Kitchenaid Makeover - Vinyl Decals

I recently painted my kitchen.  We changed from a light spring green, to a beautiful aqua color called "Hawaiian Sky".  I absolutely LOVE it.  It's so peaceful and calming.  

"Hawaiian Sky" paint color is a Dutch Boy paint color, and I found it at Fred Meyer

Of course, as home improvement chain reactions go, I am now on the lookout for a few teal accent pieces to help tie the colors in the kitchen together and give some pop to the room.  Most everything in the kitchen is white (cupboards, appliances), including my Kitchenaid Mixer.  I thought, hey, maybe I can gussy this thing up!

Plain, white, kitchenaid mixer. I'll now call this "the before"

I have long admired some of the Food Network gals and their fancy hand-painted mixers, but the lofty price tag kept me at bay.  I went over to Etsy just to see what was available, and found some gals that make vinyl decals specifically for your Kitchenaid... and I decided I would TRY IT!  There were many styles to choose from, but since I like swirly, and filigree designs, I went for a shop called "Good Golly Graphics" because they could do the cool design I really liked, in the exact turquoise color that would go with my kitchen.

Fast forward a few days later, and I was so excited to get this little package in the mail.  It contained tons of decals, a page of detailed instructions on how to do this project, and bonus - some links to some YouTube videos for the visual learners like me.

Vinyl decals for my kitchenaid by Good Golly Graphics

I decided to lay the designs all out to see what I had:  The nerdy symmetrical side of me was immediately giddy to see that each design had a matching set on another page, only the opposite direction, which would end up giving you more variety in the long run on which way you wanted the design to go.

There were a ton of decals in the pack.  Very nice!

The first step was to clean your kitchenaid mixer.  Let's just say it had been a while. Who knew flour could get way back there?? I got out my trusty degreaser spray and scrubbed that baby until she shone like the top of the of the Chrysler building (random Annie reference for your amusement).  After you have a clean, smooth surface, you can begin to place the decals on the mixer.  Being a perfectionist, and nervous, I watch the link to the YouTube instructional a few times to get the gist of things.  I waited til the kids went to bed (no interruptions) , and then I excitedly started my project with the perfect amount of peace and quiet to think about my masterpiece! The first step is to cut out the designs, very close to the decal.

Individual vinyl decals for the kitchenaid

The trick with the kitchenaid, is that it is curvy in spots.  Okay, all spots.  Let's just say I don't think there is a truly flat, flat spot on the whole thing. Not only should you cut the designs out close to the vinyl, but if there are any leaves or swirls that go into the design itself, to clip down between the shapes (white sections of the design) and make some snips so that your design would be able to bend around curves.

The next step is to get some blue painter's tape (hey, I JUST happened to have that, I just painted my kitchen, how did you KNOW!?) and tape your selected shape at the top and press firmly a few times, making a flap of sorts.

My first decal.  I was so nervous and wanted to get it right the FIRST time.

So now that the tape is at the top, it will act like a "hinge".  Flip up the design and take off the stiff backing while basically holding it upside down.  The vinyl will stay on the bendable top layer.  Once the backing is totally off, the painter tape has kept your design exactly where you want it without shifting. 

The painter tape acts as a "hinge" so your decal stays in place while it's all sticky and vulnerable

Then you slowly roll the vinyl shape down over the mixer's curved surface, smoothing as you go down (no picture of this, I need both hands on the decal). Once in place, rub gently over the whole shape to help seal it to the mixer.  Then take the blue tape off (it comes right off, I used the same piece again and again).  Now you can pull off the top backing layer of the vinyl decal.  The trick is to pull steadily at a 45º angle with even pressure.

The more flexible backing side comes right off and the design is now firmly on your mixer

This works out pretty fabulously!  Once you get the hang of it, this painter tape hinge thing is awesome for the bigger pieces with many small curls and swirls. Matter of fact, I thought for sure that the tiny little end pieces of the intricate designs might rip up when I removed the final backing, but to my surprise, even the smallest of tiny swirls stayed in place.  Moving up the side of the mixer, every time I picked a decal, I would find it's opposite design on the other sheet, cut it out, and set it aside for the other side of the mixer (so both would match and also so I wouldn't accidentally use that piece somewhere else)

Four pieces down - no turning back now!

