11/3/10

Transformation of a Closet

I am linking to:
Kim's Before & After Party
Thrifty Decor Chick
The Shabby Decor Chick
Vanessa's Inspiration Friday Party
Seasonal Sundays
Organize Your Stuff Now


The closet in question here is the one in our Sunroom.  When The Man enclosed & built our sunroom a couple of years ago, he added a closet.  The reason being that our house is short on storage, so anytime we've remodeled a room, we've tried to add storage if possible.  You have to understand that this room was built a couple of years prior to the re-design of our backyard & the building of the garden shed.  The Man's design of this closet was centered around storage of all my seasonal decorations which are in the large sturdy storage boxes.  He really wanted them out of his garage.  In drawing up the plan, The Man had planned floor to ceiling shelves spaced just right for the large boxes.  All good, you might say, right?  Then, enter the interrupter of all good plans, me.  I suggested how nice it would be to have a wrapping center & a place to do somewhat messy crafts.  Being the great "spoiler" of me, The Man agreed & came up with a new design of the closet.  This included a counter & a bank of drawers to hold my wrapping supplies, & good lighting.  This meant, of course, being able to store fewer seasonal boxes, so he still had a few of those in the garage.  Being the sweet & best DH ever, he didn't even complain.

As this saga moves on, The Man built a garden shed last year & designated one end for the storage of the large seasonal boxes.  These are quick pics of this area with its dust & spider webs.  Oh my!



Okay, on with this transformation.  This is the Before of a very messy closet.  I've been planning this clean-out for a while, so have just been shoving things in wherever they would fit.  Not a good idea.



This picture is the empty & clean closet.  This cleaned out version is actually happening today, because it needed some major re-arranging, and I really wanted to be in Kim's Party.

Where did all the stuff go, you might ask?  Right here!  The plan in my head & on my paper really didn't look so daunting.  Better get to work.  Just remember, one woman's trash is another's treasure!



Now this closet can be all I ever really wanted it to be, a wrapping center/messy craft area & storage for all my home decor collections.  I used to store some old toys from our children's childhood in here for the grandkids, but have found other locations for those items as well.  I do have a rolling 3-drawer cart which houses some fun things for the grandchildren & I acquiesced to keeping Abby's food in here as well.  Otherwise, I'm kind of selfish about the contents of this closet.  The small shelving unit that sits on the counter on the right-hand side holds crafting items, including a glue gun & a heat gun.  There is a rod in the middle that holds a roll of wrapping paper & is easy to switch out when I need to change rolls.


I had this old closet door mirror & thought it might make the space brighter & feel bigger.  Yep, it works.


All of my florals & botanicals are on this top shelf at the left side.  I would prefer to have them on the first shelf for easier access, but they are light-weight & easier to move than all the glass items on the first shelf.  I have to use a step-stool for both shelves.  As my DH puts it, we aren't short, we are just built closer to the ground.  HeeHee!  Ordinarily there would not be Christmas stuff in here, but I've been thrifting & collecting a few really cute items & didn't want to haul them out to the storage boxes in the shed.


On the far right, I have 2 containers.  One holds decorative plates & mirrors, & the other holds empty small frames.  I just have them standing up in these containers so it's easier to see what I have.  Also, all of the items on the far right lower shelf are candle-related, chunky candles, tealights, tapers, holders, burners, etc.  I have a small obsession!




I've tried several different arrangements in this closet & will no doubt try some more as time moves on.  It is, after all, just another place to somewhat decorate & organize so it's pretty & functional when I open the doors.  Hope you enjoyed seeing the transformation.  Actually, I hope you thought it was a transformation.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by.

Carol

11/2/10

OC METRO – Introducing OC METRO's list of Hot 25 honorees for 2010

Hey all you "Mamma Bloggers" out there.  I don't know if this is an acceptable thing to do among my fellow blog-sisters, but I'm going to take a chance.  Our son, Michael, is a chef and is one of the people featured in this article.  I hope you'll forgive a Mamma for crowing.

