29 June 2011

20 June 2011

13 June 2011

Landing Zone

When we come home, we park in the basement garage and then immediately trek upstairs. The first thing you encounter when you open the main floor door is the kitchen table, so that's where we usually dump all of our stuff. So this is what our kitchen table usually looks like. 

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Not optimal for eating. Obviously we needed a landing zone - a place to drop our bags, keys, and anything else we bring in. Somewhere not on the kitchen table. I was perusing a new-to-me blog this week (great blog - go check it out!), I ran across this post & picture. 


I immediately pinned it and an idea started to form. You see, we have a similar black cabinet, right beside the kitchen, that we use as a home office space. Unfortunately, ours was a MESS! 

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Although thanks to the doors it was mostly concealed. 

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It had been on my "To Do" list for weeks to clean it up, so I jumped in to organize, purge, and clean. It was really dusty. 

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Now it's SO much better! I even moved Little Man's coloring supplies so he could easily access them.

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Now it was time to add a bit more organization to transform it into a "Landing Zone". The wood is too thin to use screws, so I bought these command products on a lovely solo-trip to Target.

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Key Hooks on the inside of the door to help organize the miscellaneous bowl of keys we previously had.

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Plus a few large metal hooks...

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complete the transformation!

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The top basket is for my husband to drop his wallet, keys, & phone. The middle hook is for my purse. The bottom hook is just the right height for Little Man to hang up his little backpack.

These hooks are supposed to hold up to 5lbs. I thought that would be strong enough to hold my purse, but it did fall the other day. Oops! Maybe it's time to clean out my purse.

Now my kitchen table is actually ready to be used for eating!

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07 June 2011

Flip Flop Woes & Wins

Last year I saw an adorable Interchangeable Flip Flop tutorial on Make It & Love It (one of my most favorite crafty blogs!). Her's looked so cute, but my version just didn't cut it.

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I never really wore them and now, a year later, the adhesive isn't working anymore.

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Bummer. They were in my Goodwill pile room (yes, after the garage cleanout a few weeks ago, I have a room FULL ready for a garage sale or Goodwill, currently Goodwill is winning out). 

Fast forward to today...I ran across this tutorial on Ucreate from The Mother Huddle.

Flip Flop Tut

Once I saw that, I knew the failed flops had to be rescued from the Goodwill room. A little cutting and knotting later, and voila! My own adorable pair!

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I like this messy look, but the next pair I'm going to sew together first for less mess & threads. The anal retentiveness gets to me sometimes.

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They look really cute on, but I'm going to spare you the pictures with my feet. You're welcome.

01 June 2011

Recipe Review: Chicken Pizza

I had a few pieces of grilled chicken leftover from the Memorial Day cookout that needed to be eaten. Combine that with a few packets of pizza dough yeast that needed to be used and I came up with an easy, delicious supper, mostly adapted from here.


Here are the basics:
1. Make your pizza dough (or use the kind from a can) & bake for 5-7 minutes.
2. Brush with ranch dressing, then layer mozzarella cheese, shredded chicken, diced tomatoes & red peppers (had both on hand that needed to be used), then top with cheddar cheese.
3. Bake until it's done (about 13 more minutes in our case).

This was SO yummy and SO easy! Love that it used up lots of stuff in the fridge that needed to go.