I felt it was logical to do some of the largest pieces first, to make sure they would fit, especially up the sides and over the top, then I would go back and fill in with some of the smaller swirls.  I'm not gonna lie, I was a little stressed at making sure the design wasn't going to be too busy, that it had enough visual white space, and that the pieces looked like they went together. Taking your time and planning ahead are key. Luckily, the decals are kind of see through, so you could lay them out and see how they would fit with the one next to it.  The hardest part I think was the back rounded end of the mixer at the top. It was the most curvy and the trickiest to make sure the vinyl went down flat.

Holy cow, it's turning out so cute!!!

When I was totally done, I stood back and admired my handiwork. Hey, that turned out even better than I thought it would! I went paparazzi mode and took pictures from each angle. First side:

 Other side:

 Top:

Front:

Back:

 
I decided to put the Kitchenaid back on the counter, with the silver bowl back in place for the full effect.  You can see that I decided to leave the center part where the bowl sits white (I thought that gave it a nice contrast) and I can't believe how NICE it looks with my new aqua walls!  My hubby came home and was actually impressed.  He said it gave it "personality".

A designer look at a bargain price!

By they way, they have easier designs that you don't have to think too much about.  I saw a leopard print that had larger pieces that covered larger areas of the mixer all at once.  I think mine took longer to do because there were so many ways the pieces could go together, and it was all up to ME on how they looked...

So if you have an older mixer (before all the snazzy colors came out), or even if you have one of those newfangled colors, you can get some awesome decals for under $20 and try out a cool design that matches your kitchen.  Check out Good Golly Graphics because, not only can she customize the shown design into a ton of specialized colors (even silver and white), I found out she's an Army wife and doing this as home business while her hubby is deployed and she's keeping down the fort at home, so it's a great way to support the troops too. By the way, the exact design I picked is called "Flourish kitchen mixer swirl decal" and you can find it by clicking here.  She had a ton of colors to choose from.

Before                                                                                        After

I just love how it went from plain Jane to designer awesome in one evening.  The best part is, if I ever change my mind, the vinyl is removable and I can go back to plain white, or change it up with a new masterpiece if I wish. Plus, you don't have to go girly or swirly.  I saw designs on Etsy for every taste.  There were flame decals, nerd decals like turning your kitchenaid into a tribute to R2D2 or the TARDUS, fruits, tropical flowers, cherry blossoms, polka dots, Disney fun, animal prints - really you are only limited by imagination. Now get out there and gussy up your Kitchenaid mixer, stat!

Junk Drawer Organization

I got my .com back, I got my .com back!!!  Hallelujah!  I have been laying low this last month, hoping and praying that after a small bidding war, I would get my www.clevercraftycookinmama.com domain name back!  Phew.  That was quite worrisome for a while.  Not to mention the extra great news I now bring, that most of my previously broken links out there on Pinterest are now pointing back to here, my little oasis on the interwebs!! Oh happy day!

Whilst I was away from the blogosphere for these few weeks, I had some extra time to micro organize a few things.  It's one of those things that you use every single day, but they are so messy, but no one ever has time in their regular busy lives to gussy them up properly.  We are talking about the ill-fated junk drawer (or drawers) in your kitchen.  It is the eternal resting place of Papa Murphy coupons, half chewed pencil-top erasers, pens without caps, dull sticky scissors, about 5 billion paperclips, and a few decapitated toy doll heads (with every motherly intention of one day being hot glued back on to the body from whence they came).  I mean, they don't call it a junk drawer for nothing people!

This is not my junk drawer below. I was too ashamed to show you mine.  Okay, in all reality I got on a cleaning kick and it was halfway empty before I thought to take a picture.  I'm pretty sure none of you need a reminder what chaos looks like.  Just wander into your kitchen and open your least favorite, but most often most used drawer and you'll see something akin to this: 

Well, after I got all industrious and cleared out everything from the drawer (and threw over half of it away) I needed someway to keep things a bit more compartmentalized.  In the past I had used a couple of small jewelry boxes and lids and thought this time, I needed bigger spaces for things.  Of course they sell very handy dandy organizers all over the place, but I wanted to try and use something on hand if I could.  I was already in cleaning mode and didn't want to run to the store.  I needed something quick.  I needed something easy.  I looked in our recycling bin and found a couple of - get this - Capri sun boxes, and they guess what?  They work GREAT!!  

