The kitchen is an area of your home that gets used more often than most other areas. So it stands to reason that if your kitchen were more organized and simple to use, your life would feel easier. Professional organizer Monica Ricci has 10 easy steps to organize your kitchen, and make your family life flow more smoothly when it comes to meal preparation.

Kitchen Organizing Tip #1: Empty Cabinets Pull everything out of each cabinet and go through it. Discard or donate those things that are not frequently used, duplicate items, broken items or things you forgot you had. Do this with each cabinet and drawer, setting up separate areas on the floor for each group. Be ruthless. Most kitchens are short on storage space, so the goal is to only have things you love and use.

Kitchen Organizing Tip #2: Group Like Items After your cabinets are all empty, consider what is best for you in terms of how to group items. Sort all your baking items and pile them together. Sort your cooking items and pile them together. Group the dishes you eat from, glassware, holiday or other seasonal items that only get used once or twice a year, as well as those special entertaining or serving pieces that are only used occasionally.

Kitchen Organizing Tip #3: Organize the Cabinets Now that you have groups laid out on the floor, decide where each item should be stored. Cooking and baking pieces should be kept close to where you do food preparation. Utensils should be in the drawer nearest to the prep area as well. Glassware might be best near the sink or refrigerator. Make a coffee or tea station that includes sugar, mugs and filters, and place it near the water source, if possible. This way you avoid going back and forth across the kitchen for the things you need just to make your

Kitchen Organizing Tip #4: Use Clear Containers to Store Items Use containers to streamline the inside your cabinets. Group together things like packets of sauce mixes, gravy mixes, hot cereal packets and hot cocoa envelopes, then put them into small plastic containers to avoid them being scattered all over the cabinet. Use clear plastic shoeboxes to store food that is in tiny boxes such as gelatin or pudding mix.

Kitchen Organizing Tip #5: Store Containers and Lids Together Discard containers without lids, and store the remaining plastic containers either with the lids on them, or store the lids in another larger container so they all stay together. Do the same with the lids for your pots and pans. A large clear plastic box will keep them nicely together and on their sides. Another option is to store them on their sides in the cabinet on a wire rack.

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Addiction with Chevron

I adore Chevron, I’m still trying to figure out what it is that attracts me to it. Unfortunately I can’t figure that part out yet, maybe its the colorful pattern, or just about anything can go with it, chevron  doesn’t discriminate against any color. The possibilities are endless when using this amazing pattern.

We just moved into a new house at the end of February and so I’ve been searching inexpensive ways to update our home from bhg do it yourself magazine and threw emails that I get from other blogs in such.

This awesome post by Diane @ inmyowndesign.com posted this really cool exciting way to transform old thrift shop furniture into a beautiful chalkboard cabinet, also she gives 12 ideas on how to makeover a cabinet.. She also gives a couple free printable templates on how to active this look.

Here is another post she goes into detail of how to do the stencil and is very helpful, I have found my new found blog crush…

And, the top chalkboard wreath she gives free downloadable templates on how to do this as well…

To check out her blog go to http://inmyownstyle.com/2013/04/cabinet-makeover-free-printable-designs.html

I can not wait to try this out, I am especially excited to look for the bead board textured paintable wallpaper, I just want to say I love the way Diane designed this and I thank her for sharing this if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t know none of these things.

The other post I found is from bhg Do It Yourself magazine from Fall/Winter 2012 (i believe)

They show small diy vases to painting a whole wall of Chevron pattern…

This is so inexpensive, you can go to the thrift shop and get vases for a $1.00 or less then use blue tape and do your chevron pattern.. Great thing about this is you don’t have to have this perfect, it is not a straight line..  This will give me practice to achieve what I would like..

Here is another post by Diane @ inmyownstyle

I absolutely love love love the way this looks, and again Diane has explainned from the very beginning to the end… She did such an amazing job with this once again it looks professionally made. There is tons of things she has on her blog tons of furniture make overs to small things like dollar store flowers. I will not be able to get anything done if I dont stop soon.

I hope I will be able to acchive these looks the way Diane did. I will post the 1st project very soon, I am working on it this weekend, however the kids go back to school Monday and School Planning Sunday is tommarrow  and the rest of homework for them and me so I doubt Ill be able to get very much done we will see….

<3 <3 <3

FOR THE LOVE of  CHEVRON

Nat

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Decorate with Washi Tape

I just delivered a cool blog by p&g called homemadesimple.com I’m always into easy ways to quickly update anything…

Washi tape is a quick way to add a personal touch to practically anything, plus it’s cheap, and simple. You don’t need a ton of time, money, or not a bunch of materials either.

