Just a Little Excited!!

Hello Everyone!

I am just a little excited. Just. A. Little. What has me as excited as I would be about seeing a marching band full of monkey's?  That would be this beauty right below!

You are probably sitting there wondering if I have truly lost my marbles! OK its a picture of fingerless gloves, yarn and nail polish, you are thinking. What is she raving about? I am ecstatic about what Soak Wash has just released!

Soak Box

Introducing the SOAKBOX! There are four different boxes. Lace Kelly, Clark Cable, Double Pointe Pink, and Cuff au Lait. The box includes a 3oz bottle of soakwash, special hand lotion scented to match the wash, nail polish and a skein of yarn dyed to match the nail polish, along with a pattern for fingerless gloves to match! Is this a great box set or what?? Are you beginning to feel the fever of excitement? Are your fingers twitching to get a hold of this box? I know mine are! I can't even decide which one I like best! I believe I am going to have to order all of them! They are available to order on their website(just click the link below the photo), however it will not be shipped out till June. But that is not that far away! Or just walk into your local yarn store and ask for the box by name!  I do not believe I have ever looked forward to June coming as much as I am right now!  In fact I think this box has just cured my little knitting slump. I mentioned it here a few posts back.

This box is brilliant! I agree with the gang at SoakWash that these boxes are here to stay for long while! I already have a list a mile long of all the friends I want to get this box for, seeing as how it is the perfect present for any knitter! Is there anything you have just discovered that has you drooling?  Have a great time drooling over this box and have a great weekend!

Till Next Time,
Amanda

Rub a dub tub...

Hello Everyone!

I can knock off two more things on that challenge list!  While I was cleaning today I took a few extra minuets in the bathroom to take care of the medicine cabinet and under the sink. It was nothing spectacular and only took me about 20 mins.

Here is the Medicine Cabinet:

It needed to be cleaned more than anything. Of course I wanted to dress it up a bit, but time and money are working against me this week.  I will have to save that for another time. This is something like how I want my cabinet to look.

Courtesy of BHG.com

I want to find some cute paper and put it on the back of my cabinet I also want to find a picture or something that I can cover the cabinet with. Now for under the sink...

I already had corralled a lot of my things into baskets and storage containers. So it just needed a good cleaning and a small touch up. Now its all clean.

 I have my hair dryer and hair straightener in the basket to the left I have all my hair product in that blue basket. My makeup bag next to it. All other bathroom essentials like nail polish, makeup remover, cough and cold medicine, extra tooth paste and brushes sit in this lovely storage box that I scored at Wal-mart for $3 on sale.

That's it. Told you it wasn't too spectacular but its clean and orderly. I guess we can't have glitter and glam all the time. Now on to working on the big project! I will fill you in on that later.

Till Next Time,
Amanda

I now pronounce the kitchen done!

Hello Everyone!

How was everyone's weekend? I forgot to ask that in my last post yesterday. I was looking ahead at the next few challenges on Toni's blog and I saw that there were several on the kitchen coming up. Like the pantry, fridge, freezer, and spice cabinet. Well since my last post was on clearing up the counter and shelf that divides my kitchen and living room I thought I would stick with the kitchen theme and get the rest of the challenges involving the kitchen done and out of the way.

First on the list is the pantry.  My pantry is also not ideal. But I think you may have guessed that was coming from the other posts where I have mentioned I am not in my dream kitchen. However its is what I have and so what I have must be organized. Here is what my pantry looked like before.

BEFORE

Everything was just crammed in there. Very hard to find anything. Not exactly helpful to doing meal planning. As per the routine I pulled everything out and took inventory.  It looks so much better now.  Its still a deep deep cupboard and that makes it hard to get it just the way I want it. I prefer shallower cupboards for a pantry.  Then you can't stock to much and you can see exactly what you have and know when you have run out of and item. Some day in the future I will do a kitchen remodel that I will be all to happy to share with you.

AFTER

Now the rest of the kitchen challenges are pretty easy because they are all ready done! I can't show you any before pictures because I don't have any. But I can show you current photos of how I have already organized and maintained my Fridge, Freezer and Spice Cabinet.

Freezer

Fridge

Spice Cabinet

Baking cupboard

The fridge and freezer looks a little sparse but there are only two people living in this house so I don't keep much on hand.  I believe I can now finally call the kitchen done, at least as far as being organized.  There is still a lot of style to be added to this kitchen. But that is a story for another time. What have you done in your kitchen lately? Have you made any tweaks to it lately, or have you gone and done a complete overhaul?