One half of the Capri sun box is totally demolished after you use it.  You punch a hole with your fist to get the drinks out, so there is really only usable half is the bottom side.  Simply cut around the middle of the box.  

They make this easy for you, because it is almost separated into two halves already.

Once cut all the way through, you have a pretty sturdy tray that is just the right length to hold pens, pencils, erasers, and other odds and ends that might come along.  

 
A few fit side by side nicely in the drawers, and I used the spaces outside the boxes to hold longer items like rulers, and scissors.  I still had a couple of square jewelry box containers and lids left over from the last time I tried to organize everything, and tucked those in between things for small grouped items such as paperclips and safety pins.

Oh and once I got on the micro-cleaning band wagon, I just couldn't stop.  I ventured on over to our island drawers and found out that Capri Sun boxes also were the perfect length in the bulk utensils drawer.  Things like mixing/blending attachments, and ice cream scoops, while big honkin' things like metal BBQ tongs and apple slicers could go way in the back, and the almost used every day things like measuring cups and teaspoon/tablespoons go could right up front when I can grab them quickly.

Ahhhh SO much better.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the "before" before I started.  Basically you would open this drawer and have one big ol' pile of objects you'd have to dig for to find the one you wanted.  Now at least we have some organization.  The pizza cutter isn't going to slice someone's hand off as they reach for the can opener, and I don't have to perform an extensive search and rescue operation to find the 1/2 teaspoon. 

So hooray for micro cleaning and hooray for organizing one little thing each day - and HOORAY FOR GETTING MY DOMAIN NAME BACK!

Deep Cleaning the Microwave (Vents and Filters)

I have to confess, we just had ourselves another "chain reaction weekend".  What, pray tell, is that you wonder? A "chain reaction weekend" is one in which a seemingly simple solitary home improvement project snowballs into an endless link of other closely related projects, until you look up at 8:00pm on Saturday night and wonder where the entire day went.  Our story begins early Saturday morning, when we decided after 11 years in our house, it was time for a new kitchen faucet. That meant cleaning out under the sink to get to the hot and cold water pipes, which meant we had to clean and organize everything under the sink after the fact.   Once the faucet was installed, I realized the white sink looked dingy next to its silver shiny faucet-y surface, which then led me to clean the sink until it shone like the top of the Chrysler building.  You know what a shiny sink with a spanking new faucet will do?  That's right, make your counters and cupboards look dirty.  Deep cleaning the counters led me to the glass stove top, that led me to clean the oven... that led me finally to the microwave... which made me stop dead in my tracks. 

We have a white kitchen with white appliances.  Our white microwave is right over our white stove... though I realized right at that very moment, the grill had not been cleaned in a really long time. The following post and pictures are going to be shocking... but rest easy though, I'm going to tell you how to clean your decade old microwave to look almost brand new!

My eleven-year-old microwave grill after some "rescue" cleaning

Okay so if you are reading this on your lunch break, or having a late night snack while perusing the interwebs, I must beseech you, these next few pictures of my pre-rescued pre-cleaned microwave are down right gross. Put your food down before preceding. Shield the eyes of the young ones.  Those that are pregnant or may be pregnant and/or victims of a weak gag reflex feel free to brace yourselves now.  In our defense, we always clean the glass, the handles, the buttons, and the inside of the microwave all the time.  What we rarely (if ever) have cleaned was the grill/vent ABOVE the microwave.  At times I would remember trying to wipe the surface down during regular kitchen cleaning, but it was like baked on oil fuzz that stuck like glue.  In my busy life it was just one of those battles I did not have time to conquer in the middle of getting dinner on the table. 

Ain't nobody got time for that!

Okay, brace yourselves, we are going in for a close up....

I am so ashamed. 

Ug.  So so SO gross. I went on the interwebs and the youtubes (I personally like saying them better with "s's") and found there are about 1 billion ways to clean these puppies.  What I wanted was the most efficient, and easiest way to make this look like new again.  First of all, did you know for example, that you can REMOVE this grill?  Say wha?  That's right, on top of most microwave grills are a few screws you can remove with a Phillips head screwdriver.

screws along the top of your microwave... who knew??

