Making my shitty kitchen a little less shitty.

I just wanted to do one last update of some space saving things we did to the kitchen.  I would have done this myself this morning, but I like it better when Tyler does the drilling and leveling of our projects.  I don't read directions nor do I have much patience for these types of projects.

Here is what our kitchen counter looked like before.  Please take note that I cleaned the countertops off before I took the photo.  Usually there is shit galore piled up on there.

I thought of this idea the other day at Ikea when we went to look at bathroom stuff for upstairs.  Well, I guess I didn't come up with the idea, some Ikea person did...but I thought of using it in our kitchen.  

We were able to get the stupid gigantic dish rack off the counter (which was not pictured) and make room for things like cutting, peeling and cooking.  I also used those hooks to hang up some frequently used items in our kitchen.  Since the drawers are original to the house they are really annoying to open and shut, and whomever did the spacial planning was an idiot.  We can't open more than 1 drawer at a at because they block one another.  Argh.  Now everything has it's own spot.

Here are a couple other things we have done to maximize the small amount of space in the kitchen.

We put a butcher's block over half the stove so we have some more counter space.  The fridge is right across from the stove so it's nice to be able to set a glass near it to pour juice or milk or whatever.  I have a basket with all the kitchen utensils and oven mitts.  There are some more oven mitts on magnets hanging on the side of the stove.  We got a magnetic bar and installed it above the stove for our sharp knives.

For a long time our garbage and recycling sat on the floor in a big ass mess.  We found these recycling containers and installed them on the wall next to the back door.  It really opened up a lot of space and looks much less cluttered.

This is the same type of bar we hung on the wall over the countertops.  It was left over from our last place and we screwed it into the ceiling to hang the pots and pans we use most.  That green basket will soon have a new home over the microwave.

We found this double shelf at a garage sale, we actually got 2 of them for a dollar.  I use one of them in my bedroom to hang my earrings on and this one stores our vitamins and fruit and such.  I love the color of our bread box, and there is space behind it for other things like onions and potatoes (although I tend to forget about the stuff I put back there until I see it sprouting from behind the box).  That green shelf I just mentioned will go here so there is a spot for that food I forget about.

Incidentally all the stuff we used in the kitchen is from Ikea except for the green basket (thrift store) and double shelf on the microwave.  I still don't love my kitchen, but I can handle it for a while now.

Damnit, I just forgot to watch Modern Family.

Some days I feel motivated, others lazy.

Today I feel a little of both. Amelie was up coughing all night (which I think most of was on purpose). I suspect she likes spending time with her dad and was drawing attention to herself so he would go in and sit with her. We both went in 3 times each last night, and 2 of the times I went in she told me to leave with a very kind, "mommy, out."

Anyways, I was tired this morning so I took a little nap on the couch after I started some laundry. (Don't tell Tyler.) I say little nap because it was pretty short. Ami brought her Care Bears sleeping bag out onto the couch to watch some Care Bears Movie in, but got bored all by herself on the couch, so she came over and elbowed her way into my spot. I was curled up and dreaming about babysitting my niece and nephew when I got and elbow to the face, one to the chest, and then she butt-faced me.

She is still learning to use the potty so I Iet her run around pant-less in the mornings (plus all her undies are in the wash), and butt-facing is when she tries to sit her bare butt really close to my face. It's gross. Otherwise potty training is going really well. If she starts to pee when she is wearing undies she usually stops and finishes in her potty, and if she is pant-less she will go right into the bathroom to pee (or poop).

Sometimes when I am in the bathroom perched on the edge of the bathtub wiping poo off her ass and cheering that she just took a dump in the toilet all on her own, I have a mini out of body experience and have to stop and laugh. Now, I would not think to change my life or where it has led me, but before July 13th, 2008 (the day I found out I was pregnant with Amelie), I never would have pictured myself in that scenario.

It's also interesting because I straddle two totally different worlds during the week and on the weekends. During the week I stay at home with Ami and go to the Zoo, or open gym, or to the park, or for a playdate somewhere. Then on the weekends I'm off to work at a bar, to intoxicate a bunch of grown adults, some of whom I'm sure have children, and some who I seriously hope never do. After 10 years of working in the bar industry (barf, I never thought I'd reach the point where I could say, "I've been doing fill in the blank for 10 years now" and it makes me feel way old) I have learned that bartending is quite similar to taking care of a child. These so-called grown ups come in for a few cocktails or beers and by the end of the night they are stumbling and falling down, talking incoherently, and sometimes throwing things, peeing their pants, or throwing up. Sound familiar moms? I have to speak to them like they are toddlers, scold them when they climb up onto things they shouldn't, and take coasters away when they start throwing them at people. So maybe those 2 worlds aren't so different after all. Maybe bartending actually prepared me to be a mom.

