Mini Kitchen Makeover!

We had a nice Mother's Day. First I woke up early and went to my moms. My sister, mom and I...along with a bunch of our family members, did the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer walk at the MOA. Then we had lunch at her house and played in the backyard with the kiddos.

Later, Tyler, Ami and I all took short naps before we biked up to the Sea Salt for dinner. We met Tyler's mom there. It was beautiful out and the food was delicious. While Amelie and I were waiting at the table, she played with my sunglasses.




Today Ami and I met Nicole, Evi and Frank at coffee shop, we made a trip to Target, and later while Ami napped, I did some kitchen cleaning and remodeling.

We are doing our own mini-"remodel" on the kitchen. It is small and there is a lack of counter top space...so we are making some.

Saturday, Tyler's dad came over and helped in install our new dishwasher. (Part 1 of my Mother's Day gift). Even though it took up the space of 1 cupboard and 2 drawers, the room it clears of dirty dishes is so worth it. I just cleaned out a couple of other cupboards, got rid of some crap and reorganized to make it work.


I got a magnetic knife holder at IKEA. Now I can open the silverware drawer.


I repurposed some baskets we had hanging over the sink in our old house, and hung them over the sink for misc items. They are currently holding plants that need replanting.


We used the bar the afore mentioned baskets used to hang from, to hang our pots and pans.


Also, we are using a book shelf my dad made as a kitchen island. We found some wooden butcher blocks at IKEA for $10 each. We got 2 to fit the top of the book shelf and they makes a nice "counter-top." We still have to take the plastic off of them and attach them to the shelf, but I think its going to work out pretty nicely. I used some Command Strips to hang our measuring spoons and cups to the side of the shelf for easy cooking access.



Our TV broke. The living room TV. The one the Wii is connected too. First we (Amelie) lost the DVD remote, the we (Amelie) broke the TV remote. Now we just can't watch TV in the living room. I don't care during the day because we don't watch it until after Tyler gets home. Hopefully it's still under warranty.

Oh, and ever since watching Food Inc I have only bought organic or locally grown food. It's strange how it has made a difference in our lives in such a short time. We feel better, our digestive systems work more efficiently, and I seem to eat less because I feel full longer.

And I discovered a "new" Trader Joe's in St.Paul. I'm really stoked about it. It's about 3 miles from my house so it is totally bike-able. Plus it is a very ethical grocery store that doesn't sell milk products with any growth hormones, locally grown..yadda yadda. They sell these little dark chocolate morsels called Powerberries. They are so good. Next time I go I'm getting several bags.

Oh, and the 2nd half to my Mother's Day gift was 100 Tulip bulbs. 50 early blooming and 50 late blooming that we can plant in the fall. Nice work Tyler.