Maintain the Awesome.

So my list of projects that I wanted to accomplish for Lent is ALMOST complete.
And the rest of the projects on the list are things that I have to wait on.. with the exception of pulling weeds up inthe front yard (ugh)

So here's some of what I've gotten accomplished:
Cleaned the laundry room
Cleaned up the carport
Pulled up tack strips in the master bath
Pulled up tack strips & carpet staples in the guest room
Pulled up tack strips & carpet staples in the living room
Painted the oven
Put the final coat of paint on the kitchen walls
Cleared out the living room closet
Emptied out and reorganized the kitchen cabinets (getting rid of anything we don't use)
Cleared out my shoes that I don't use.
Tackled & defeated the ENORMOUS pile of backed up laundry & developed a system to avoid it's return.
Created a weekly maintenance schedule for the house so that I'm not overwhelmed by it anymore.


The list of things I still need to do include:
Make storage boxes for the guest room - although with all of the stuff I'm getting rid of, I'm running out of a need for them. I will, however, need several for the house in general, so I'm going to make them anyway.

Ok guys, for real this time.

My mother is not a chef. She did not bring culinary masterpieces to the dinner table when I was growing up.. in fact, in my house, Daddy did most of the daily cooking.
What my mom DID do well, however, was follow directions. When it came to creating delicious food, her philosophy seemed to be "leave it to the professionals"

In that mindset she made us countless cakes, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, and all sorts of delicious treats, by following the directions on the back of the box.
After struggling and STRUGGLING with the Green Velvet Cake which is due tomorrow, I finally had to go back to my roots. Do it like my mom would have done it - not by using a boxed mix, but by leaving it to the professionals.

Here's why:
In 1889, McCormick & Company was started in Baltimore, Maryland by 25-year-old Willoughby M. McCormick. First products were root beer, flavoring extracts, and fruit syrups and juices, sold under "Bee Brand" and "Silver Medal" trademarks; "Iron Glue" (Sticks Everything But the Buyer) and "Uncle Sam's Nerve and Bone Liniment" (For Man Or Beast). Products were sold door-to-door and the motto was "Make the Best - Someone Will Buy It."

Organization Week.

When Shane and I first started dating. I was nearly as type A as they come when it came to the house.. at least when it came to his house. My place was constantly disheveled, but his apartment was SPOTLESS.
When we bought our home together, that stopped.

There's plenty of things I can blame it on, but the gist of it is this: Our schedule got more hectic, and what little cleaning I could do became more and more futile.. the house was older and dustier, and much bigger.. we added two fluffy puppies to the mix (OMG FUR)... we started doing demolition on projects that we couldn't afford to finish.. and we inherited more furniture and stuff than you could ever imagine.

My $15 Stove.

We've done a lot of work to this house since we bought it.. but there's certainly a long way to go. We have a "wish list" a mile long of things that need to be replaced or updated. Each room has it's own list.
For the kitchen, replacing appliances is a major one. Our cabinets have been redone, we replaced the counter tops, we venetian plastered the walls... but those ugly almond appliances still sit, laughing at me every time I want to have a nice kitchen.

Well new appliances aren't cheap.. and we have plenty of other things that are also not cheap that need to be done. So the priority list gets a little blurry.
The other day while I was exploring the hardware store the other day, as I occasionally do.. I found this:

It's a high heat enamel, stable at temperatures up to 1000degrees for recovering grills and things... and also for recovering your stove!

For $15 per can, I HAD to try it.. if it worked, it would be the miracle my kitchen needed. If it didn't turn out so great, it would at least not be almond anymore. what a terrible color!