No More Tiny Barbie Kitchen

My kitchen has been transformed. Barbie would be proud.


The weather here has been stormy all weekend. Lots of wind and rain. Time to focus my energy indoors. I had been saving up to take a nice vacation the beginning of November. Those plans hit a snag. Hmmmm....what to do with my savings? How about expanding the Barbie kitchen? Time to make another visit to Ikea. My shopping list included: A Varde base cabinet, another Gorm shelf and a a 5'7" x 7'10" Dragor rug. First, let me remind you what my kitchen eating area looked like.


We rarely sit down to eat as a family. The teen is never home and the husband and I work different shifts. The table becomes a catch all for all sorts of junk. You usually couldn't sit down to eat if you wanted to. My first order of business was to move the table and chairs, around the corner, and into the living room. The new rug is underneath it, to protect the hardwood floor.


Now it was time to have the hubby assemble the new base cabinet. Here it is, with Gladys happily perched on top.


Look at all this storage room! Before:


And after I rounded up all my various kitchen paraphernalia from the spare bedroom, linen closet, and everywhere else I'd stashed it:


The second Gorm shelf joined the one already in place. I'll have the hubby fasten them together and install a couple of cheap 4 foot shop lights under the shelves. The plan is to use this space to grow lettuce, green onions and herbs over the winter. I'll keep you updated as to my progress. And you can see that the bottom shelves are handy for storing my crock pot, dehydrator, etc...


The last addition to the kitchen was found on my favorite shopping site, Craigslist. I wanted some type of rolling butcher block island, for additional kitchen work space. When I saw this Oasis Concepts island offered on Craigslist I knew it would be well worth the drive to Kirkland to get it. It was brand new, still in the shipping box, and I paid a mere $100. Sweet!


It doesn't appear my model is offered anymore, but this is the closest. It looks the same, except mine has a towel bar. BTW, if you are in the market for a kitchen island, I highly recommend the Oasis Concepts products. They are extremely well made, and they fold up, in case you want them out of the way. So now you know what I've been up to. The rain continues to come down and the wind is not letting up. I swear, my chickens have webbed feet. Their run is a mud pit, and they are so happy. The 3 of them have produced 6 eggs over the past 2 days. That hasn't happened since the summer. They are truly Pacific Northwest hens.

Drain, Oh!

The girls in our family have long hair and lots of it. And the hubby has a big bushy beard. That means our drains get clogged on a regular basis. Today I noticed that our upstairs bathroom's sink was draining awfully slowly. I could ask the hubby to de-clog it, which he just LOVES to do (rolling my eyes). Or I could try to remedy the situation on my own. I chose the later and remembered that I'd read about a recipe for a homemade drain cleaner. No time like the present to see if it actually works. I assembled my ingredients that included 2 of my all time favorite cleaning/laundry products.....baking soda and white vinegar. Here's what you do. Put 1 tsp of salt down the drain. Then add 1/4 cup of baking soda. Don't worry if you have one of those "self stopping" drains (don't know the official term). You know, the ones with the levers to open and close. That is the type I have in the bathrooms and you can't easily get all the baking soda down there. Just mound it up around the opening, like this.


Now pour 1 cup of white vinegar slowly into the drain, making sure to wash as much of the baking soda down there as you can. Look at all those scrubbing bubbles!


My sink was pretty darned clogged so the bubbles sat there a bit and did their business. Pretty soon the stuff gave way. I let it stay in the drain for an entire 10 minutes and it kept gurgling some more. When the 10 minutes was up I flushed it well with hot water. And no more clog! This is so cool! I feel like a mad scientist.

Its True About Neccessity...

....being the mother of invention. Case in point, my latest knitting design, the Bag Cozy. Lately my focus has been on small, one-skein, useful designs. I've also been trying to improve my self-sufficiency/efficiency and, at the same time, compost or reuse the items in my home. Unfortunately I have a really bad memory. I have a trunk FULL of reusable shopping bags but, more often than not, I find myself at the store check out counter and the bags are, you guessed it, still in the trunk. Which means I end up bringing more plastic grocery bags home. They aren't wasted. I find them handy for lining the smaller trash cans in my home. The problem has been storing them until needed. I used to have a cute cloth bag holder but the elastic wore out very quickly and, at that time, I was too busy to replace it. I gave that bag holder away on Freecycle and began storing my bags like this.


Its not very tidy looking and many times you end up grabbing more than one bag. I thought about buying another cloth holder but then the elastic would wear out again. Finally the light bulb came on. I could knit one. No elastic needed! Yesterday I sat down with needles and yarn and by the end of the day I had this.


The yarn is a washable acrylic/wool blend. It makes the pattern all on its own, as you knit, so you don't get so bored. The cost of the yarn is $7.50. The cozy in the picture is holding these 25 bags, with room for stuffing in a few more.


It dispenses the bags, one-at-a-time, through a small opening on the bottom.


Now to write up the pattern so I can have it ready for its debut at our WWKIPD (World Wide Knit In Public Day) celebration on June 12th.

Who Needs Scrubbing Bubbles?

Yes, those commercials are cute. But don't let them fool you. You don't need scrubbing bubbles to clean your tub. In fact, you don't need any bubbles at all. I have a sparkling clean tub, tub surround and bathroom sink. My secret? Baking soda. That's right, the same product I use to polish my teeth. Baking soda is pretty darn amazing....and cheap. I get the big 13.5 lb. bag from Costco. The cost? A whopping $4.75. Considering I only use about a tablespoon to clean an entire tub and shower stall....that bag will last me a LONG time. I cleaned the downstairs tub today, to show you how well it works. This is the shower my teenager uses. It also doubles as my laundry wash tub.


And here are the items needed to make your tub (or sink) shine.


Oops. I forgot to include an old toothbrush and a clean rag towel in the picture. Here's how I clean the tub. Get your rag washcloth wet. Sprinkle some baking soda on the wet rag and wipe it all over the surface of the item to be cleaned. Re wet the rag and add more baking soda, as needed. Once the surface is coated, let it stand for a few minutes. Then take your scrubby (I get mine two for $1 at my local grocery store) and scrub away. I use an old toothbrush to get into the tight spots. Once you've scrubbed the entire surface, rinse with water and dry with a clean towel. Your tub or sink will shine.