cabinets: organized!

After a slight delay (something to do with the Man, the lawnmower, and our severe lack of cable connection)

here is where we stand with our kitchen cabinets:

No, I don't have doors.  But I do have a home for most of our kitchen stuff.

We were able to seriously conserve space thanks to some thrift store/yard sale finds.. and LOTS of purging!

Meet our pantry.  It can't compare to some spaces, but it has Milano cookies so I can't complain.

Also note nosey kitten #1 on the far left of the shot.

Not to be outshone, it's hard to miss nosey kitten #2. Loki couldn't let Inari steal the spotlight again. 

This was right before he attempted to squeeze in between the packed shelves.

I still have to find homes throughout the house for all my baking accouterments, cake plates, and serving dishes.  I'd also like to establish a place for stock up foods.. but all will come in time.  I should probably focus on getting those blasted doors finished first.

static cling

Today is the Man's birthday and in order to surprise him, I did a little early morning celebrating in the form of a cheesy homemade banner:

And blowing up 28 balloons and scattering them all over the floor. 

It wasn't much, but sometimes in our home-- it's the simple things that amuse us the most. 

This evening was a perfect example of that.

Meet Loki-- my 7 year old orange tabby (who is just slightly spoiled rotten):

Loki, meet balloon:

Then inspiration struck.

Static electricity + over sized tabby cat  + balloons =

I was highly entertained.  He's normally a fussy cat, but he just purred while the Man and I cracked up.

He was probably just plotting his revenge. 

Oh well, at least the Man had a happy birthday filled with all the things he loves the most:

video games, hi-def movies, cupcakes, crayfish (more on that later) and mildly annoying the cats.

I'd say it was a good day.

flour & sugar-- found!

In my last post I was talking about pantry envy. Since we clearly don’t have a pantry, and are now down about 8 feet (or two massive upper cabinets) of storage, I’ve been trying to put my pantry envy to good use—organization inspiration!

Are you ready for chaos? I am so embarrased by this... but I figured through sharing it will motivate me to get a good "After" picture to prove my tidy gene still exists.

Try not to judge me-- the before:

Right now everything that once was in our kitchen is scattered all over the house.

Microwave, Tupperware, and spices (along with the kitchen table) in the living room

Assorted foods, pots, and pans also living in the corner of our living room

Moving over to our third bedroom you find baking supplies and glassware

And also in the 3rd bedroom closet—my long lost flour and sugar

Hmm..maybe some organization is in order. I’m trying to figure out the best way to divvy all this up among our 7 usable cabinets (along with any other inventive storage solutions I can think of for all the things that don’t fit in my little cabs).

One way to help with organization is little kitchen bins and baskets like this:

They are pretty inexpensive compared to some storage solutions.. but we're on a tight budget. 

I've seen these before at yardsales and when out thrifting.  I usually pick them up when I see them and over time I've amassed a bit of a collection.  I wanted a few specifics (like a spice rack) so I stopped by a few of my favorite thrifting spots.  I found some great pieces and all for around $1 each. 

Here what we have to work with so far:

I still haven't raided all my closets for baskets, and I'm hoping to find a few cute pieces to mix in for fun. 

Now back to priming trim, painting the rest of the cabinet doors, and the rest of my Sunday chores.  Hopefully before too long we'll have clean, organized cabinets --

and no more random food stuffs in the living room!

pantry raid!

I amuse myself sometimes :)

As we get closer to having usable kitchen cabinets, I've been researching and brainstorming how to organize all of our kitchen goodies. In the process, I've been battling a little green monster-- who just seems to grow with every new pantry I see.  I love a pantry-- the idea of so much storage.. *sigh* and these organized spaces make my little semi-OCD heart go aflutter.

I a bit of a  basket case and Dana's pantry over at House*Tweaking has me drooling..

I love her baskets and bins!  They are one of the my favorite ways to "pretty up" storage and make for easy to use organization. I love the mix of natural baskets with metal wire.. a good idea for my mix and match space.

Then I ran across Sarah's over at Thrifty Decor Chick.  I love how she used taller containers on their sides to stack in a not so tall space... so smart!

I also love how she labeled her shelves by category, such a good idea to help keep things neat and tidy!

And then there was the pantry that seems to have been *everywhere* in blogland.  Shelly over at House of Smith's did an amazing job on her pantry makeover and really captured a lot of great ideas into one space.

Love, love, love her labels!  Apparently I'm not the only one-- as I've seen her mentioned in a number of other blogs and she's been filling tons of orders.  Vinyl seems to be the latest trend and I haven't tried it yet.  I'm anxious to as the idea of using vinyl seems so appealing to me.  She used it on her container labels as well as the quatrefoil design on the wall. 

 Also, who doesn't love cute glass jars, pretty baskets, and cute bins and boxes.

 

Speaking of cute bins and containers, Chris over at Just A Girl recently finished reworking her laundry room cabinets.  It's not a pantry, but my kitchen is a kitchen+laundry nook.. so that's close enough.

She spray painted a mixture of Dollar Store bins in a pretty bright blue for a cohesive look. 

Why haven't I thought of that? I'm always so concerned with finding things that match and this is a great way to dress up that perfect size bargain find.

Plus her ribbon labels are adorable! It's all so bright and happy.

 

Another non-pantry that's surely worthy of envy...John and Sherry's kitchen cabinets.

 It's just one of the many lovelies over at the Youngster's kitchen.  They did a "Tackle it Together" series a while back that focused on kitchen cabinets at YoungHouseLove.

And tackle they did.  Look how clean.. and neat!

As if I wasn't enamored enough as it is.  I love, love, love these shelf labels.  The fact that they were just scrapbooking notions is genius to me.

If you haven't noticed lately, I've also developed a bit of a thing for glass jars.  I have a grouping similar to this (I used the smallest one recently to hold strawberry spoon cake.)  The Dad also gifted a cluster of cuties with black metal lids for my birthday.  I'll be using them to hold flour, sugar and the like... as soon as I can find my flour and sugar... I think they're in the closet of the guest bedroom.  Maybe?

Obviously, I have a lot of re-organizing ahead of me, along with a lot more work on even getting the kitchen closer to a finished product.  In the meantime, I'm still on the hunt for great kitchen storage ideas... pantry or not.

I think I'll always be on the hunt for great storage ideas...

there's just something about an organized space that makes this nerdy bird sing.

lucky thirteen?

I am so antsy for a grand reveal of the kitchen.. but it is quite a few projects away.  I spent this weekend applying a lot of coats.. 10 to be exact on these puppies:

The thirteen cabinet doors we painted..and that's not even all of them.

Granted, it wouldn't be a weekend of home renovation with out a few mishaps and emotional breakdowns.  After shedding a few tears over some unexpected issues (thanks Humidity for botching layers 7-10) the Man calmed me down and reinforced my resolve.

A little before and after to see how far we've come couldn't hurt either:

before-ish

getting closer

Ah.. a little motivation.... now for reward?

Too bad I don't have any more lemon cupcakes left over from  my co-workers baby shower. I could have used one of those at about 4:00pm today.

Oh, and on a off-topic note.. at least off-topic from lemon cream cheese frosted cupcakes... *sigh*

  I was thinking today about the soundtrack of my life and I've concluded that this chapter would certainly be underscored with various beeps, pew pew pews, mouse clicks, battle sounds, and various other gaming noises peppered with

 the Man's laughter and general exclamations of badassery.

I love it...some of the best background noise ever.

And finally, it's Shark Week. 

"I've always been intrigued by other religions.... but not as much as sharks."

- the Man during a long theological discussion one night