Till Next Time,
Amanda

A Knitting Note

This is what I woke up to this morning.

I received a concerned letter. Here is what it says...
          
 Dearest Amanda,
         We know you have been quiet busy with home organization and work. And don't get us wrong the place is looking great! The craft room especially. We love that we will be having our very own room to hang out in. But frankly we have not been feeling the love here lately. We are concerned about your creative knitting spark. You used to hold us close and tight. We would hear your shouts of glee over a new yarn or pattern, but they are distant whispers now. Please come back to us!
Signed Yarn and Needles

Then while I was in the craft room checking things over I saw this.

I scrambled back to the kitchen. Clearly my mind was playing tricks on me and I needed some strong coffee to snap me out of this. Despite the strong coffee I still saw what my yarn was thinking. OK. This. is. serious.  I mean I know I have been a bit preoccupied of late with all things house related, but I didn't think it was that bad. However may Yarn and Needles is right. Could I be losing my spark? Just last night I had this strong desire to cast on a new project. Yet no new project came to mind. I could not think of a single pattern that just grabbed me and sucked me right in.  But I can't be losing my spark. Knitters don't do that. Not knitters that fell as hard as I did for knitting.  Its just a slump. Or the results of an over crowded mind that makes it look like I have lost my spark for knitting.

So Yarn and Needles, hang in there. I am coming back I promise!

Till Next Time,

Amanda

I have Sprouts

Hello Everyone,

I have been working out in the yard this past week and my labor is starting to show. It doesn't look like quite the jungle out there anymore. I have been doing a lot of pruning and just plain old yanking out of dead plants. All this yard work reminded me that I needed to share an up date on my salad basket.  I have sprouts and little leaves, now more like little plants. I may actually have a green thumb yet. I am so happy.

Spinach

Lettuce

 Have a great evening!

Till Next Time,

Amanda

Under the Sea, er Sink?

Hello Everyone,

Here I am with the long awaited post.  Hope you are all having a great start to the weekend. What are your plans?  Today's challenge was Day 5 Under the Sink.  This challenge was relatively simple for me. Yeah! I like that I am getting something simple. In fact I didn't even clean under the sink, because well it is already in pretty good shape. I know there I go again breaking or bending the rules. But I am forming a habit and that's what matters right? 

Instead of doing under the sink. I chose to concentrate on my counter that divides the kitchen and living room. It has become yet another dumping ground for junk to accumulate. Also it has an odd shelf right on the end. They are tiny, no more that two inches in width. Its a hard space to work with. However with a little tweaking I think I may finally have this space in order.  Here is what is looked like before with all the junk surrounding it. All this small stuff didn't seem to have a home. It was starting to encroach upon the area where I do my prep work for meals and baking, making doing either of those things a nightmare. Out all of it came, I wiped everything down and now this is what I have as an end result...

 I love how clean and crisp everything looks now. As you can see from the above photo I found a great use for those shallow shelves on the end of my counter. They hold my cookbooks perfectly, which I love because I am a visual person, so if something is out in the open I am more apt to use it.

Not to long ago I was reading Megan's blog Honey We're Home, on her post about their breakfast bar. I was inspired by what she did, and wanted something similar for myself. I had the zebra tray already along with the little yellow box. I figured why couldn't I put my coffee pot and Coffee bean canister on the tray along with the coffee filters in the yellow box.  I love the way it came together!  The zebra print is clashing a bit with the theme in the kitchen and the new theme in the living room, so I am now in the market for some great coordinating fabric that I can recover the tray with.

That wraps up day 5. Have a great weekend everyone!

Till Next Time,

Amanda

K.I.S.S.

