Making Happy {at home}: April 2016

Easiest Ever Quiche

April 27, 2016

I'm not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg, but I do KNOW with certainty that after the egg comes the quiche! Our chickens are in full on laying mode right now, so that means we eat A LOT of eggs this time of year. One of my family's favorite egg based meals is, of course, quiche. Quiche is so incredibly...

Making Happy {the List}

April 25, 2016

Friends, this was one of those weekends you picture when you imagine the "perfect weekend". Good food, good weather, great friends, tons of fun and a little relaxation. All the things that make me SO happy. Now that it's Monday and it's easy to feel "blah", I thought it would be a good idea to share a list of what is currently making...

The No Pantry "Pantry" Redo

April 07, 2016

One thing before I start...

I can't tell you how many times I accidentally typed the word "panty" instead of "pantry". I assure you this is a kitchen organization piece and not an underwear overhaul.

I dream of pantries, specifically I dream of having a gorgeous walk in butler's pantry. A pantry with floor to ceiling shelves lined with beautiful paper where everything is organized into neatly labeled bins. A pantry where I could store my ever growing collection of pretty plates and bowls and cake stands and all of the things that dear husband says make me a bit of a "hoarder". A pantry where I can zip away from company and return with a tray full of artisnal crackers, dried fruits, madelines and bottles of sparkling water...because, you know, everything in my butler's pantry would obviously be VERY fancy! But alas, we live in a little suburban house from 1963 which was apparently a time when people had better things to do than to worry about the size of their pantry {GASP!}. Actually, our home doesn't have a pantry AT ALL and until we updated the kitched a bit it didn't even have the cabinets that we use as our "pantry". So, this is one of those instances of "if the grass looks greener on the other side, go ahead and water your own" where we make due with what we have and turn something messy into something pretty and functional.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should definitely show you what I was working with. So, HERE are the horribly embarrassing "before" photos. Nice right? Totally makes you want to come over for dinner I am sure.

I had definitely reached my breaking point with these cabinets, so I started making a plan by scouring Pinterest for "small pantry solutions" and I've got to say some of these people seem to be playing it a little fast and loose with the definition of "small", haha! But I digress, while searching for ideas I noticed a few things:

Organized pantries have bins or containers.
Organized pantries have labels.
Organized pantries have Pellegrino {seriously, what's UP with all the Pellegrino?}

Here are a few pantries where I gathered inspiration.

In Pantry #1 I loved the IKEA bins, the labels, the pretty wall treatment and {of course} the Pellegrino. Unfortunately the IKEA bins were too large for my cabinet "pantry" so I had to settle for bins from the Dollar Tree, which in the end saved us a ton of money so I guess that's a win! In Pantry #2 I loved the use of mason jars. Mason jars are fairly cheap, very pretty and they are NOT plastic, which is a huge plus in my book. Honestly I just kept coming back to Pantry #3 because I loved the pretty pink and the cute scripted labels, however, I'm trying to move away from storing loose food in plastic containers - even though we already own the ones shown. Pantry #4 isn't even really a pantry at all, but I loved the use of the baskets on top of the cabinets and {again!} the ever popular Pellegrino, haha. We tend to use the tops of our cabinets as a "dumping ground" and it ends up looking horribly messy.

So I after gathering ideas I hit up IKEA, Target, Dollar Tree, Michael's, and The Walmarts and got to work. The first thing I did was take EVERYTHING out of the cabinets...yes...EVERYTHING. I needed to take inventory of what I had and start to group things into categories that made sense. This is what my kitchen looked like...15 minutes before I had to pick the kids up from school...and I wasn't even done pulling things from the shelves! What in the world was I thinking?! I assure you if you choose to do this, it's going to get WAY worse before it gets infinitely better!

After pulling everything from the shelves I lined the back of the cabinets with pretty contact paper. This was a completely unnecessary step, but I thought it would look nice...you can barely see it, sooooo maybe not the best use of my time. I then organized everything into my Dollar Tree containers, cut out some chalkboard labels and labeled everything up REAL nice....REEEEAAAALLLL nice Clark! I also found a nice little lazy Susan from IKEA which I used for all of my oil/ vinegar shown above in the first horribly disgusting photo. Best. Purchase. Ever. So without further ado, HERE is my new and improved "No Pantry "Pantry""!!!!!!!!! I love it! Love!

Does it drive anyone else nuts that the cabinet doors are open?!

Doesn't this look SO much better? And thank goodness I discovered the secret to an organized pantry...Pellegrino...this never would have worked without it! Haha!

breast cancer

Joy Over Fear

April 01, 2016

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I was inspired to join the discussion about fear and how we can sometimes let it overtake our lives, cloud our decisions and steal our joy by the lovely Natalie, of Natalie Creates. Natalie writes openly about the fear and anxiety that comes along with putting everything you have into a new business venture, a venture that will surely bring joy, but also...

Easiest Ever Quiche

Making Happy {the List}

The No Pantry "Pantry" Redo

Joy Over Fear

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