OC METRO – Introducing OC METRO's list of Hot 25 honorees for 2010

11/1/10

A Fun Little Halloween Nite Dinner

 This is an older post from early November 2010, but our outdoor cooking & entertaining does not happen in the AZ desert in the summertime, it happens in the fall/winter.  Just wanted you to know why we are all about "pumpkins" in this post.  After you read this, head on over to this wonderful party for tons of ideas & fun!


Wow, November is here so let the panic & chaos begin!  The following is the post I planned to finish & send last night, but our little party went on until 9:00 PM.  Then I was too tired & it was too late to do my photos & finish the tale.


Happy Halloween to all my blog-sisters & their families.  As I've shared before, we live in a townhouse in a neighborhood with very few children.  Sadly, most of the neighbors are either retired or Yuppies, & have always been gone or pretend to be gone on Halloween.  That isn't very encouraging for any potential trick-or-treaters, when they can go to the more heavily populated areas of town (or to a trunk-or-treat) & get tons more stuff.  I think in the 16 years we've lived here, we've had a total of 15 Halloween visitors.  I always looked forward to it, would buy all kinds of stuff, make treat bags, & hope we would have a few more.  Well, that hasn't happened.  The last 2 years we had no door-bell ringers. which meant I sent all the goodies with my DH to work for the Marines to munch away.   Sooo, this year I decided we would join the ranks of our neighbors & kind of ignore the whole trick-or-treat thing.  Please don't "Boo" me, I have a little something stashed just in case!  I still want to celebrate, so I am making a fun little dinner & inviting our 85 years young, very dear friend from next door to join us.  I am moving all of our Halloweeny tealight holders & larger jack-o-lanterns to the back patio to make it super festive.  Please join me as I set the stage & prepare our fun little Halloween evening.

This is how the patio looks pre-party.


The simple dinner is getting started.  The menu is: Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin, French Bread, & Mint Brownies.  This is a new version of the pumpkin dish, but I used to make this for our family when our children were little.  They loved it!  This recipe is from PolymerPig
The cast of characters are:


The starring role goes to this guy who will get scooped & cleaned & ready to be filled.  He is rather small, so additional filling will be cooked in a casserole along side in the oven.



Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin Recipe My Way (or link to above to get original version & an easy to-print recipe)


1 lb. ground turkey (or beef)
1 med. onion, chopped
3/4 c. chopped celery
3/4 c. chopped carrots
1 orange pepper (any color you like), chopped
1/2 c. whole corn (frozen & thawed is fine)
2 c. cooked rice (I prefer brown rice)
4 oz. can chopped mushrooms
1 can cr. of mushroom soup
1/4 c. Soy Sauce
2 T. brown sugar
1 - 2 med. size whole pumpkins, cut open & seeds removed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Brown meat, onions, celery, peppers & carrots until meat is browned & vegetable are soft.  Combine with rest of ingredients & stuff (lightly) into pumpkin.  Cook any leftover meat mixture in a casserole dish.  Place filled pumpkin on a foil-lined cookie sheet.  Cook for 1 hour or until pumpkin is fork tender.
This is super hearty almost like a goulash.

Time to set the table.



The patio is aglow.  Well, it would be glowing if it was dark enough.  But, alas, the dark red stuff in the stemware may or may not have made me forget to take any more pictures.  Just take my word for it, there was a lot of glowing from candles & the firepit.  Please don't judge!

Served tea with  Mint Brownies for a yummy dessert.

Dinner was very good & the company was wonderful.  We had a truly lovely evening and think this just may be a new Halloween tradition.


To serve the meal, I ladled some of the filling & a peeled wedge of the pumpkin on each warmed plate & served it along with hot from-the-oven French Bread with good butter.  It was so delicious.


I hope all of you had a great Halloween however you celebrated.  We certainly did. Oh, lest I forget, we had 2 trick-or-treaters!


I'm linking to:
Sew Darn Crafty
 Vanessa's Annual Soup Exchange
The Tablescaper

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