Cleaning and Organizing

If you enjoy Pinterest as much as I do, you have probably seen all the pins about organizing and cleaning different areas of the house. I saw this pin a few weeks ago, and it inspired me to clean our pantry.

Source: dollarstoremom.com via Catie on Pinterest

Amazing right???

This morning I planned to go to a nearby town to shop a little, but my Gus woke up with a slight fever. So I thought it best to stay in town. I got us ready and then drove down to Family Dollar. (I know.... if you know me well you know this doesn't happen often). I got just a few things to help me organize. This pin said they got all the supplies at the Dollar Store, but they only had a few things at our Family Dollar like these. I ran by Sonic on my way home, put Gus down for his nap, and started organizing.

 Here is what I started with: 

Please tell me that I'm not the only one with a scary pantry like this!!! I pulled everything out, threw away everything out of date. Then I started organizing. Sure, I think it would be fun to put everything in a separate bin, but that just wasn't practical for me and my pantry. My shelves are very short and not very deep. So I just got this basket, and some plastic bins to put a few things in. (basket- $6, set of 4 plastic bins not pictured- $6)

 I also had to tackle the bottom of the pantry- oh how I hate having a million plastic grocery bags. If I could just remember to take me cloth ones more often!

And here is the finished product- the tops shelves. I put all my sugar (brown and powdered) in a bin, and then I put all my cookie cutters and cupcake liners together in one. I already had the red plastic bin and that's where I keep potatoes and onions. I also put things that come in small packets, like instant oatmeal and microwave popcorn in a bin as well. 

And I cleaned up the floor! This bottom shelf is one of my favorite things now. I used the basket I bought to put chips, snacks and bread in. And I threw a bunch of the plastic bags away. And this is my poor little sick helper. 

I am glad I got this finished, and hopefully we can keep it this way.

I also cleaned out our fridge, which included take out the shelves and scrubbing them. I had this on my list to do last week and didn't do it. It's amazing how your fridge doesn't look stuffed when you have it cleaned out! Hopefully I can keep this clean too!

   

I hope this might give you some practical ideas for your pantry. I didn't get mine to look like a Pinterest picture, but it works for us!

Over the last few months, I have been trying to keep our home better organized and cleaner. I think this makes our life as a family easier. It makes me feel good when I have things straight, and I don't have to constantly walk by clutter. I still have a long way to go, but I am doing things one step at a time. What I did this morning I hope will relieve a little stress in our home. When I get things organized, it makes me happy! :)

Our Kitchen

I'm excited to be linking again with Kelly's Korner to show my kitchen! You can look HERE for my living room from last Friday.

 We spend a lot of time in our kitchen! We live in a small town, so we eat at home most of the time- there are very few options for eating out! My husband and I both like to cook. This first picture is the table that is in our kitchen area. Our kitchen/dining/living rooms are all one big room.

Across from our table is where we keep our son's highchair, and we also have a kitchen for our son which a friend was so sweet to give to us. He enjoys playing in his kitchen while I cook!

Last year, I was so blessed to inherit my grandmother's china. When I did, my husband bought me this beautiful china cabinet which I love.

I have my beautiful grandmother's china on the middle shelf. It is such beautiful bright flowers, I just love it.

On the top shelf, we have the china we got when we got married, which I also love.

And here is the rest of our kitchen! My son Gus decided to start snooping in a drawer while I was taking pictures, and my dog Bear also wanted to make an appearance.

One of the things we love about our kitchen is that it has so much cabinet space! We had a lot of kitchen stuff when we moved in, and there is plenty of room for everything! I enjoy having a window to the backyard over the sink, and we have a bird feeder outside the window.

This kitchen has been great for us. I enjoy finding new things to cook for my family. You can find many of my recipes under the recipe tab at the top of the page. Since we are talking about kitchens, I wanted to share my favorite cookbook too.

I got this cookbook when I got married. I think it is the best overall cookbook. It has a big variety of recipes and we have liked almost everything I have made from it. If you need a good basic cookbook, I highly recommend Betty Crocker!

Our Living Room

I have been looking forward to linking up with Kelly's Korner for a long time! I thought it would be so fun to share some pictures of our house and also be a motivation to get things really cleaned up!

