The Texas Woman

On this Memorial Day
I'd like to pay tribute to my nephew,
shown here on the throne of Saddam Hussein
(which shows a little about what that dictator was thinking),
and to all the men and women of our military, past and present,
who safeguard our country,
as well as to the wives, husbands, parents, and children
our military personnel leave behind
while they do their jobs!

Now on to our monthly make-over...
Grind out another lamp!

I love lamps and I've got lots of 'em. But that's OK because I have it on good authority (read Jen R. at Sanctuary Arts) that a room needs seven sources of light, including mirrors, lamps, and windows.

Combine that decorating tip with Candy's (from Junk Sphisticate) request for ideas on what to do with a rusty old meat grinder and I decided to feature one of my kitchen lamp on Sanctuary Arts monthly make-over.



No, the photo above isn't of Candy's meat grinder, nor is it of mine. In fact, I stole the picture (sorry, whoever) but I wanted to show you what mine looked like in its original "before" form...only with the rust. Lots of rust.

The wingnut-like thingy clamps the mechanism to a table or counter but to turn this grinder into a lamp, it has to go. You'll probably need to use a hacksaw to make it do so.

Removal leaves a threaded hole and that's a good thing 'cause now you're going to screw a hollow threaded lamp fitting pipey thingy (notice the exact wording in this post) into that hole. A lamp cord goes up through that hollow fitting and you then proceed to wire the lamp socket and fasten it to the grinder. Check the Internet on wiring lamps. I always have to look it up since with my dyslexia (read Alzheimers), I can never remember which wire goes on which screw post.

Now turn the grinder upside down so that it sets on the mouth where it once disgorged (yucky word) ground meat.


Notice the lamp has a short cord. When I made it, I knew exactly where I wanted the lamp to go - on the kitchen counter near a plug receptacle. I don't like a lot of dangling cords on kitchen counters!

I just realized that in the picture the cord looks like it goes through the grinder but it doesn't. I just hangs from the hole and travels behind the grinder.


Add a lamp shade and you have a neat lamp, if I do say so myself!