Archives for February 2014

Storage Container Organization

February 18, 2014 By amusingmjblog Leave a Comment

Want to know what has been one of the most aggravation inducing spaces in my house?

The ever dreaded tupperware cabinet (note… I don’t actually own any tupperware, but like Kleenex and Q-Tip… I can’t seem to call it anything else). Here it is on a good day:

This cabinet has been driving me bananas for almost a year now, and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to find a matching storage container and lid. So for Christmas I asked for these pull out drawers from The Container Store. They are a bit pricey but I knew they would be the perfect thing for this space. And I had the best of intentions of installing them RIGHT AWAY and taking advantage of how awesome they would be… but here we are in mid February and I’m just getting around to getting them installed! (Which should give you some small explanation of WHY ON EARTH I haven’t been posting quite as regularly in 2014!)

So bright and early Sunday morning I decided it could wait no more! This was happening BEFORE I left for church at 10:15. (I get a lot done on Sunday mornings while my husband is working… check out the storage closet I redid much to his surprise!) So first things first, I took everything out:

And then followed the super simple instructions on the install:

Center them and use their alignment guide to figure out how far back they go:

Then drill pilot holes (using a 1/8ths drill bit)

Then screw in your base:

Attach the drawers with the screws provided and easy peasy you are ready to load all your crap back into them!

I purged quite a bit of the things that didn’t belong… messy cabinets tend to attract things that don’t belong in my house. I guess my head figures if it is already a mess, why not make it worse! And seriously… I had 6 13×9 glass pans. I may have a brownie addiction issue. I’m fairly certain some of them belong to my mother and they just managed to find a semi-permanent home in my cabinets, but I’ve taken them down to a reasonable number (2). And found a more appropriate home for my toaster.

I bought 20″ rolling drawers which was the largest size I could accommodate, but that leaves a few inches of space on each side of the drawer. That empty space however is PERFECT for storing the extra lids. I tested it out quite a few times and they don’t get jammed at the back or under the drawer, but i’ll keep you updated if that becomes a problem.

For now I am LOVING being able to see everything in the cabinet and not having to unload everything to find a matching lid! I am eradicating the clutter from my house one cabinet at a time!!

If you are new here, one of my 30 before 30 goals is to organize everything in my house… not an easy feat for someone as messy as I am!

Filed Under: Organizing

Valentine’s Day Coffee Cake

February 14, 2014 By amusingmjblog Leave a Comment

You may have figured out from our Valentine’s Day cards and table, but my family did Valentine’s Day right when I was growing up. We have a lot of tradition that goes into it, and as my mom said on facebook the other day: “I always wanted the kids to know, before they ever left in the morning, that no matter what happened at school with Valentine’s Day things (life can be difficult in school on Valentine’s Day) that they were LOVED!!!” We did know and it is one of the reasons that even through the years I was single on Valentine’s Day, I loved the holiday!

This morning I got to share the holiday with my twin brother and his fiancee (soon to be wife in 2 weeks!) and my husband. We did Valentine’s breakfast much as we had done as kids. The most humorous part of the morning was me struggling to read my brothers AWFUL handwriting on his sweet valentine to my husband and me. For this highly traditional breakfast, we always have eggs, sausage and coffee cake. My mom has made this super simple coffee cake (you better believe its easy if I can make it at 6:15am…)

My mom always made it in a heart shaped pan, so when I found this one at Crate and Barrel a few years ago on after Valentine’s day sale I snatched it up in anticipation of future Valentine’s Day breakfasts. This baby is DELICIOUS (don’t worry, the four of us polished this guy off before work this morning).

Want to know how to make it?

I thought so…

Coffee Cake

1/4 Cup salad oil (I use EVOO because its what I have around)

1 beaten egg

1/2 Cup milk

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

To make this you have three bowls: dry ingredients: flour, sugar baking powder, salt

Wet ingredients: egg, oil, milk

and your topping. For the topping I add everything in except butter and then mix your butter in last.

Stir the melted butter in until it coats everything and some of it will start sticking together in clumps (ignore the fuzzy picture, apparently I am not a good photographer that early in the morning!)

Now set that aside and mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients together. If your wet ingredients have been sitting for a minute you will have to remix them since oil and milk separate if left alone (as they are in the picture above). Pour that into your greased pan. Then add the topping on top:

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 375° and you are ready to serve!

Filed Under: Baking, Valentine's

Valentine’s Table

February 13, 2014 By amusingmjblog 2 Comments

I mentioned in Tuesday’s post that my family had a tradition of having breakfast every Valentine’s Day morning of eggs, bacon and a coffee cake (I’ll share the recipe tomorrow… stay tuned). The decor is always the same: cutout construction hearts and doilies, chocolate kisses and dove chocolates scattered around the table and a mix of candles to make it more of a ‘special occasion’. To me this completely embodies what Valentine’s Day is: a little sugar and a whole lot of love.

So in tribute to my Jones Family Tradition, my husband and I have kept this up. The past two years that we have been together he has come over for Valentine’s Day breakfast at my house. And I hope (and plan) to continue the tradition with my kids whenever we have them.

I set the table for four (because two looks a little lonely), and don’t you love those red polka dotted plates? They have matching mugs to go with the saucers, but I think they look perfect as accent plates.