We have lived in our house for 2 years. When we were looking for houses, there weren't a lot of choices in the small town we live in. But- when we walked into our house, we loved it. It has been the perfect house for us. One thing we liked about it was the floors and paint colors. They were all our taste,  so we didn't have to change a thing when we moved in!

Our Living Room

 This is looking into our living room from the entry. Gus had just climbed into the chair! I used to have more decorative items on the coffee table, but someone can reach everything now! One of my favorite things is decorating for Fall and Christmas!

These toys are usually scattered everywhere! This doorway goes to our entry. 

One thing I love about our house is that it is so open. The living /dining/ kitchen is all connected as one big room. 

We love having a fireplace!!! There is nothing much better on a cold night than a warm fire. Most all of the accent pieces I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby! 

We are so lucky to have several of my dad's painting in our home. The large floral painting in this picture is one he did- so talented!

The view of our fireplace is usually covered by a playhouse :)

And keeping it real- this house works well as toy storage when company is coming or you need to take a picture ;)

Our house has been just great for us. It is definitely not picked up like these pictures all the time!

Guest Room Makeover

We finally finished redecorating our guest room! We are very happy with how it turned out, and I am excited to share it with you.

The room was a taupe color when we moved in. It was a really nice color, but we were ready for a change. There were also a bunch of nail holes that needed patching. Here are a couple of before pictures:

And here is after:

We found the bedspread at TJ Maxx. We already had the lamps, and I have had that bed almost my whole life! We still need to decorate the walls some.

My parents inherited the antique desk and dresser, and they have been in my room for pretty much my whole life. I love them! The two small pictures on the wall came from my grandparent's house. The green plant I got at Hobby Lobby, and the decorative artichokes are from Target.

We are very happy with how it turned out, it makes me want to spend more time in there. Our first guest in there will be here tomorrow! (my parents)

Rearranging and a Recipe

For several days I have been wanting to rearrange our living room. I think it is fun to just move things around every once in a while and give the room a different feel. We are very lucky that our living room is quite large, so we can move our furniture around in different ways. After several tries, this is how it ended up. This first picture is from the entry:

I was looking on the blog to try to find pictures of the room the way it was before, and I didn't find any good ones. However, we had the two chairs near the entry in front of the fire place, and the couches were by the tv, which was in the corner by the windows at the front. As you can tell, I didn't pick up everything before I took the picture. This is what our house normally looks like!

My parents are coming to visit tonight! They haven't been to our house since August, so I am excited for them to be here. They also haven't seen Gus crawl yet so that will be really fun!

The dogs have now discovered that Gus eats puffs when he is in his highchair, and that they occasionally fall to the floor. Now they stand under his highchair and wait for them to drop. Sometimes they will get stuck on the ledges of the chair, and Bear can see them:

I made one of my favorite recipes last night- Shrimp Scampi with Pasta. I got in such a hurry cooking dinner that I forgot to take a picture, but I still wanted to share this recipe with you. It doesn't take long at all! I got this recipe from one of my mom's Southern Living Cookbooks. A few notes about the recipe. First, I do not follow the measurements exactly. I usually just use about 1/2 lb of shrimp or whatever I have on hand. Also, this recipe does have wine it it. All the alcohol cooks out if you are concerned about that. I use cooking white wine. It can be found in the grocery store near the vinegar. You can just keep it in your pantry to use in food. It smells amazing when it is cooking and tastes great. But, I have made it without the wine before and that is ok too.

Shrimp Scampi
2 lbs. medium shrimp (I use less usually)
1/4 c. chopped green onion
1/4 c. parsley (usually just use like 2 tsp of dried parsley)
Chopped garlic
3/4 c. butter or margarine
1/4 c. dry white wine (I use cooking wine)
2 T. lemon juice
3/4 t. salt

Saute green onions, parsley, and garlic in melted butter on the stove until onions are tender. Reduce the heat to low (i sometimes do low-medium), add shrimp. Cook 3-5 minutes until shrimp are done (will be pink color). Remove shrimp. Add remaining ingredients, simmer 2 minutes. Put shrimp back in to warm. Serve over cooked pasta. I also add cheese to the top (mozzarella, Parmesan).

I can't do a post without a picture of my little man. He has such pretty blue eyes like his daddy:

It is only a few days until Thanksgiving!!! I am getting excited about cooking and eating. I plan to post soon about what we usually do on Thanksgiving day, I love it.