A Party in My Pantry

Well, a couple of days of R&R later...

and I am feeling like a new woman!

It really took all of two days though...

I think I was exhausted and didn't even know it.

So.....

 Last night, I was feeling so much better,

I hopped up off the sofa and started on my project of the week for...

This is a project that I have been putting off for weeks and weeks...

One of those things that really, really needed to happen, which bugged me daily...

something I had kind of started, but never took the time to finish...

which meant that, for a few months now, I have been in...

Pantry Limbo.

Let me explain...

This past December, just as the holidays were rolling around...

Mr. Shabby and I came across a very large piece of furniture that we decided we couldn't do without.

You see, *somewhere in our future* there is a kitchen makeover... 

and we've been on the lookout for some special pieces for that future kitchen...

so when  my mama  my personal shopper called from an antique shop 

to say that she had sent me a photo that I better look at...

and when I squealed when I saw the photo and then squealed some more when I heard the price...

it was time to call Mr. Shabby and arrange a very quick trip down the road to see this piece of furniture...

before somebody else snapped it up!

So that's how we ended up buying this antique Irish linen press for each other for Christmas...

...within a few days it moved into our kitchen...
and there it sat while the holidays whirled by....
Looking pretty... and Empty.


And then after the holidays, I guess I hadn't really decided exactly how I wanted to use it...
so there it sat...

Eventually, I started tossing stuff in there... 
but still didn't really have a plan....
Finally, a plan came to be, and last night, I made it happen.....


So, you know this pretty little corner of my house
that you may have seen once or twice before? ;-)

Well, this little corner is in my dining room...
and for the last 7+ years this little jelly cupboard has been my pantry...


You see, there's no pantry in our 1950's kitchen...
and we've tried moving this cupboard into the kitchen before, but it just didn't work in the space.
Having pantry shelves at waist height and below wasn't exactly my ideal either...


So, the idea of having the pantry actually in the kitchen and above waist height 
became pretty darn exciting to me...


and since I never really knew anymore where anything was, 
in the old pantry or the new pantry...
it was time to git 'er done...
A Feeling-Better-Pantry-Organization Party!


After two days of lethargy, I suddenly had all kinds of energy... and boy, did it feel good.
I hauled everything that was still in the old pantry to the new one 
and re-organized everything in the new space
{all while making Thai chicken soup for dinner...}

Bulk dry goods and baking supplies on the left... close at hand :-)

in the middle door, snacks and treats...

on the right side, canned goods, potatoes, pasta, beans...

in the bottom drawers I finally have a great storage space for table linens.

...and there you have it!
I must say that my pantry has never looked so good...
This cupboard can make anything look pretty ;-)


And now that all that stuff is out of the dining room...

there's room in there for things that belong in the dining room...
{and were in a living room cupboard!}
extra dishes, silverware, the old bottle collection...
and space left over! Hallelujah!


It feels great to check this one off my list...
and to use that "new" cupboard, instead of just look at it!




more soon, chickadees...

oneshabbychick

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My Romantic Home
French Country Cottage
At The Picket Fence
Common Ground
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
The House in the Roses
A Beach Cottage

Taking a Day... and some News

Hello out there!

It's me, oneshabbychick... remember me?

I'm shouting a hello from this comfy spot on the sofa...

because I am taking a day... a "mental health day", as I like to call them...

the kind of day-off you take because if you don't you are going to crack...

I wanted nothing more than to do something new and exciting on this here blog today...

but then today actually came...

and with 9 days in a row of performances and rehearsals behind me {and tonight's #10}...

not to mention laundry, breakfast, lunch and dinner, etc. etc.

and allergies kicking my you-know-what...

something's gotta give.

So I'm taking a bath and catching up on some guilty pleasures...{glee, anyone?}

and taking care of what really needs my attention today...

Moi.

But, I can't wait to get back to oneshabbychick-ing.

....oh, BTW, guess what?