Hello Everyone,

How has your week been?  Good? Bad? Exciting? Exhausting? A little of everything. Mine has been quite productive. So much so that I haven't even taken a little time to sit down and write to you all about it(I know shame shame. I will try not to overwhelm you now).  When I first sat down to write this post out to you, I didn't know how to gather my thoughts or what to say to express my feelings. I felt stuck in a wordless moment. Then while I was reading along in my Google reader, hoping the juices would start flowing, I found the answer to my feelings. Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick hit it exactly on the head.  She was having a moment, just like I have been having a moment too.   I felt like my life was more stressful than it had to be, because I was not organized. I couldn't find my paper work, the house looked like a constant disaster zone(Sarah talks about this in her post. I highly recommend you check it out). I needed some help.  What I am trying to say is that I have hopes of  gaining some structure with this organizing challenge.  I am not all the way there yet. However I am starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

There was a saying I heard off of HGTV one time that has always stuck with me. The Designer on the show said whenever you are doing design in your home, or anything really, think K.I.S.S.  Keep It Simple Stupid. WOW! So simple and so important. Any time I start to feel overwhelmed with tasks around the house, I think of this saying and its like I am instantly calmed down. My brain tends to like to run away from me with wild and crazy ideas and before I know it I have complicated things when they didn't have to be. So K.I.S.S is what kept running thru my head as I did the next series of the 21 day challenge.

I ended up doing a combo of Day 4, Day 6 and Day 19 all into one! I got really zealous on Tuesday, having a day off from work and I wanted to break thru and get some stuff accomplished. It made more sense to spend my time doing the Linen closet, the Dresser Drawers and The Master closet because they are all in the same room(I know I said I wasn't going to go out of order but I just couldn't help myself on this one. I was already in the closet working on the linen self it seemed ridiculous not to do the rest of the closet too!).  My house being small and not a whole lot of shelf space readily available I actually turned one of the shelves in my closet into the linen shelf. Which works out fine because I don't have a whole lot linen anyway. Lets get to the before shots. Are you prepared for what you are about to see? No really. You may want to grab a chair and have a seat before you scroll down any further.

The Master Closet BEFORE:

You might remember seeing this picture from my Day 1 post, as I cleaned the floor of the closet for my project. Right now the linen shelf doesn't even exist. Its completely over run by shirts and some books.  Here is what the dresser top and drawers looked like.

 You can barely see the TV and DVD player that is on top of the dresser and the drawers are so crammed in there everything comes out a wrinkled mess. To say that I am ashamed is understatement. I would get one large scolding from my mama if she were to see the state of those drawers.  You know the drill by now, out everything came.

I got so lost into the cleaning and sorting that this was the only picture I snapped of everything before I set to put everything away. Seeing it cleared of everything was great. I really need to paint those cupboards. The whole room really, but that is a different project for another day. Remember K.I.S.S.  I weeded thru the clothes that were on the shelves and in the drawers. I got rid of two large trash bags of clothes. Stuff that we did not like or did not fit went into that bag. Its going to Goodwill. Now for the great reveal. I am so happy with how it turned out.

The Master Closet and Lined Shelf AFTER:

I found the green bins at Target for just $2 a piece. My clothes now hang by color.  The curtains I found at Walmart in the clearance section for $7 a pop. They are just the perfect pop of color that the room needed.

Dresser Top AFTER:

I absolutely love how the dresser top came out. The receipts got booted out to be sorted in the office and filed away.  Notice something missing? The TV and DVD player! They were not being used, so I moved them to my craft room. By doing that I cleared up space to put down my mirrored tray that I got at Target on sale for $11 five months ago. Now my perfume and bracelet holder have a pretty place to sit, with my earrings near by. The little box I also got at Target for $1(don't you just love Target?) its the perfect place for Dear Husband to land his things when he comes home in the evening. The flowers I got from my mama. I didn't have the room to keep them in my room before, but with this little round up I finally have  a place to put them.  The drawers shaped up nicely too.

 Whew! Are you as tired as I am from all that? Now all the room needs is a little paint and I think we can call it complete! So I am scratching off Day 4, Day 6 and Day 19 off my list. Tomorrow it will be Day 5 and Day 7. And it will be tomorrow even if it kills me! Have a great night.

Till Next Time,
Amanda

The Challenge of completing Challenge #3

I kind of feel like I was plucked off the surface of the earth. Each time I tried to even think about sitting down to write up this post, something would happen. I had to dash out the door on never ending errands, Dear Husband needed me to track down something, I finally got around to taking care of my name change and driver's license fiasco(yeah!! doing my little happy dance for a I am able to drive again), oh and not to forget that I had to go to work too. Some how in all that mess I did manage to do challenge number 3- The Tupperware Cupboard. I actually did start this bad boy on Monday I just didn't get to finish till yesterday. I feel like I am heading more towards the 21 Weeks Challenge instead of 21 days. Hopefully with some of the big things out of the way this week I can actually get on track(again). I digress, on to today's post.