I can’t wait to try this

I found a great post on

http://www.homemadesimple.com/en-US/homedecor/Pages/decorate-with-washi-tape.aspx

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HGTV’s Household Mysteries

Ever get those stubborn milky white stain on your wooden table?

Well I have, and I’ve spent forever trying to find out how to get these stains out.

Like this one…

I accidentally say down a hot glass dish on there and once I went to clean up this is what the dish left for me to stress over every single day I walk past it, reminding me what I did. I was seriously thinking about getting a new table over this stain..

HGTV’s September 2012 came out with an article about household mysteries, in the article it says to use this to bring out milky stains from natural wood floors.

At first I skipped over the article thinking there was nothing saying you could use this on table tops, only the floor.

Then, as I thought about it over and over and after looking at these hideous stains, I thought this is enough I will not be haunted by these stains not another day.

I was stunned at the results, it worked… I’m dancing around in excitement all around my kitchen Sunday afternoon with my husband lookin at me like I’m a nut. Wondering why in the world is she ironing the kitchen table???

Take a look…

Before

And now there gone….
After…

I’m so happy there gone, no more stains slapping me in the face anymore as soon as I enter the kitchen and all it took was an old tee shirt and my iron…

Here’s the trick

All you need is

A thin cloth
(an old white tee worked for me)
Your Iron
(on the lowest setting possible)

Instructions:

1. Wipe down your surface with a damp cloth no cleaners only water

2. On low or warm setting
(I used linen setting)

3. Spred the cloth over the stain, then iron, I recommend not keeping the iron in on spot, just use a slow circular motion.

4. Gently remove the cloth and the stain is gone, no more milky white yucky stain.

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DIY No-Sew Roman Shade by BHG

I absolutely love the look of a Roman shade. However, the cost of them are surely not in my budget.
Only on my wish list!

I did a lil research on just how much these room changers can cost ones pocket book. My results were a surprise too me. I didn’t know my tastes were this expensive.

I just received there catalog from mail and looking at all of the pretty shades and they can do wonders to any room, with the right budget! For a ”30×54” around $270
They have tons of patterns and beautiful designs lots of colors too…
Aww I’m in love, each shade is custom made hand designed. I can see why they are in that price range…

Luckly, I found this easy way to create your own Roman shade by BHG’s magazine do it yourself weekend projects which I am a collector of… I don’t know what I’d do without this magazine.

No-Sew Roman Shade Made from a miniblind and midweight upholstery fabric, this Roman shade can be assembled in a matter of hours.

Materials Needed:
_Mini blind to fit the window
_Mid weight upholstery fabric cut 6 inches wider than the window and 12 inches longer
_Fabric glue
_Flat artist’s paint brush
_ Several clothespins

Step 1
First, lay the blind on your work surface with the front facing down.

(a) Set the length by adjusting the plug underneath the thick bottom slat according to the package instructions.

Step 2 snip away only the strings that connect the slats on both sides.
Maintain the slats at 7-inch intervals; snap off and remove the rest.

Place the fabric facedown under the blind.

Mark the fabric where it folds at the sides, top, and bottom of the slats.

(b)Remove the shade and press the fabric folds.

Place the fabric under the shade, and glue the sides of the fabric to each slat (c) and the top and bottom edges of the fabric to the top and bottom slats.

Use clothespins to hold the fabric in place while it dries.

bedroom

Delish Dish Blog

I am an avid subscriber of MANY blogs from cooking to design, DIYing,  homemaking and parenting and organizing. I just today discovered great new cooking blog called delish dish by bhg.
This particular post is by Beth which she has one of the best jobs ever.

Beth works in the food department @ BHG so she gets to attend taste panels which involve recipes that will be featured in the magazine in the future. I know I would love to have a position like that, it involves several of my favorite things to do, tasting amazing food sharing her thoughts then she gets to blog about it for the world to read about her experience. Come on talk about the best job in the world!

The first post I discovered is a brownie recipe called fudgy port & cherry  brownies.

These look incredibly yummy. Although I don’t know what the meaning of port is, still they look delish! I’m leaning toward it meaning the type of sauce pan used to make the cherries in?

 

Here is a neat video Beth posted with the recipe. In the video there is an easy tip on how to melt the chocolate and butter, idk why I never thought of this before it would’ve saved me alot of time if I would’ve have known this for all my other recipes.

Another big reason why I love this blog is b/c Beth also a gives several other great tips for making this sweet tasty tart recipe.. Her inspiration makes me want to start baking these brownies right now

Thank you Beth for sharing such good tips about the recipe!! Can’t wait to see what your next post will be….