The Spice Cupboard

BEFORE...

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite gadgets...

The TIMER for my mood lighting in the kitchen!
It clicks on in the morning to greet me when I wake up, and then clicks on again in the evening when it starts to get dark.

THE TOOLS

THE PROCEDURE

We've cleaned out enough cupboards by now that I think you all know the drill.

I should really pick up some shorter extension cords.

I probably don't need 3 containers of the same spice so I condensed the 3 down to 1.

There was quite a bit of condensing, relocating, and of course, chucking.

AFTER...

That about does it for my cupboards...the rest are in pretty good shape. I should probably move onto the drawers.

I really like D's advice for today...

"Remember, Mom, you're not the family doormat. Don't let your family walk all over you. Don't let them force you into slave duty. Have some practical family policies. Insist upon their cooperation and respect. They'll think more of you because of it.
Until next week, repeat over and over in your mind, "I am not the family doormat! I am not the family doormat! I am not the family doormat"

Faux Painting the Cupboards/Shelves

BEFORE...

When we moved into this house we had to almost completely gut the kitchen. We kept the cabinets but had to rearrange them all over the place, leaving several of the sides with unfinished wood showing. My dad put these shelves up to utilize the dead space between the cabinets.

I never got around to painting the shelves (not the tops or the bottoms) or the sides of the cabinets. I needed to paint them to match the faces of the cabinets and that was a challenge I just wasn't up to...until today!

THE TOOLS

Today is a dessert day (woo hoo!)

I have a little (big) sugar problem, I'm addicted to it. So I have to set boundaries and my current boundary is only having 2 desserts a week so I decided to make my favorite crockpot dessert--5 Layer Brownies!! They are amazing...you should try them!
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/04/crockpot-5-layer-brownie-recipe.html

Just be sure and read Steph's comments about these...if you use a big crockpot it cooks faster around the outside. This is not a problem for me because I just eat around the outside as it cooks :) By the time the kids got home from school I'm pretty sure I'd eaten half of it...like I said, I'm addicted.



THE PROCEDURE


OK, the secret is out...I tend to rig things, I'm what you might call a "rigger".
Sadly, the husband is too...it's a problem, we know.
These cords tie into my rope lights on the top of the cabinets (you may have seen them in Monday's "Above the Cupboards" post). I didn't want to bug my dad (who just so happens to be an electrician--and would have been happy to put the lights in for me) so the husband and I rigged them up years ago and they've been providing fabulous night and early morning mood lighting ever since!

I cleared the shelves and taped the extension cords out of the way (looks like I should have used the blue tape when I painted the red!)

I'm actually not a big fan of painters tape.
I have a pretty steady hand and it's usually faster for me to take my time as I'm painting rather than spend time taping things off...but in this case it was faster to use the tape.
First I painted everything a golden color (and forgot to take a picture).


While the paint was drying I cleaned this guy, and ate more brownies (I ate today's dessert all afternoon).

Let the faux painting begin!

Once the honey color was dry I mixed black paint with some water to make it a little more runny.

I brushed the entire space with the black paint.

And then wiped it off with a damp cloth.

I mostly wiped up and down...and just worked with it until it became the look I wanted.

AFTER...

Are you impressed?

I was totally excited with the way it turned out!

Can you tell how much better it looks?

(Oops! Forgot to remove some of that blue tape)

I wish you could all see it in person, I don't know that the picture does it justice.

The picture below gives you a better idea of what it looks like.

D says special projects serve as incentives to get work done, and as I mentioned, I've been putting this project off for 4 years so I needed 5 layer brownies and an incentive to get me through...so my special project/incentive for today was to be able to put together these...

for our upcoming family vacation (thank heavens for rule #1).

There will be a total of 28 of us wearing these very cool (and maybe a little cheesy) Incredibles shirts!
Tune in tomorrow when we tackle the spice cupboard!

More Cupboards!

I need to thank Trish (from our Desperate "Dirty House" Wives Club) for inspiring me to clean out this cupboard! Ever since she mentioned cleaning out from under her sink I couldn't stop thinking about the mess mine was in.

BEFORE...

THE TOOLS

THE PROCEDURE
Thank goodness I decided to clean out this cupboard...I discovered a little leak problem.

Yes, those brown spots are mold. It looked even worse in real life. Thankfully it was just a loose part...I tightened it up and it was as good as new. And the mold cleaned up quite nicely.

Who knew so much stuff could be packed in there.


