Pantry Talk...

noooooooo, I said "Pantry", not what ya'll thought I said :)

several weeks back I decided to be Suzy Homemaker (my middle name is Suzanne so I can say that and it be true...well, my last isn't House or Home or Shanty so it is half-true), delve into the chest freezer, the two pantries and the cabinets, make a list of everything food-related or household-care related and...

and what? I realized after spending the better part of two days getting this list together that I had no clue how to keep a running up-to-date list of all of these things...

a couple of grocery store trips blew by and I realized my hard work was oh-so-quickly becoming just an exercise in wasting time (and not Fun Time Wasting like on-line shoe shopping for a kitten-heeled pointy-toed pair of leopard print pumps)...I needed a way to keep track of this stuff...

now, in my household binder (DO NOT LAUGH) I have some sheets from organizedhome.com for keeping track of pantry items...but repeatedly printing those lists out whenever I need to update is not my idea of Fun or Frugal (printer ink is freakin' expensive...and those leopard print pumps aren't cheap)...and since I obsess about sloppy lists with cross-outs and write-overs this qualifies as An Issue...
I slogged through Office Max and H/M and looked on-line tryin' to find a sleeve (plastic page protector) where I could print out my lists, insert the lists into the sleeve and then mark the sleeve...but here is where the going got rough...I wanted to be able to have the marks be both smudge-proof and removable so I could update the lists...

I tell ye such a product does not exist*...

Bright Idea Time...

after stewing about this for a week or two, I had my Bright Idea...

our second pantry doors need cosmetic help anyway...they're just plain ol' luan doors with a coat of plain ol' soft white paint on them...we put them up to make the second pantry area once the washing machine and dryer moved on out to the garage...

I've been wonderin' what to do about the pitiful doors...and now I know...

I'm turning the doors into chalkboard doors so I can mark my pantry list there, hang a piece of chalk on a string and involve the Whole Household in keeping the list up-to-date...

look...it's my dream, leave me alone...

the beginnings of the project...lines courtesy of DH who can Draw a Straight Line unlike my Crooked Line self...(please note the new little hook at the top)and I slopped the chalkboard paint on this morning...I'm leanin' towards painting the white area some nice wild colour....like my leftover Autumn Ridge (a wonderful orange that I used in the dining room)...and then there is leftover quarter-round in the garage to hide edge around my uneven chalkboard spaces...

naturally, it was only after putting the first big swipe of Chalkboard Paint on one of the doors that a word flashed through my mind...

Erasermate*....

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*or maybe it does exist and I just don't know how to Google It

*however, now that I see Erasermates are made by Gillette, the point was moot before it arrived in my brain...

of Rubber Bands...

2 silly things strike Real Fear into my heart...the first thing is just a balloon...a regular ol' latex balloon in the hands of a squealing child...because you know that balloon is going to burst with a Huge BaMMM, your eardrums are going to be shattered and your heart will just about stop...and there is a pretty good chance the child will end up shrieking in terror or laughing manically...

if you must give a child a balloon, please, please, please...get one of those silvery Mylar ones...you can even reuse those...but for the love of God, and I'm serious, do not give a child a latex balloon...unless it is not inflated...and it is a medical necessity as the child needs to develop his or her lungs...

the other thing, which brings me 'round to the point, is a Rubber Band...

I grew up with a household where my dad worked as a District Manager for the News-Press and my mom ran a morning paper route before headin' off to her Day Job at a local hospital...and often times I was pressed into service to "roll papers" so Mom could make that job on time...

there aren't too many minor things in life that hurt as much as a rubber band breakin' on your wind-chilled frosty hands as you stttreeeetttccchhhhh that rubber band to fit around the stupid Sunday Edition...let's just say I have Residual Rubber Band Issues...

so, you might say Not Happy was my Emoticon Face when I saw this early in the morning...what is "this"? "this" is 2 rubber bands stretched to the freakin' breaking point on the 2 knobs to the second pantry...because he decided yesterday that he wanted the Kitten Chow on the top shelf and he decided to get the Kitten Chow...regardless of the wreckage...which included a canister of self-rising flour...on the tile floor...

the first few time I dragged his little butt outta the pantry I was amused...so smart! so cute! opening that pantry door all by himself...well, Mungo Mungo did get into the act once the door was opened...

but I sort of lost my patience once the flour got involved...DH (who had the misfortune to be on the other end of the phone conversation when I came across the mess) promised to put a latch on the doors last night...