You, my dear friends, have pushed me into the triple-digit category in the peeps dept...

yup, 100 followers!

And where there is a Blogging Milestone...

there is a Giveaway!!!

So, stay-tuned...

 for the Big 100 oneshabbychick Giveaway... 

{until I finally figure out what could be worthy of such an occasion}

yours in all things shabby...

osc

Breakfast à la osc and a progress report...

 So, I thought I'd share with you what I had for breakfast yesterday

for a few reasons....

a. it was a momentus occasion that I actually cooked breakfast for just me

b. I made something really yummy and wanted to share

c. I like you

d. I got to take pictures of my cute little cast iron skillet and my yummy breakfast

Inspiration hit as I was huffing back up the hill after my hike in the woods with the dog...

I was Hungry... 
so I started to think about what we had layin' around...

and I remembered some ingredients from our 

yummy-Frenchy-quickie-weeknight dinner the night before..... 

{recipe here}

I got out my *cute little pan*...

melted some butter in it...

fried an egg...

toasted a whole-wheat English muffin...

thinly sliced some cave-aged Gruyère {cheese}...

threw a slice of jambon {ham} on the pan to fry it up un peu..

piled it all together on the English muffin...

et voilà!

My French-ified All-American breakfast. 

Made myself a nice Americano to go with it... 

{the Euro version of American coffee...how appropriate}

...magnifique!

**************

OK, on to the Progress Report...

it is my first half-a-week into...

{Or, if you count my GW trips, which I most certainly do... I'm 2 1/2 weeks in. 

But, as we like to say around here, let's "KISS" it...

"keep it simple, sweetheart" or "stupid" or whatever s-word fits the moment ;-)}

I found that I still need to get a little organized to get organized...

so I ended up wrapping up this half a week with...

another trip to Goodwill!

I packed up a nice Ikea set of kiddie table and chairs 

{which got snapped up by a neighbor before I even closed the hatch on the minivan}

a bag of old toys

a bag of old clothes

a bag of craft kits we've outgrown.

Woohoo!

And while I was up in the attic, searching for more "Goodies for Goodwill"

I realized that it was really starting to look different up there!

Nothing huge...

perhaps the undiscerning eye would not see a difference between 

the "before" piles of crap and the "after" piles of crap.

But I know those piles well...

 and I did notice a difference... 

and it lit a little fire under my rear end!

So, my goal this weekend is to sit down with my checklist... 

...and fill 'er up!

And then... 

choose a project for Week # 2!

And then...

Do It!

I will let you know how it all goes...

and I will leave you in one of my happy places...

more soon.....

oneshabbychick

Bringing the junk in, taking the junk out.....

Well, here she is, my piece of junk for the week ;-)

A lovely old piece of white coral... 

and boy, I had to work for her.

I was at my favorite thrift spot... 

I had gone through the whole place, disappointed not to find a treasure, about to leave...

when I saw her, in the hands of another woman...

oh my, I had to have her, if I could... 

so I stalked that woman around the shop, 

watched her put it down to look at something else, pick it up again...

I was sure she was going to buy it. 

But I wasn't going to leave until she did.

Or I did.

I even managed to catch a glimpse of the price tag... 5 buckaroos... 

Oh, how could i have missed this?! Five minutes too late!

And then, it all happened so fast... 

before I knew it she had turned around, walked to its old spot, 

next to a junky shell with glue on it, and put it back!

Needless to say, I pounced on that thing...

rushed to the line and made that treasure mine.

She lives on the bookshelf in the living room, at least for now...

but comes out to play for photo shoots.

So you may remember from past posts...

that I have been saying "no" to some things, so that I can "yes" to others 
{like $5 coral, apparently}

and generally trying to purge the excess junk from our lives...

And I have made some progress in that area...

Resulting in two car-loads of crap being carted off to Goodwill!

I even managed to not buy anything both times I was there! Woohoo! 
I was actually kinda bummed at the time...