Obviously I am not 7 feet tall and never had a clue in the world that there were screws on top of my microwave (nor a thick layer of dirt grease).  So I had my hubby remove all the screws and with a quick slide to the left, the whole thing popped off!  (Note: once unscrewed, it is easier to pop this grill of with the microwave door still open).

Never before seen footage of the inside, behind the grill portion of my microwave

What was I going to find behind that grill?  Narnia? A bird nest?  A pile of hidden $100 bills from the builder?  Nope, just a dark opening... oh but guess what else?  Not only did we get the grill off, but we did so, we were COMPLETELY surprised to find out that there is a FILTER inside the microwave slot that also needs cleaning.  Say what wha??

Nasty inner microwave filter that has never seen the light of day

This is right up there with my zero gag tolerance for mold and hair... the sight of this filter here almost did me in.  If you are feeling "the vapors" by looking at this pic, hold on to something steady because I promise you are going to freak out at how clean and shiny we are going to make this thing!!  

Okay so back to the grill I placed half of it in my sink and thought, this is stuck on grease, I need a de-greaser.  The interwebs had a number of home remedies but I thought I would start with the easiest.  My Lysol antibacterial kitchen spray cleaner, which is also a de-greaser would be my first attempt. I figured if it didn't work out I would move on to the "bigger guns". I sprayed half that grill down good and let it "soak" in the juices for a few minutes.  Wouldn't you know it, but I started to see the stuck on grease start sliding off the grill into the sink. On my first try? Sa-weet! 

I got out our trusty, older, just for cleaning toothbrush and scrubbed half of it and rinsed it off with hot water.  You also have to flip it over and scrub the other side, which also has many nooks and crannies of grossness. 

After more Lysol, hot water, a toothbrush, and even some Q-tips in the tight spaces, I could not believe how awesome half of the grill looked.  I was actually giddy about this astounding change.

half in light, half in "darkness"

Talk about a life-altering improvement!  We went to work on the other half of the grill and it went from zero to hero in about 30 minutes flat.  We let it sit out in the sun to dry off but WOW, what an amazing difference.

It looks brand-stinkin' NEW!  

By the way, those nasty filters?  Well did you know that there are two more of them UNDER the microwave for a total of three?  They catch quite a bit of grease from your stove top and were also in desperate need of a deep cleaning.  We popped all of them out and went a Googlin' to see what could be done.  There were vinegar dip methods and steam methods, but the easiest suggestion was to pop them in your dishwasher and BAM... a miracle would happen.

Holy cow... now that is CLEAN!

It's like a heavenly light is shining down, and the microwave angels start to sing hallelujah kind of clean.  It was amazing!!  From sickening to spectacular after one buzz through the dishwasher.  It was fabulous.

Still pretty shocked actually

The two filters below the microwave also came out spanking clean as well.

Like new I tell ya!

We popped all the filters back into the places and snapped the grill back into place.  The whole microwave was gleaming with clean pride.

Of course, you can't clean the outside, and the deep dark never before seen before inside filters, and not clean the regular inside of the microwave where the food goes.  For this we put 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of vinegar in a large glass bowl and microwaved for 3-5 minutes, which will boil the water and create steam.  Once the timer dings, you let it sit and let it steam in there for another few minutes.  When the water is a little cooler, open the microwave door, wipe down everything with a cloth or paper towel.

Not too shabby.  Clean and disinfected too!  I decided to blog about this because I was completely unaware of those filters in and under the microwave.  How I missed this little tip in home ec class I will never know.  Obviously grease and fuzz building up over time could possibly lead to a fire hazard and I wanted to pass these tips on to anyone else who might not even realize they were there and could be easily cleaned.  Also, I am so please with how my grill looks now.  I so wish I would have figured this out years ago, but so glad we could at least make it happen now and get such wonderful results.

From shabby to chic on a Saturday afternoon

Seriously I can't stop staring at my super clean microwave every time I saunter by it in the kitchen.  It's like NEW!! I keep exclaiming to my hubby.

And to think... I have a leaky sink and a new faucet to thank for all of this.  God bless the chain reaction weekend!!

