The room I loved the very most in this old farmhouse when we bought it, was the walk-in pantry.
It had built in cupboards, floor to ceiling, and counters to set baked goods on. It was wonderful. (Except when an abandoned little dog, we had taken in, jumped up and confiscated/ consumed/ annhilated...a wonderful Christmas cake I had made and stored there.) The people we bought the house from, had left a new door (to go out to the deck) and window that they had bought for in there, and hadn't installed yet. You know that saying about living in a house for a while before you make changes? I wish we had. We went with their plan, which meant ripping out everything. If we had it to do over again, I would want the door to go out of the kitchen to the left of the sink, (like at my parent's house.) Trying to make the best of it, I built old pantry cupboards that reminded me of my grandparents old fruit pantry. Some people install a tambour appliance garage in their kitchen to hide all of their "helpers". We went to Costco and bought a "multi-level appliance parking structure." I really like having the heaviest appliances at waist level instead of having to pull them out from a lower cupboard somewhere. This has worked out so well...except ever so often there are too many rush hours, and there's a traffic snarl of stuff causing a big jam in front of said structure. So, a pantry purge is in order.
I have a dry erase board on the front of the freezer. Great idea I picked up from a friend years ago, except I'm usually in a hurry when I'm pulling things out of there, and forget to correct the tally....so I can't believe a word it says.
Our Asian mini-mart. I love going to the Fubon on 82nd in Portland. Wonderful selection of goodies.
The stepstool to get to the really high-up stuff. I covered it my
fave fabric, and topped it with clear plastic.
Some of the really high stuff. Labeled, and candy colored scrapbooking paper inserted in front to hide the messy look of the contents.
Powdered sugar (and a century's worth of clear-gel, from Jen) on the open shelves Jim bought from someone on his route.
And the colorful towel Jen got me at the coast. It makes me smile when I see it, as I remember the crazy games of Catch Phrase, we played on
that trip.
This latest pantry purge yielded quite a feast for the chickens. Out dated squash pickles, canned cherries, and old oats and cornmeal,quinoa flour etc. cooked into a nice hot mash for them. Yum.
At the hospital, when Liliana was born, I was telling Joel's mom about a certain 10 year old girl who was reading on-line about training dogs. She had set up a little dog show with Bella, in our front yard. Bella was excellent.....at doing EVERYTHING.... wrong. It didn't deter the enthused dog show promoter. She praised and praised Bella, and instructed us to do the same. Joel's mom raises Bulldogs, and shows them. She started taking the little self-taught Dog Handler, to actual classes, and this week-end, The new Junior Handler was in her first dog show. The AKC show had soooo many dogs. A friend of mine went to it, and commented on the dogs being more highly groomed than she was. She wasn't sure how she felt about that!
She worked really hard at keeping him "stacked". They got a third place on Saturday, and again on Sunday. Tori pointed out a girl at the show that was in the Westminster Dog Show recently. She is probably about 18 yrs. old, and has been showing since she was about 10, also. She was so polished and did such a perfect job showing her dog. I loved watching them. It's so foreign to me, (the queen of casual) , this concept of wearing pearls and ballet flats and silk looking skirts and jackets. Those girls dress waaaay fancier to magnetize dog hair, than I do for church! The new Junior Handler was advised by Joel's mom, to shop the Dress Barn. Whoa doggie! The girl is going to be dressed way more "sophisticated" than me!