And now I'm rambling.

What I really wanted to do with this post is say that I went back to Homegoods last night to snatch up a few more deals. Here is what I got last night.

I got this smaller version of the same stool from earlier. It was clearanced at $15 but I didn't have enough hands for it during my first trip.




and this jewelry box was not on sale, and was $12.99. I just really like it. I know my fingers are going to swell up this summer and I will need a place to store my wedding ring on those hot humid bratwurst finger type of days.




I had a pillow and a piggy bank in the cart for a long time that were of similar styles to everything else I bought, but I used a little but of self control and put them back. The 2nd trip I also got a cheese knife, a wire colander so I can finally rinse my grains and legumes, and some organic Ginger Ale that I am pretty excited to try.

After my lazy morning nap, I felt a wee bit motivated so I cracked open the coconut I bought at the co-op on Sunday. It was my first experience with one, and I'm looking forward to eating it once I get all the "meat" off of the shell.

My coconut cracking tools.






Then while I was on the phone with my mom, I kept my hands busy roasting some Chickpeas in the oven. It was easy and they are really good. I poured a can of Chickpeas in a colander and rinsed them off, coated them with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Ami loves them. Then again, she just loves eating.








Since I was just talking about how well potty training was going, I thought I should mention, while I was posting this entry, Ami peed on the couch. I'm going to go clean it up now.

Bam, Jackpot!

This morning after breakfast Amelie and I went to TJMaxx/Homegoods. I have been savingsavingsaving money and really felt the need to get out to the store. We went mostly to get Ami some more undies, and I thought that maybe I could find a potato masher and and something small I could splurge on.

I didn't plan on spending more than $20, but I spend $157. I could not help it. They had TONS of stuff right up my alley AND on clearance. I'm embarrassed, but I was digging through the carts of stuff they wheeled out to stock the shelves. I guess I got to them before they did and I bought about half a cart full of stuff. I was trying to wedge all the stuff into my cart while keeping Ami strapped in the child seat that she was trying to climb out of.

This is what I ended up buying.

Loading the goods into the truck. A balancing act.




This is a stool and the top comes off for storage. It was on clearance for $19.



This is a soft ottoman type thing, it was $49. I normally would not spend that much on something like this, but I couldn't help myself. It will be perfect upstairs in the nook, or at the foot of our bed.


Here is a medium sized round storage box. I'm not sure what I will use it for, maybe in the bathroom or on a nightstand. on Clearance for $7



I'm very happy about this mini stool. I found it at the bottom of the crate of stuff. It was the most embarrassing thing I had to dig out because I had to unpack the whole crate to get it. It was worth it though. Clearance price, $19



And here is a mini trunk that was only $15.



I also ended up with a potato masher, a bathtub mat, a rug for the front door, several pairs of undies for Ami and a new sports bra for myself. Not too shabby!

I'm pretty excited about it all. I might go back later when I have a little more time to look and I don't have to bribe Ami with goldfish and songs to stay in the cart.

Wouldn't you know it...

Of course Amelie is sick. I mean, I knew it was going to happen, but at least we got a couple of days in between the end of my sickness and the start of hers. During that time we met Abby and her kids at Open Gym for some well needed play time. The kids went bonkers. Sam was playing basket ball for a good portion of the morning while Amelie rode around in the cars and ran through the gym at maximum speed.





Sammy just turned 2, but I swear he already looks too big for that trike. Poor guy is sick too. What a bummer to big sick on your own birthday!

My crafty little kid was trying to escape from her booster seat and ended up busting the tray off and smashing her lip on the kitchen table. She cried and her mouth bled and she got a fat lip, but she was fine about 5 minutes later.



Very Angelina Jolie-esque.

So, she got sick on Friday night. Feverish, runny nose, sneezy, coughing... I felt so bad leaving for work. I went in and checked on her when I got home and I just wanted to crawl into her tiny little bed with her. Then she woke up at 4:30 and was shivering and super hot so I took her into bed with me where she slept (tossed and turned) for about an hour until she climbed out and went back to her own bed.

In order to keep her from driving her fever up with her never-ending energy, we let her watch TV so she would lay still. I still can't get the Care Bears theme song out of my head. Her fever finally broke yesterday and when she got up from her nap she was a sweaty mess. You should have seen her hair. It was so funny, she took a bath and laid around dripping boogers everywhere the rest of the day.