I have a small kitchen. Really small. OK probably not as small as some kitchens in say Europe, but its considerably smaller than the last few kitchens I have had. So much so that I actually had the problem of trying to figure out where I was going to put things and make them fit. In my last two houses I had so much kitchen I had empty cupboards. My kitchen is not the best designed in my opinion. I know I am not an architect but I have to function in this kitchen and its not making the cut. I have about the right about of cupboards, but only four little drawers in the whole kitchen! I had the hardest time getting my silverware and other utensils to fit. And the one spot that is considerable in size, to hold pantry items is awful. The cabinets are too deep to be truly effective, so it kinda becomes the black hole of cupboards. However till I can get my dream kitchen, which looks like these photos, I have got to make due.

You might notice a theme here with these kitchens. I want light and airy and openness with my kitchen. I really can't wait to obtain a very similar look.  In the mean time though, I am so glad for Day 3's challenge. There has been one particular cupboard that has been in desperate need of an overhaul.

BEFORE

 This cupboard had become the dumping ground for things I use, but not very often, in the kitchen. Its been an eye sore and I have needed to get to it for some time now. As per protocol I pulled everything out.

Here you can see what I was talking about above. This space could be really great if it wasn't so deep and the shelves structured the way they are. Its very hard to fit things in there because the openings are so, well square. I am happy to say there wasn't anything I had to donate or toss. When we first moved into our house I went thru everything as I unpacked(since the kitchen was so small). If I had doubles of anything, or I didn't swoon at the sight of it out it went. So I just needed to corral things and move some things to better more suitable places. I am a very visual person. If I don't see something out in the open then I tend not to use it. Thus my love for open shelving. The way I see it is open shelving helps keep you simple, clean and honest. With this in mind I moved my cookbooks to a little shelf  out in the open so I will be motivated to use them more.

AFTER

Here is the after photo. Oh so much better(I know this should not be a surprise). I bought a lid rack for my pot lids, used a a butter danish cookie can to hold my kitchen towels, a basket to hold my potatoes, and a cookie sheet to hold my flour can, rolling pin, and small serving plate. I think this will actually stay clean and organized for a long while. It seems pretty hard to mess it up. I just need to make up some labels, and redo the danish cookie can up in some pretty paper.

So lets see this transformation again....

Now time for challenge 4-The Linen Closet. This should be interesting, since I actually have to make one from scratch.

Till Next Time,
Amanda

P.S. I realize that it doesn't look like I did a Tupperware cupboard, and in a way I didn't. I have a Tupperware drawer and it was already orderly, this was the next closest thing.

Coffee, Knitting and Everything Else In Between

Hello Everyone!

Hope your weekend is coming to a pleasant end. I just returned home from my little trip out of town and I wanted to pop by here and tell you all hello!  Now comes the task of unpacking and putting everything away. I sorta don't want to. But that would be counter-intuitive of the challenge I am doing this month to get more organized.

I had a wonderful time seeing my family and friends. I even made a few new friends on the way. It was too short of a visit, but then again when does a visit ever feel long enough, especially when it comes to seeing loved ones? Some days I hate that I live so far from family. However it does make me appreciate our time together that much more!

While visiting there was some time for coffee and knitting.

I love this mug my sister has!!! Its absolutely perfect. Then I had to take a little walk downtown and visit some of the quaint shops I have not been too in a long while.

 Its a small town so getting to downtown takes about two minuets! I stopped and got some pizza from the local pizza place. I love their cheesy gooey pizza!

My sis gave me the best gift ever! Some of her yarn stash and one of her knitting books! I died and went to heaven! That is love right there! Not to just give me yarn because she knows I am totally fiber obsessed, but to have given it to me from her own knitterly stash. That means something!  Mom happened to have the green paint I have been looking for to do one of my projects that she let me bring home with me, along with some seeds for flowers to put in my yard, so that is some future projects I will be talking about here very soon.  Not to mention there is going to be a little house tour and review, so check back for that!

My weekend has been very full and very fulfilling. Family and Friends are well. The service for the dear Friend that is no longer with us was beautiful. I am happy. Have a wonderful rest of the night. I am looking forward to getting back to my organize challenge starting tomorrow!

Till Next Time,

 Amanda