It appears he forgot...

and when I went to the pantry for this(that's right...I carry the Christmas Cow bag year-round) for a trip to H/M for these because you don't want be around if we run out of these when the kittens are hungry...

and found those Rubber Band Shackles on the Pantry Door, well, that is when I had to seriously debate with myself Just How Much Difference Does 1 (or 2) Plastic Bag Really Make in The Grand Scheme of Things, environmentally speakin'...

as you can ascertain from my havin' the Cow Bag out, my Goody Goody Two-Shoes Side won out...

and then I didn't even need the dang bag because I bought so many cans I kept them on the cardboard box...

now the Cow Bag waits here...until DH gets home and takes care of that Rubber Band Situation...

Strawberry Cakes and Gardenias...

these are two things I simply cannot obtain mastery over (I don't even feel like tryin' to sort out the grammar of that one...I've only had 1/2 a cup of coffee and not much more is forthcoming since I'm in a Let's Ration Mood) and I'm writin' about the Strawbery Cake thing today...

The White Hot Mess that was our son's 24th Birthday Cake...Birthday Cakes should just be spectacular...I'm not sayin' we have to get All Colette'd up, but still...you should get better than Pink Vomit Cake...my only defense is I was pressed for time comin' down to the Party Time Wire...
Strawberry Cakes just seem to slide around a lot...I've used skewers...a lot of skewers...at the same time...on them with little luck...I do tend to pile on the icing (ya'll pretty much gathered that from the photo, right?) so the top gets a little, um, mud-slide-like...the skewers will remain in place, leanin' a bit, while the top of the cake wanders off...usually there is a big chasm somewhere towards the center of the cake...which, of course, I hide with, say it with me, More Icing...

the poor Strawberry Cake above is really 2 Strawberry Cakes...The first layers were made with real strawberry and added "stuff"...unfortunately, I, being slightly attention deficient some days, WENT OFF AND LEFT THE LAYERS COOLING ON THE COUNTER TOP WITHIN REACH OF THE DOODLES!!!! that is a Major No-No around Number 17...you might as well put the pizza/cake/plastic wrap from the broccoli on the floor and say "have at it, guys"...

I tried my best to fix the bramage...I cut and trimmed and finagled so that finally I had a little Itty Bitty loaf cake...for a party of 6 people who like cake...it just would not do...

well, the Cake Mix Gods were smilin' upon me that day because high up up up up on the baking cabinet's top shelf sat One Box of Strawberry Cake Mix (along with a Red Velvet mix that has seen 1, maybe 2, Christmases roll by) but I had no more real strawberries, no more strawberry extract...and, in a Green Moment, I wasn't about to roll out to the grocery store...

so I made the box mix and while those layers were cooling, I just had a Big Attack of Butt On My Shoulders...no way was I letting allll of those expensive (have you priced strawberry extract? 2 and a lotta change for a teeny tiny bottle) ingredients go to waste**so into a big bowl went the salvaged cake pieces along with a nice healthy portion of the cream cheese icing and then I mushed it all together to create Strawberry Sludge...

the Sludge went between the layers, on top (yep, that dark pinky lookin' mess) and around the bottom...

It was, simply, the best Strawberry Cake I've made...ugly as a mud fence, but oh my word...and now I'm thinkin' What About Banana Cake Sludge? and Carrot Cake Sludge?...maybe even Red Velvet Cake Sludge...hmmm...that might be carrying things a little too far...but I really do need to do something with that mix...

