Kitchen: Pantry Organization

As I mentioned this morning, my kitchen is organized and clean!!!! yay!One large part of that was my pantry...

The pantry has been a sore spot in our house. I had organized the pantry about a year ago and during that time I had painted the walls a light blue... I love the way that it added some interest to the pantry. Matt of course thought that I was crazy putting in the effort of painting since this is a space that NO ONE sees... but I see it... and it makes me happy to see the little pop of color each time I open this door. That is until the pantry turned into a disorganized heap. It was getting out of hand and to the point where I was purchasing things that we already had.

 

Things were just being thrown into the pantry with no structure and things were mounting.

 

First, I completely emptied the pantry and just started over. Here is the result!!

It is so nice that everything now has a spot and we can easily tell what we have on hand!

JANUARY: Simplify 101 Monthly Recap

Today is the LAST day in January! I cannot believe how fast time is going!

Earlier in the month I shared that 2013 will be the year that I get organized with the help of Simplify 101

Here is the verdict for January...

Not too bad. I was able to complete a majority of my items and those that were not completed I've added to February.

The biggest accomplishment by far is my kitchen! I shared the beginning of the organization project here, here, and here. I will be back this afternoon with the final Kitchen organization post and the big reveal... I don't think that I have ever shared my entire kitchen... how is that possible after two years??

I'm also still LOVING my new planner! I carry it with me everywhere!

Come back this afternoon to see my pantry and under my sink!!!

Hunter is 20 Weeks Old

20 Weeks Old!!

This week:

• Hunter rolled over!!! In the middle of the night I went to pick up Hunter for a feeding and I found that he was not as I left him... He rolled over! So exciting
• Hunter LOVES some banana! Lots of photos below! I couldn't pick just one. He doesn't really eat very much right now it is more about the smells and textures of the foods. Also, Dinner is a time where Hunter obsesses over his big sister. Emma sits across from him and Hunter just looks at her the whole meal. He loves her sooo much!
• Little Jumping Bean!!! Little man has taken his love for jumping to a new level... now he will jump like crazy even if we are just holding him on our lap 
• Hunter celebrates his big sister... Emma's indoor soccer team had their first victory in three seasons!! Emma was even in goal the second half and only let in one goal. She was a super star.

Two years ago today I became Mrs. Park

So happy to be celebrating two years as Mrs. Matthew Park.

On January 29, 2011 we not only became husband and wife but also a family as Matt vowed to love and protect Emma as he would his own child.

and in the last two years our family has only grown with the introduction of our little man, Hunter Matthew Park. I am so happy that I have a life long partner and friend in Matt!

Hunter is 19 Weeks

 Hunter turned 19 weeks last Wednesday... yes I'm a little late in posting this!

This week:

• Hunter sat at the table in his little high chair for the first time during a meal. Hunter really seems to enjoy scooting up to the dinner table and interacting with the family. We opted for a great Fisher Price high chair that attaches directly to a regular seat... More on that product next week when I update Hunter's Favorite things... 
• Hunter had his first taste of solid food. Hunter had a few little pieces of an organic strawberry and he loved it! We are doing Baby Led Weening which will allow Hunter to "tell us" when he is ready for solids. This will bypass typical "baby food" and will allow Hunter to eat what we eat (with a little extra prep on my end).
• Hunter turns pages in a book. The other day when Hunter was sitting with me he started to grab the pages of the book we were reading and was turning them himself... of course he was turning at his own rate so we were done with the book SUPER fast. It was just exciting to see that he knows that the next page is there and that he can flip it over.
• Hunter is tall enough to really JUMP in his jumperoo. Up until this week his feet could hardly touch the ground... and we even put a piece of wood down so that he could stand better. But he was just content with standing and looking at all of the toys around him. Now he will jump up and down yelling!
• Hunter actually seems to notice Sophie! Little man will now look at Sophie and just stare in amazement. He also now laughs when Sophie gives him a kiss.
• Hunter is already starting to play favorites. From day one Emma has been a favorite of Hunter's but now he is also starting to show some favoritism in the parent department. Hunter loves it when I kiss on his neck but if Matt gives kisses it is a whole different story! Matt also says that when Hunter cries with him it seems like Hunter will look around the room everywhere 

Kitchen Organization: Part Two

What What... Two posts in one day!