Poor kid still has quite the cough still though. She actually coughed so hard today that she threw up a little bit on the living room rug. The other day I bought some Honey Syrup stuff that eases her cough and gave her some. That helped immensely. She's been napping 2 times a day, went to sleep at 6:45 last night, and didn't wake up today until almost 10am.

We had a horror movie moment this morning. I could hear her up in her room at 4am, so I went in to get her and lay her back down, but went to the bathroom first. When I came out, she was standing in the dark hallway staring at me. If I hadn't just come out of the bathroom, I probably would've peed in my pants.

So, I have essentially been trapped at home for 2 weeks now and I am going stir crazy. I was content laying around and watching TV for a while. Then I got bored and spent a few days doing laundry and dishes and minor cleaning. Now I'm just climbing walls. I got an email from the Offbeat Bride (which is a site I LOVED when I was doing our wedding planning). They just launched a new blog called the Offbeat Home I saw a post yesterday called

"Turn a shitty corner of your home into an altar for an awesome thing"

The funny thing is, I have been thinking about all the shitty unused corners that I have in my house, so I took the challenge. This corner is usually occupied by lots of crap. The vacuum cleaner, baby clothes, a few weeks back it's where we stored the Christmas decorations...

Here are before and after pics.






It's not really an altar to anything, except maybe fruit which I have been craving during this pregnancy, and I guess I do love incense and plants, but really, it's more of a storage area. It's an old dresser of Tyler's I believe. I dragged it upstairs and filled it with all of our office supplies, cd's, computer and printer stuff, photos and photo albums. It looks much nicer that the shit that was piled there before. I used to think of that corner as the "place where I put stuff until it gets taken back to the basement" corner. Now it's the "stuff hiding, fruit bowl holding" corner that makes our dining room look much more cozy.

That super simple and fast project got me thinking that our house still looks like we just moved in. I've been afraid to put nails in the walls and have been waiting for the perfect idea before accidentally fucking something up. So this morning I went to the internet for some inspiration (and also because I love reading DIY blogs). Somehow I came across my new favorite blog, Young House Love. It's great. They got my mind racing with ideas and I immediately wanted to run out to do some thrift store shopping. The only thing stopping me was my poor sick little girl, but since I need instant gratification, I went down to the basement to find some things that I could use for free.

So, this morning I cleaned out the coat closet and the entry way, and gave the BIG EMPTY wall in our living room a new identity. I was inspired by the post "Create and instant mud room" since I have been meaning to do that since we moved in.

Here is what the closet looked like. Pretty bad.

Here is the top shelf filled with unused diaper bags, a backpack, jumper cables I was not aware that we owned, and hats 'n mittens galore.


Here is the floor, hard to see but just imagine shoes piled upon shoes with adult snow pants piled on top, extra tile, umbrellas, and some windshield washer fluid.

And all the coats smashed in haphazardly.



and after!






That closet cleanup was a lot of work. I don't know how we managed to shove so much junk in there. I brought a whole laundry basket of shoes and boots to the basement as well of lots of other crap we don't need in the closet. The big blank wall was much easier because I was mostly adding things to it.

Here is before, pretty plain and blah.



and after, much better. I'm going to add a couple of things over the shelf later, another shelf or a photo of our tandem bike. This summer I will paint and reinforce the shelf to make it a bit studier No more big naked awkward wall!


This will be my makeshift "mudroom" My dad made the shelf when he was a wee lad, I painted it white, flipped it upside down and added the hooks on the bottom. I'm thinking about putting a couple hooks on the wall above the stool for scarves and bags. We already have a spot to hang coats.




My favorite things about my projects are:
1. that I was able to store/hide a bunch of stuff creatively
2. we got our closet back and it looks neat
3. we finally have a place to hang our keys near the door
4. I am living my dream of having plants infesting every inch of my home
5. that it was all FREE and I put a bunch of junk we had in storage a new life
6. there is finally a place to put that pesky cord that connects my phone to my computer!



There are still a few more spaces and corners in my house that need to be remedied. In particular, this one.

I'll let you know when that happens.

I'm also on the hunt for the perfect hutch for the dining room, something smallish that I can paint and make awesome. I want to relive the large Ikea shelf of it's dining room duties once and for all. Maybe put it in the baby's room once we move our stuff upstairs.

I'm going to go cuddle with my sick little mouth breather now.