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*this is a doodle...and if you look at my blog header, to the Far Right is another Doodle...that is what here at Number 17 we call the little hound or pit bull mixes that are so pervasive in this area of southeast Georgia...there is always some pitiful little dog that needs pickin' up off the roadside...most will run away and eventually meet some horrible end but some, like Bethy Marie below, just walk up to the car and get in...and , so far, the only dogs we've had claimed by owners are the pedigreed ones...these little mixes are just so much throwaway for many people...**that actually means into the garbage can since I added cocoa to the batter...cocoa isn't a dog's best friend...even tho', apparently, Doodles can eat half a cake with cocoa as in ingredient without suffering any dire consequences...other than being scared to death by a shrieking Crazy Woman***

***I promise I only shrieked once...but it was Real Loud....

I Thought of...

awing ya'll with some Great Universal Vision-Truth-Thingie...but the best I can come with as I sit here lookin' at the Big Blue Barrel the Husband plans to incorporate into a rain-collecting system (did it have to be BLUE?...that's all I'm sayin'...)is to show ya'll some pixs...

first up...Mungo Mungo, Clara Clara and Chubby Bubby (formerly Christina)...they're siblings and I adore them (not present are Henri Henri and Cynthia Pretty Pretty...yes, I know...the vet receptionists probably just hate us)...I feel certain my adoration is returned...except, possibly, by Henri Henri...he is a little arrogant...which means, of course, I feel drawn to cradle him like a baby while rubbing his tummy and generally just tickin' him off...then there some Garage Photos...I know...I'm about sick of Garage Photos...and Garages...myself...even mentally sayin' it as Garrrr-aggggghhhh as an English Acquaintance says can't quite make me Give a Rat's Bottom too much longer about the Garrrr-agggghhhh...actually EQ doesn't' drag it out like that but between the British Pronunciation and my Southern Drawl...well, ya get what ya get, I reckon....


Advance Warning: Do Not Adjust Your Monitor...that line you see across some of the garage photos is, lol, my Garage Clothesline for when the weather is too crummy to hang clothes out...I truly wish all of our cat carriers matched...if I weren't so all-fired lazy (and cheap and tryin' to be Green), then I'd be grabbing the plastic spray-paint...the BLUE bins are recycle bins...they'd be gettin' painted too...It still is a long way from Serene and Ready for A Swanky Affair, but oh my word, it is a million times better than it was...and please do not look at the White Wall Behind the Stuff on the Shelving...I haven't been able to work myself up to removing all that stuff for painting...I will, but just not yet...the last photo shows the As of Yet Unpainted and Unorganized Big Pegboard...**

and here are some Pig Photos...because if I can't have a Real Pig (have ya'll read about Christopher Hogwood, The Good Good Pig, not the music-ie Christopher Hogwood who, I'm sure, is lovely....), then Pretend Pigs will have to do...
and, yawn, my Little Project of the Past Week...I took an old cafe curtain rod, painted it black, had Husband chain it up and, voila, Basket Station...I love baskets and I'd love to have an Official Basket Hanger Thing for the corner like my MIL but for now, this satisfies my Cheap Self...I plan to stuff the baskets with some nice Fake Hydrangeas whenever I around to it...and whenever I can find some nice lookin' ones that aren't Crazy Priced***...Hey! Ya'll Can Wake Up Now!!!!!! [VBG]

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*I really really really hate when I take a photo of something and am thinkin' it Looks So Very Good...and then in the Photo I see that I just need to get busy makin' it look like it looks in my mind's eye...sigh...

**and can I say that it has only taken Back-Breaking Labor and some $ for the new shelving (the racks were purchased half-off clearance but the rails & brackets were Not on Sale...a guessestimate would be $150 for all of it) along with our leftover paint to make the garage a lot nicer place than the Pit It Was...

***Crazy Priced means Do They Think I Don't Know These Were Made in a Factory Somewhere Else by Some Poor Underpaid Overworked Person Who Made...Maybe...A Buck for a 12-Hour Work Day? (and I realize that is a Big Ol' Over Simplification...but there it is)

and, lastly, I promise to re-learn how to fix the date on my digital camera...sigh...