Does one really need 2 million plastic bags?? I sent most of them to the recycle bin, put the water bottles out in the garage, and chucked a few things (that is becoming my favorite part of all my projects). D says HAVE THE COURAGE TO THROW AWAY.
You bet I do D! For those of you who currently do not have this courage...try it, you'll like it!



AFTER...



I went totally out of my comfort zone today and did a little over achieving by cleaning out not one, but TWO cupboards!

BEFORE...

I haven't used this since I nursed my 2nd baby (she's now 13)...to the DI it goes!

I put all my canning jars at the top of the cupboard. Since the only thing I can is freezer jam I don't need to get to them very often.

This freed up almost an entire shelf in another cabinet :)

AFTER...

I can almost hear all my little gadgets thanking me for de-cluttering them and finding the strays a home.

Today I will leave you with a little BBA--if a cold, allergies, or your sinus's are getting you down, I highly recommend you pick up one of these...

It will bring sweet relief, I promise!

Painting Around the Window

Last Summer my 15 year old put one of these through my kitchen window...

while trying to hit one of these

(this is one the dog got hold of)

"I don't know how it happened Mom, I was just winding up, and the bat flew right out of my hands!"

BEFORE...


Come in for a closer look...

Months ago, when the window was replaced, I never took care of all the touch-up work and it's been bugging me ever since.

THE TOOLS

THE PROCEDURE

Normally I would use a smaller brush but I didn't do a very good paint job around the entire window to begin with, so I thought I'd give the whole thing a face lift. (By the way, this is not the faux painting job I promised, it's coming, later in the week.)

BBA--Take Time or Make Time!

Ok, to be honest, I stole this from my dad. Whenever we start a project he says "Take time or make time"...and what he means is, take the time to do the prep work and clean up throughout a project or you make the time later because it takes longer.

I always suit up in my old painting clothes before painting but with this being such a small project I thought I'd be like Lisa LaPorta on Designed to Sell and paint in my nice clothes (Have you ever noticed how all those designers never wear painting clothes and always look so clean and lovely while they paint?).

As you can see, I should have taken time to change into paint clothes because then I had to stop and make time to clean my pants--and then go put on these...

They have seen me through a lot of painting projects over the last 13 years.

AFTER...

I can't speak for all of you but I am really getting tired of these kitchen projects...D says to "STICK TO A SPECIFIC JOB UNTIL IT IS COMPLETED" so I will take her advice and carry on in the kitchen...but it's so unlike me, not to jump around from project to project.

Above the Cupboards

D says A Mother's Motto could be: "EVERY WORD I SPEAK WILL ADD TO THE PEACE AND HAPPINESS OF MY HOME."

After this project my motto was, "IF I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY I WON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL."

I cannot tell a lie, I hated this project. Every minute of it.

BEFORE...

Not so bad from a distance...look closer...

These babies were once a nice shade of barn red...until the dust got to them. Yes, I know they are cheesy but I made them when I was first married, it's rare that I get crafty so I'm kind of attached to them.

As I'm taking this picture the 5 year old says, "Make sure they can see that cobweb mom". Such a good helper she is! I can see I need to work on my photography skills, everything looks like it's tipping forward.

I love this little guy...poor thing was just caked with dust.

Take a guess at what that that brick is sitting on top of...

I know what you're thinking...but in my defense, in order to see some of the items on my cupboards they need a little lift.

Apparently 4 years ago when I put up all this stuff I was feeling real creative in what I used for the "lifts". There used to be a tiny little bird house that sat on top. Take a guess at what this gadget is...

It's not every day you see one of these laying around, I'm not sure how I ended up with it.

THE TOOLS

My 5 year old loves to give me ideas for my "splash of yellow". Today, as I was making eggs for breakfast she said "An egg would be a perfect splash of yellow". I think she's right!

THE PROCEDURE

The plastic vinery (I think I made that word up) was so dust infested that I just threw it into the sink...it didn't go well. All the grapes leaked purple and fell apart into tiny little white balls. Thankfully the vinery with sunflowers did fine and cleaned up quite nicely.

All my dried flowers and potpourri were beyond saving.

Especially after this...

crawled out from under some of the flowers.

At this point I lost all patience.

I vacuumed, washed, chucked, DI'd, and wiped as fast as I could.

I was wishing I hadn't gotten ready for the day as I worked up quite a sweat.

AFTER...

Look a little closer...

I certainly wasn't going to eat that after all these years so I thought I might as well put it back to good use.