Last week was all about creativity for me. I wrote a ton of
resources for work, I did some fun personal writing, and I even did a little
decorating in the house! My creativity cup was full-to-overflowing by the end
of the week, and I think it showed in my countenance. 😊
The home
decorating was inspired by a combination of YouTube videos playing in the
background while I did other work and some Pinterest suggestions. I wanted to
work on the kitchen using (mostly) only the things I already owned.
Our kitchen
is small, which is typically okay with us. Every now and then, during a big cooking
extravaganza, that gets annoying, but for the most part, it’s fine. However, I
hold firmly to the belief that it is only fine because we are careful to keep it
clean and organized. Now that we have lived here just over two years, I’ve
learned pretty well what items are used often and which ones could be stored in
farther reaches (or even other rooms) because they don’t get as much playing
time.
I
started with the kitchen island. When this first moved into our house about a
year ago, I didn’t store anything on it at all. Eventually I decided it looked
lonely, and I thought it needed a little décor. I used this small pie plate
that was Mom’s and added some candles and faux flowers. It’s worked really well
for several months, but I needed something different for some new scenery.
So I
borrowed this larger metal tray, which was a gift to me from Ryan’s mom, years
ago. It’s been living in the dining room area, but I brought it in here, and I
also brought in this pineapple plant we’ve had for a few years. It wasn’t
thriving in the room where it had been living (not enough light) so I cut off
the dead leaves, added some fresh soil, and we’ll see how it does in this
space!
I also read in this post that it’s
great to have a snack station in the house. Time will tell if that’s a good
idea or dangerous. 😊 I grabbed a couple of glass jars from the
cabinet. Both happened to be empty at the moment, so I put my animal crackers
in one and Ryan’s pretzels in the other. I also have this little Ball jar that
my friend Amber left for us years ago (filled with scotcharoos) to welcome us
home from a vacation. It holds small chocolates now, and I thought those three
comprised a good snack station.
I do use this island often for
cooking and church work, so the tray can easily be moved when I need to do a
project.
This little counter space has
always been a struggle for me. It’s so small that nothing fits there as
beautifully as I’d like. For the last year or so, I’ve stored these wheat jars
there, with the bread box in front of them. It’s been okay, but I didn’t love
it.
Now it looks like this! The coffee sign
came from the other side of the kitchen. I added the alarm clock from another
room, not because we need an alarm clock in the kitchen, but I thought
it paired well with the sign. Then I gathered up all the short-and-hard-to-find
utensils from the utensil caddy and various drawers and put them all right here
in a jar from the cabinet. I already use these things more simply because I can
find them. I love this change.
The other side of the kitchen saw
some change as well.
I went through the utensil caddy and pulled out all the
things we don’t use all the time. I don’t think I got rid of any of them, but I
did relocate some to a utensil drawer. The caddy looks cleaner now. (While I
was at the drawer, I pulled everything out of it, cleaned it, and pulled out
things we haven’t used in years. Time to donate!)
The cutting boards stayed put. I
would love to be a kitchen with many cutting boards, but I just don’t have the
room. I’d be open to adding a couple more, if I find good ones at a thrift
store or sale sometime. I also kept the wooden utensil pitcher – and added the
rolling pin to it. (It’s under the cake plate in the "before" photo.) I also added
another little jar for short wooden utensils that get lost in the pitcher.
I moved the wooden house sign to
another room, kept the lamp, and moved the oil jar up to the cake plate. I brought a small pitcher out of storage and filled it with rolled cloth napkins that used to be Mom and Dad's. I'm trying to use cloth napkins more often!
Ryan
often moves the salt and pepper shakers to the dining room table when we eat,
so I just moved them over there to live permanently. This meant I did need to
purchase one thing, which has actually been on my wish list for a while: salt
and pepper grinders. I just think they feel so fancy. I found a set at Walmart
for about $15, and I had a gift card, so I treated myself! I also moved the
wheat jars to this side of the counter. The new look makes me happy!
The bread machine takes up most of
this side of the counter, and the knife block needs to stay here. The chocolate
jar is on the island now, and I moved the little sign to another room.
And in
this corner, I added the little blue pie plate that had been on the island,
with a vase from the cabinet. I added some landscaping stones and faux flowers.
(More on the flowers in a moment.) I also added this little dinner bell. It had
been part of my bell collection when I was a child, and when I recently sorted
through that collection to donate most of it, I kept a few extra special bells.
This was one of them.
I thought I would change things
over here, but I didn’t. It all ended up working just like it was. My produce
baskets (clearly it’s time to go to the store) and my secondhand mixing bowls
and my beloved perpetual calendar and chalkboard.
I didn’t take a before picture of
this space, because I didn’t expect to do anything to it, but I did move around
some things on the desk space. I put a few of the actual desk items in my home
office, because I now have room for them in there. (Things that were on the
home office desk were taken to the church office.) This beautiful little greenhouse
Ryan bought me has been in my home office, but the plants died…not enough light
in there. We have not had ONE PLANT make it in that room. So I brought it out
here, bought two new herb plants, and set them up in this window, which gets
tons of light. I’m excited!!
I said I’d come back to the flowers…
A few weeks ago, I went to a baby
shower at church, and the host had used little daisies in glass jars, and I
just loved them. After all, daisies are the friendliest flower, right? I wanted
to get some to decorate around the house for summer, and I planned to put those
on my Walmart gift card too, but alas, they had zero daisies. I’ll have to make
a stop at Hobby Lobby sometime to see if they have some. When I get them, I’ll
put some in that little vase by the bread machine. I will probably also use
that vase some for real flowers from the flower patch this summer.
I loved my little kitchen refresh,
and the only things I purchased were the salt and pepper grinders and the new herb
plants. Everything else was shopped from the house!