As I shared here a huge goal for January was to get my kitchen organized! I've already shared how I organized my baking section here and coffee station here... Now for my Kitchen part two post... this baby is a MONSTER!

Matt always asks me why I would share a before picture because there is so much shame in how unorganized we really are at this point... but it isn't worth seeing an after photo if you do know where we are coming from...

For this project... that I actually tackled a few weeks ago (as you can see from the 16 weeks on the chalkboard) I FORGOT to take a before photo... so her is a photo with all of our stuff already pulled out of  the cabinets. Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better people.

The first thing that I did was clear out the cabinet above our wine storage (Sorry no before photos)... We previously had wine glasses up here that we had NEVER used! Off to Salvation Army they will go! I moved all of our call appliances up here to clear up a lower cabinet for Hunter's meal items... more on that later in the post.

Next I took on the junk drawer... here is the "organizer" if you can even call it that in the state that it was in puller right out of the drawer...

and if that does not look disorganized enough... all of the below items also came out of the same drawer... YES all of this crap was just piled in! I mean do we really need FIVE decks of cards upstairs in our kitchen????

Look I even found MONEY! 35 Euro!

Here is the drawer once items were tossed, placed where they belong, and organized!

Now for my Little Man's cabinet! Before we know it Hunter will be joining us at the dining room table! To make our transition easy I've decided to devote a cabinet to Hunter so that all items can be easily accessible. Here you can find our Baby Bullet, Sippy cups, plates, bottles, spoons and bibs.

I love having his bib easily accessible on a command hook attached to the door!

P.S - Look at the super cute plate that Santa brought for Hunter. Santa must know that I love some personalization!

Another drawer that I forgot ot take a proper before photo of... You can kind of see it in my first photo... it was home to 4 different place mats and about 6 different colors of the paper drinking straws with stripes. Once everything was put away in the proper place we were left with a much more functional drawer.

Cleaned out our bread drawer also...

and our dish rag drawer... oh the excitement

Finally I took this time to clear out and organize the space under the wine rack... aka casa de toaster... Here I added our monthly "tickler" files that I discussed here. and created a spot for a notebook, our address book, and thank you notes.

Here is the section of the kitchen that I took on! Now a SUPER ORGANIZED and super clean space. Is it corny that I get excited every time I see this spot in our kitchen?

And here it is with the roll door down...

ehhh... I hate the door/drawer pulls!!!... Also not a fan of the pink counters! But I have to work with what I have... this kitchen does not look too bad for a 16 year old kitchen.

Quick Coffee Station Update

Over the weekend I tackled a quick and easy coffee station update and wanted to share!

This is what our coffee station started out looking like... not too bad... but I hated that you could see all of the cords on the back and we had to have it pulled out to the edge of the counter so that you could lift up the lid and insert the K-Cups...



Oh and you my be interested to know that the cords in the back are actually to the waterline that my SUPER AMAZING hubby installed! No filling up our water reservoir each day! Just ignore the fact that we still need to repaint the wall!

And for my simple update... by moving the K-Cup dispenser to the side of the machine we are now able to open and close the top while tucked neatly under the counter!

I love that it clears up space AND hides all the cords behind the machine. Everything just seems a little neater to me.

Here is a close up!

Now I feel like the Logan's Roadhouse container sticks out... This is where we toss our used K-Cups

So I ripped of the label... But that was just plain and boring

So I cut some vinyl on my Silhouette Machine...

Did you tackle any quick updates over the three day weekend?

Hunter is 18 weeks & update from 4 month appointment

Sorry this post is a little late... I wrote it on Wednesday but wanted to wait for our 4 month doctor appointment on Friday!

 

 (Hunter is not too enthusiastic about his weekly photo...)

WHAT WHAT... Little guy is 18 Weeks! Each week it just seems impossible that another week has gone by! It seems like Thanksgiving was just yesterday and that I was just starting to come back to work a few hours a day... and in reality that was almost two months ago and I'm back full time... How are we already in the middle of January. 