Headband Holder

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and boy did we have a necessity here at our house.  On our main floor, we have a tiny half bathroom under the stairs.  It is the only bathroom on that floor, so is used for guests and family alike.  It came with a beautiful pedestal sink.  Pedestal sinks can be lovely, but there is zero storage.  If you have three little girls and zero storage, you are in for a world of hurt.  If you have three little girls with zero storage, AND a ton of hair AND about 5 billion hair accessories, you are in for a world of chaos!  One day I got a little portable plastic tower of drawers, which helped immensely!  Combs, brushes, and hair ties went in the top drawer, while fingernail polishes went in the second smaller drawer. We put all of our headbands and bows in one of the larger drawers.  Only trouble was, pulling a headband out on a busy school morning meant they would tangle together and the drawer could not close.  

The next person to grab a headband or bow would dig to the bottom and the whole mess would fall all over the floor.  We would come home from school and the bathroom looked like a complete disaster after our morning rush. It's hard standing at the sink trying to wash you hands, while trying traversing a sea of pokey headbands.   I had seen on Pinterest the idea of making a headband holder out of either an empty oatmeal box container, or a roll of paper towels.  Some of these things were crazily decorated, and a little on the gaudy side. Okay a LOT on the gaudy side.  Not only did I not want to gift wrap a roll of paper towels, I didn't want to eat 12,000 bowls of oatmeal just to empty my pretty full container of quick oats.  Suddenly.. it HIT me.  I knew EXACTLY what was a perfect head band size. Though it's original intention for use was no where near close to what I was going to use it for... but enter in the tubular toilet paper holder!!

I ran to the store and picked up one of these lovely stainless steel toilet paper storage towers for under $10.  It turns out this was the absolutely PERFECT size for headbands.  I immediately pull out by drawer of tangled headband-ness and went to work.  Look how beautiful it turned out!

A headband tower you can be proud of!

Well of course I put them in rainbow order!  Not only is it pretty, but functional.  The girls can quickly find the color that matches their outfit.  To top it all off, you can still use this thing for toilet paper storage if you want.  We actually put our flat iron and our curling iron in here to free up even more drawer space.  We also kept the brown and black headbands in the drawer (in case you were wondering about them), now that there was plenty of room.

Check out our headbands now!  It sits nicely on the back of our little stack of drawers looking all organized and easy to get to!  I so love this idea more than the other options that were out there. It's really given our tiny bathroom not only a pop of color, but solved one of our daily getting ready issues with organization!  Hooray.

Preemie Jammies - Perfect for 18in dolls!

Just a quick little post that my daughters wanted to share with all the other girls out there.  We were given, by a family friend a few years back, the Avon version of American Girl dolls.  My girls love their dolls and this year the eldest wanted an official American Girl doll.  Since they are still a bit too pricey, I did a little research and found that the Toys r us version of the 18 inch doll (called a Journey Girl) had the softest hair and the best reviews (and for 1/3 of the price too - she's the blonde doll on the left).  Besides 18 inch dolls being pricey, their clothes and accessories can get pretty expensive too.  One day I was shopping in the kid's section and came across some preemie jammies.  They were so sweet and little.  I thought, wait a second, I wonder if these would fit their dollies?!  I bought a pair, brought it home, and that's when I discovered that preemie baby pajamas are an absolute perfect fit for 18-inch dolls!
 

Meredith, Natalie, and Erika are all ready for their slumber party

How adorable are these jammies?

Look, one of them even has little zebra faces on the feet:

Not to mention, my girls absolutely LOVE to wear footie jammies themselves in real life!

First of all, regular doll clothes can run about $10 bucks each.  Not to mention they are usually not that well made, and a tad scratchy.  These REAL preemie baby jammies are sometimes under $8 and are the cutest, softest jammies in the known universe.  My girls love snuggling with their dolls now and having pretend slumber parties.  Matter of fact, when we had a few birthday parties to go to these last few weekends, I found out their friends had received 18 inch dolls for Christmas, so we went out and got them all comfy jammies as one of our presents.

So if you have a daughter, granddaughter, or niece out there under 13 or so, check and see if they have an 18 inch doll they love and surprise them with this special little gift.  I also love to shop the clearance section after a holiday and you can pick up some very cute themed jammies for your dolls this way as well.  Enjoy, and happy snuggling.

Launching Tin Cans - Make Firecrackers Last for Hours!