Anyhoo... as I've been going through this house looking for junk,
I have realized that the extra stuff is only half the problem...
The other half is a real need to organize the stuff that we need/want to keep around.


It is my eternal quest, to be organized... key word being eternal...
I just can't seem to see the big picture... ever.
So I have a hard time seeing organization projects through to completion.


But I'm feeling a little hopeful right now, actually...
I came across something that's speaking to me... and that just might work for me...
Correction: that I am going to make work for me... Better.


Laura over at I'm An Organizing Junkie
has a cool challenge going on called... 

The idea is to create a list of 52 organizing projects or habits that need to be done 
or developed around your home…
and then tackle one project per week through the year.


Laura, Organizing Junkie that she is, has created a 52 Weeks of Organizing Checklist...
 to download and fill out with 52 weeks of projects.
Who doesn't love a cute list?


Actually, this list, I think, is going to help me with clearly seeing the bigger picture...
and also with organizing it into manageable chunks.
See, I'm already more organized!


Here's just the beginning of my checklist...

My new blog love The Bearded Iris

has been writing about her own 52 Weeks 

and is the one who truly inspired me to start my own...

I figure it's never too late to start my own 52 Weeks of Organizing... 

and with two large trips to Goodwill under my belt, 

I think I can consider myself two weeks into it already!

You can get a copy of this cute list yourself at orgjunkie.com

So, here I go, on an organizing adventure...

want to join me?

Your one-year-to-organized friend,

oneshabbychick

linking to...

Glittery Plastic... A Before & After

 Hey there, blogland!  It's good to be back...

I am getting ready to welcome Mr. Shabby home today...
after 9 days on the road for an orchestra tour...

so I'm trying to do it all of course...

clean up the house, make a beef stew, learn some new music, 

pick-up library books for weekend school projects,

do a crafty-project-I've-been-itching-to-get-to-but-life-got-in-the-way and blog about it...

oh yeah and hit a thrift shop or two I never got to this week... {pesky life again}

and maybe even take a shower...

But I can't complain cuz I've had a great week... 

my sister has been here, helping me take care of the monkeys while I had an intense opera schedule... 

but in my down time, we've been doing a lot of goofing off...

involving shopping, coffee, spas, wine, sushi... you know, the good stuff.

And now I have a couple days off from opera {and all that goofing off ~ whew}

and can get my oneshabbychick on!

As I said, I've had this little project on the back burner for a while...

If you've been around here a bit...

{or you've read my header ;-)}

you know I like me some pale things...

 So a little while back, I was blown away 

by these gorgeous photos at this blog... Katya365...

 ©2011 Katya Kirilloff All Rights Reserved

©2011 Katya Kirilloff All Rights Reserved

and I guess they stuck with me...

because when I was at the thrift shop one day, 

I saw a basket of plastic, glittery fruit, which are not my thing, so I almost passed them by...

but then I thought of those white-washed fruits and veggies, which are my thing...

...and I had me one of those light bulb moments!

The ladies who work at the shop all admired my lovely fruit...

I didn't have the heart to tell them what I was going to do with it...

they would've looked at me like I was fruity...

Fast forward to today, when I finally had time for that plastic fruit.

I got out my can of white house paint and an old paintbrush... 

and transformed those plastic, glittery fruit...

into something I can really play around with!

And play I did...

with my new "old" urn....

and pretty ironstone...

and apples, pears and pomegranates...

on the table that Mr. Shabby and I found on a street corner waiting for the trashman...

And now I will finish that beef stew, maybe start a fire...

and have a little family time, all under one roof again...

Next week, those thrift shops better watch out.

Have a wonderful weekend, all you shabby chicks!

more soon...

oneshabbychick

P.S. I got even more bloglove this week... can't believe it... 

Boogieboard Cottage
At The Picket Fence
Chic On A Shoestring Decorating
Savvy Southern Style

all featured oneshabbychick! Wow! Thank you so much!!!

~ osc
*******


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