This is where we currently are at 18 weeks:

WORK:

I think that I am back in my groove (working 8 hours a day) and we have a really great schedule that is working for my little family. I love that I go in early and that I am able to get off in time to pick up Emma from school and spend the afternoon with my kiddos.

I know that soon I will be asked to travel... my goal is to have Hunter at 6 months before I go on any trip. With breastfeeding exclusively it will be logistically difficult to be away for multiple days but we could manage... This may be TMI but I have managed to stockpile almost 300 ounces of "mommy gold" in our freezer. This has not been an easy task but I knew that with going back to work often times your milk supply will decrease and I also knew that at some point I will need to travel... so I'm sure it is no surprise to everyone that I am prepared. and if you think it is funny that I call it mommy gold... it really is like gold in my house... I've even cried about spilling and waisting an ounce. Maybe I'm crazy but this mama does not mess around with her little mans food!

FOOD:

As I stated above Hunter is exclusively on breast milk and he is a GREAT eater... as you can tell from his weekly photos! We are still waking up to eat in the middle of the night but luckily we are down to one feeding. 

Matt and I have done a lot of research on Baby-Led Weaning and discussed with our pediatrician this morning at our 4 month appointment. We are going to give it a try... will devote a post to this at a later date as we will hold off on introducing food for about a month.

SLEEPING:

Little guy is sleeping great! We are down between 9 and 9:30 at night and up for a feeding before I go to work at 4 or 5 a.m. After the feeding I put Hunter right back in his bed and he sleeps for Matt until 9 or 10 a.m.! 

SO great! Hunter also puts himself to sleep... right after our last feeding of the day Matt and I take Hunter downstairs, change his diaper, read, turn off lights, walk in the dark while I recite Goodnight Moon by heart, I sing a little song, and Hunter goes right down in his bed. It works for us... would have never worked for Emma... SHE WAS SOOO DIFFICULT! 

Play/development:

Reaching out for everything and putting everything in his little mouth! Loves to jump around. Can sit assisted and if he falls forward a little he can hold himself up on his hands. Still no rolling over but I really think that he will be doing belly to back any day now.

Doctor says that he is doing GREAT developmentally and that he is even strong for his age. Let me just tell you that Hunter was mesmerized by Dr. R during our appointment.

DOCTOR STATS AT 4 MONTHS!

Height: 27 inches (99%)

Weight: 16lb 6oz (79%)

Head: 42cm (44%)

Kitchen Organization- Baking Section

One of my goals for January is to work on kitchen organization. I've been taking it one section at a time and the organization is also involving a DEEP CLEAN... removing every drawer/shelf and cleaning each and every crack... I figure that if I'm going to tackle this project that I better do it right!

First section is the drawer and cabinets that are home to our baking supplies. 

Here are our before pics. I have to admit I am not proud of these!

I mean just look at that mess. Things just randomly pilled on other things because there just was not enough room for everything. When we would pull out the drawers in the base cabinet things would constantly fall into the back of the cabinets and things were just generally dysfunctional... we would need to move five things to get to the one item we needed. Horrible!

With everything removed and cleaned I decided to move up the drawers creating a shelf on the bottom of the cabinet. Time to make these babies functional!

On the base I put our baking pans for breads, cupcakes, brownies, cakes, and Emma's new mini doughnut pan. 

Next came the bottom drawer... Here I paced out mixing bowls, glass measuring cups, sifter, and grater... can you believe that previously only the metal mixing bowls could fit in this cabinet! Now that this space is organized I can actually hold more down there! CRAZY! 

And... in went the top drawer with my glass baking dishes. 

Here is our bottom cabinet all nice and organized!!! 

Here is our top drawer organized! All of our mixing utensils  cake decorating supplies and other items! LOVE the organization... I used a Tory Birch shoe box to hold the cake decorating supplies. I just love the graphic colorful designs on the box! 

This is just the beginning! I cannot wait to finish the kitchen and share all of the details with you!

What are you organizing these days?