Well you might want to gather your husbands, brothers, sons, and teenagers around the ol' blog for a few minutes. I'm going to share some 4th of July fun that's aimed right at them!  This fun little experiment involves science AND explosives (come on, who doesn't love that?!). Many moons ago when my hubby Mr. D introduced this little trick into our family one sunny fourth of July afternoon, he was immediately welcomed into the clan.  With only a few simple items he kept the whole family entertained (kids and adults alike) by launching tin cans into the air for hours.

How high can you launch this can? Let's find OUT!

I am going to give you a play by play picture tutorial so you too can have some extra fun this fourth of July!  I'd say the BEST part of this explosive experiment is that you take something that, if normally lit, would last about 3.4 seconds.

watch your money vanish quicker than quick

OR... you can make this same pack of firecrackers last for hours!  The whole afternoon, even.  Okay, so let's gather the few things you will need to make this work.  You will need:

1 regular tin can (corn, beans, etc). Open, drained, rinsed, and label removed
1 larger can (coffee) lid removed
a hammer
a nail
package of simple firecrackers
a long lighter
adult supervision coupled with copious amounts of common sense

A small but mighty "Kit-O' Fun" for you and yours.

Okay first things first.  A safety warning.  Clearly these are fireworks and need to be handled with caution.  We will be using water pressure and science to launch a tin can high in the air.  Adult supervision, the ability to run for cover, a large open space, and a bucket of water on stand by are all good ideas.  Now onto the good stuff.

Take your opened, drained, rinsed, label-removed tin can and turn it upside down.  Take your nail and place it in the center of the can. 

Mr. D demonstrating the hammer/nail effect

Gently tap the nail into the can, making a small hole.

Now you want to find the package of regular firecrackers you will be using.

 
They tend to come with the fuses twisted together.  You will need to carefully pull them apart so they are all single use firecrackers 

Firecrackers come in all different sizes and you need to make your hole fit these perfectly.  After you separate them into individual firecrackers, take the nail out of the can and see if your firecracker will fit.

The hole will most likely not be big enough at first and you will need to widen  it a bit.

Mr. D just takes the same nail and lowering it down at an angle, spins it around with some pressure to widen the hole. Keep testing it little by little.  You are going to want the firecracker to be able to slide down and fit snugly into the hole, but NOT fall in.  Just the tip of the firecracker and the fuse should be sticking out of the top of the can.

Is this exciting or what?!

Now let's focus on the larger coffee can.  We are going to fill this with about 1 inch of water.

By the way, if you don't have a larger coffee type can, you can also use a heavy duty bucket.

This was Mr D back in 2008, we had two (count um) TWO buckets for launching

Once the large can (or bucket) is filled with an inch of water, place the smaller can, loaded with the firecracker sticking out of the top, down into the water.

What it will look like when you look down in the can:

The water doesn't show up on camera, but it's there and it's what makes this little science experiment work

Now you are ready to initiate the launch sequence.  This is where you are going to want a lot of space: A large patch of grass with plenty of space to move and launch your cans. It's a good idea to make sure no kids, pets, or gawkers (believe me, they will gather after you start this) are in the drop zone.

Now using your "go go gadget arm" you want to carefully reach into the can with a long lighter and light the fuse

 Then, using your ninja like skills, run as fast as you can away from the can.

Where's Mr. D? Oh he ran to safety already.  Hopefully you will have enough time to not only run away, but to turn and watch.  The water pressure at the bottom of the can makes a seal, and when the firecracker goes off, it will launch the can high in the air.

Hard to catch on camera, but I got one!  Can shot high in the air

Yes with a satisfying pop your can will sail high into the air with a trail of smoke behind it and land somewhere close by. Adults will nod approvingly, kids will squeal with glee and say "AGAIN AGAIN", teenagers with their face stuck in their smart phone checking their facebook status will raise their heads in confusion and start to wander over... and you will have family fun science-y entertainment that will last all afternoon!!  When you approach the launched can by the way, be sure to give it a few seconds to cool down, as it could be a little hot to the touch.  After that you are ready to launch again.  Get two buckets, have a little competition, who's bucket will launch the higher can?  The possibilities are endless.  Everyone is going to want to try and launch their own.  So have some extra fun this 4th of July and launch those cans to Timbuktu!