DIY: Spicy!

You know how I told you about starting several DIY projects that I may or may not finish? Well 1 down and 2 to go! Giddyup! Here's DIY #1.

This is what my spice cupboard looked like:

It's a smorgasbord of spice containers in varying sizes, colors, shapes, and brands. The worst part is they all have those dadgum sprinkle tops that you inevitably break a nail trying to remove because NO recipe calls for a "sprinkle" of something, nor does it help your sanity to attempt to sprinkle a spice into a 1/4 teaspoon. I like to be able to just dunk the appropriate measuring spoon in the jar and -shazaam! Got me some basil. 

I thought the ol' spice cabinet was due for  a little "prettifying".

So I ordered a gazillion little glass jars from http://www.specialtybottle.com/  (Ikea has cute 4 packs for $2.99 and the Container Store has several fun options as well). I chose these because they are fun and have an opening wide enough for a tablespoon.

 I popped them in the dishwasher for a rinse and let 'em dry overnight (wanted to be sure the inside of those suckers were bone dry) and proceeded to print my own labels. I purchased oval labels from http://www.onlinelabels.com/

Here's what I came up with:

I toyed with the idea of using more color in the labels but decided that it'd take away from all the fun colors of the spices once they were in the jar.

I popped on the labels and began transferring the spices. I made a paper funnel to use with some of the ground spice jars that were more full so I didn't end up with a spice festival all over my table!

And here's the now more uniform spice cabinet!

now on to the art project......

Cleaning dishes with a joyful heart

I found myself throwing a pity party for 1 Saturday when I woke up. We've had several house guests the past month which I must first say has been sooo much fun! It also means that my normal OCD weekend ritual of dishes, yard, laundry, dusting, mopping, scrubbing etc. has been put off and or modified for the past few weeks. The weekend to-do list I had written looked more like a Harry Potter novel.

Daniel had left early to go golf for "work." Hence the pity party. I started to get cranky with the "why does he get to play golf while I clean the house" song and dance. That lasted for a good 10 minutes, then as I was grumbling under my breath while I separated the 7 loads of laundry it hit me.... The 2 of us had seven loads of laundry. That's about 4 loads too many for 2 people.

Who am I to complain? We have 7 loads of laundry! We are beyond blessed and here I am being Queen-Whiny-Pants. We both have jobs we love, a beautiful home, modern amenities (which I totally take for granted - see here for a reminder). I had to remind myself to quit complaining that I had to put away the dishes and be glad that I had a nice new hi-tech dishwasher to clean our pottery barn dishes that we load up with food that I can purchase without having to worry about going over budget or how much it costs.

I remembered that my husband who is in the office every day before 7:30 am and gets home well after 6pm every day, who mows the yard, takes out the trash, and cleans up after dinner without me having to ask is deserving of hundreds of Saturdays of golf.

So I carried on separating and washing laundry, pulling weeds, adding coolant to my car, putting away dishes and reloading the dishwasher, washing and replenishing the linens in the bedrooms and bathrooms with a little bounce in my step and a smile on my face.

I am provided for.

I am blessed.

I am loved.

My goal is to be joyful in all the things I do. While I know that may not always happen, I hope you will keep me accountable.

What do you take for granted?