Boxer like to jump all over it and rub her slimy gross dog nose/tongue on it) I forgot to take pictures of me actually applying the fabric to the shade, but all I did was fire up my hot glue gun and started making dabs every inch or so on the base of the lamp. I think bunch and shiwiggled( yes I just created a new word) the fabric to create a rustic, ruffly kinda look. I pressed the back side of the shade against the fabric and my fingers to make sure the glue really grabbed onto the fabric. This entire project was extremely easy and only took about 30 mins.

All done and I couldn't be more happy with it. I think it's adorable. The metal base and the soft ruffly fabric really appeal to me and @ $20 this make me even more happy, a custom lamp and happy mama yay!