Storage Space

Melanie over at Southern Comfort in a Northern Life has inspired me to clean out and show my pantry space.

When we bought this house 3 1/2 years ago it only had one pantry space built into the kitchen cabinets.
Our youngest son, 8 years old at the time, used to have to climb up onto the counter tops and reach across the walk space to get cereal and snacks from the top cabinet.  Feeling like that was a little dangerous, we decided to build shelving in the laundry room.  (more on that later)

Now the top cabinet is where we keep all of the boxed "dinner" type foods, wraps and breads.
The bottom of this cabinet is a slide out tray.  Handy for reaching the stuff (lunch boxes) all the way in the back.

The bottom portion of my pantry is where the magic begins.
When you open it up, it looks like shelves and spice racks.

But wait, those shelves open up too and there is more storage on the backside and behind the shelves!

Room for baking, can goods, teas, sauces, dressings and more!

Now for the new pantry.  The laundry room was just a bunch of wasted space.  Just after we moved in Dennis and I built in a wall of shelving and turned it into the kids pantry.  Here you will find snacks, cereal, chips, cookies, drinks and more.  I have room for laundry baskets under the bottom shelf and kitchen and party storage above the washer and dryer.  The wall near the door is where my giant calendar hangs and a dry erase board to hold important papers and such.

After this room makeover, we added shelves to our mud room, but that needs to be cleaned up before I can show it off.  Maybe later!

Thanks for looking!

Dining Room Pick-Me-Up

I'll have to admit, I think I have cabin fever. I'm tired of staring at my boring walls day after day. I've been cleaning and making subtle changes here and there, but my dining room was driving me crazy. It was plain and boring and needed a little pick-me-up. The problem was my budget. I had very little money to part with. After perusing a few online blogs, I made my way to Kirklands to scout for some bargains. Here's the before.I picked up this little center piece arrangement for the table.

And got a great bargain on these pictures! 2 for $16!

For Christmas my mom gave me this tea cup display case. It had been my Nana's. Ever since I was a child I had admired it on the walls of Nana's dining room. I went up to the attic and brought down the tea cups I had been collecting for the last 18 years.

It's looking a little better. Still needs some curtains and some nice dishes for the table.
I run to Kohls in search of curtains. No luck, but I stumble upon some nice dishes. They are on clearance...90% off!! I love bargains!!

Did I say 90% off? Here, let me say it again...90% off!

The bowls were $9.99....I paid .99

The salad plates were $12.99...I paid $1.29

The dinner plates were $24.99...I paid $2.49

I love saving money!!!

Look at the bottom on my receipt!

I saved $191.00!

Wow!

A few close-ups of my tea cups. My mother-in-law has brought me tea cups back from her travels to Columbia South America, Mexico, England and Ireland. I have a few of my Nana's and a few of Dennis' grandmothers tea cups too.

From Mexico

From England

From South America

From my Nana

(the saucer was too big to fit in the case, but it was one of my first tea cups and I love it!)

Murphy...please leave!

You've heard of Murphy's Law, right? Well I think Murphy is trying to move in. Yesterday I got a knock on the front door. The garbage man informed me that his auto trash can lifter thingie hit my mailbox and knocked it over. I stepped outside to see this.....


Then later that night, I was feeling a little chilly, so I put a blanket on. Dennis got home around 9 p.m. and stated how cold the house was. 63 degrees. I'm usually cold, so I was wearing a turtleneck, a wool sweater, a scarf and had a blanket across my lap. So I noticed it was cold, but I was warm. He fiddled with the furnace and got it working. We went to bed.

Our upstairs furnace kept us nice and toasty all night. However, when I came downstairs to get Isaiah ready for school I stepped into frosty coldness! (btw, it is 12 degrees outside today!)


So I've retreated to the game room, where there is a computer, a tv and a heating unit (like you would find in a hotel room). I am toasty warm and I'm waiting for the furnace man to arrive.
He was just here in November fixing the same furnace. Wonder if it will be the same part again?

Anyway, come back tomorrow for a new post. We had a surprise Sweet 16 party for Evan on New Years Eve. Lots of pictures to share!

Stay warm!!
Jodie

Grand Intentions

Mom and Dad came down for a visit over the weekend. I had grand intentions of taking lots of photos of mom and I making homemade Banana Pudding, Logan and Isaiah's basketball games, Dennis grilling steaks and Dad and I watching our favorite old Christmas movies Holiday Inn and White Christmas. The weekend scurried by so fast before we knew it it was Sunday afternoon and they were packing to head for home. One of the things I did get pictures of was my dad. I asked him if he could recommend the right weather stripping for our drafty doors. Not only did he make his recommendations, he went with me to Home Depot, picked them out and installed them!!! What a dad! And....I got pictures. :0)

Today I am Thankful for....

My furnace.
Yesterday I was thankful for the Furnace Repair Man.
Thank you Furnace Repair Man, I enjoyed waking up in a warm house today.
Yesterdays 64 degree house was a bit nippy!

The Mistreated Windows

We moved into this house a year and a half ago. We've scraped wallpaper, upheaved tile, replaced counter tops, painted everything, replaced carpets and much, much more. So I guess I've been a little too busy to even notice my naked kitchen windows, until my friend Duchess directed my attention to NESTING PLACE (be sure to click on the mistreatments box on the right hand side). Nester, of Nesting Place is a very creative, easy on the budget, no sewing needed decorator and window treatment guru extraordinaire. She inspired me to go find some fabric; I got mine at Hobby Lobby on sale for $3.29 a yard. Here's my process from start to finish.

I started out hanging my curtain rods. Let's just say, it was not a fun task. I made my measurements on the walls. Got out the drill. Pre-drilled holes where I wanted the brackets to hang. I put the screwdriver head on the drill and set off to work. The first hole I made - my screw only went in so far, so I started to hand tighten it in the rest of the way when "POP" the stupid screw broke off in the wall! I grabbed another screw, moved over a bit from the first hole, got out the drill, and "SNAP" again! Another screw head broke off in the wall! This wasn't starting out how I'd expected it to!




Okay, enough of curtain rods. I set them aside hoping the hubs would come home and do them for me. On to the making of the valances. My supplies: Fabric, hot glue gun and glue sticks, ring clips and trim.





You start with your fabric, straight off the bolt. Iron it if you want to, I only did if there was a crease. Keep the fabric folded in half lengthwise.



Nester would probably just fold over the tops, but Jodie is a little bit of a perfectionist, so she had to fold the top of the fabric over 4.5 inches and measure it.


Using one of your ring clips, just clip one on each end. Fold your fabric in half and clip on the halves so that your clips are equally distributed. (see my raw edge, thanks to Nester, I'm not so concerned with that anymore! Freedom!)




Now for the fun part. Fire up that hot glue gun and just glue your trim across the bottom edge of your fabric. I just covered up the white raw edge. Easy-Peasy!





And here they are all hung and purty!