My Creative Space

No fun creativity here... just trying to get quotes for some kitchen modifications to prevent my oxygen from sending me up in flames when I cook....

Hopefully there's something much more interesting going on here!

PS - I'm already struggling to keep up with Blogtoberfest. My google reader has gone crazy and there haven't been enough hours in the day to visit everyone, but I have been reading - never fear! I'm hoping to make my way through the list to visit everyone by the end of the month!

A kitchen update

This was the extent of the kitchen before - a wood stove, sink, and bench with open shelves

I don't think I ever got around to sharing the photos of mums new cottage kitchen (after sharing the before photos).

I took these photos a little while back while things were still a work in progress - notice no kickpanels yet.....

Painting all the wood panelling has really brought out the features of the beautiful original wood stove and mantel.

 

Mum decided to keep the wood panelling natural above the sink (I would have painted it, but it's not my house so I didn't get the final say).

 

.....and at this stage we were still waiting on the new benchtop for the storage units next to the fridge (thankfully it wasn't my error so I didn't have to pay for it - phew)!

Oh and a quick tip if you're doing a kitchen reno - don't order white kickpanels. They are impossible to keep clean. This kitchen is getting black kickpanels which will be perfect for all the country mud!

I still miss my old kitchen.... sigh

Seasonal

 My old kitchen

My hands are all wrinkly today as I've been Spring Summer Re-arranging and Cleaning...

I'm suffering from a severe lack of storage / preparation space in my kitchen, after going from the beautiful big kitchen at my old house, to a seriously small kitchen with hidden corners, and hardly any bench space.


I don't use the kitchen much anymore, except for making lots of cups of tea and coffee, and quite a bit of toast with vegemite or jam, so I decided that I needed a little space just dedicated to this.

I ordered myself a small appliance pantry to sit on top of the cupboard where I used to have the microwave. I was able to find the perfect match for the existing kitchen, but I wasn't able to order the doors until I'd decided the heights of the adjustable shelves inside.

I think I'll probably live with it for a month or so before I finally make a decision.... in the meantime, I'm thinking that I should probably find somewhere a little bit less visible for the tins of cat food!

A bit of re-organisation

My kitchen cupboards have been an absolute shemozzle ever since I moved into my new house. I never really had the time (or the inclination) to sort out the mess.

The biggest problem was that I moved from a lovely big ergonomically designed (by me) kitchen, to a little poky, poorly designed kitchen with inaccessible corners.

So of course, when I moved, everything was just shoved into the cupboards wherever it would fit, and the mess has stayed like that ever since...... until today.

A girlfriend came over to visit and spent the entire time cleaning and re-organising my cupboards while I watched and listened to her lessons.

I had to take photos, because this will be the one and only time the cupboards will look this good!

The room formerly known as....

...the kitchen (slightly blurry photo from real estate agent).


I was chuckling about this post from Jess yesterday, so I decided to play show and tell.

We've had a contract signed on the house (but no celebrating just yet as it's not a completely done deal until the 28th November). The good news is that it means no more inspections for the time being...yippee!

So this is what the kitchen now looks like. I've relegated myself to eating meals sitting on the couch as there's no room on the table anymore. The middle bench has now become the fabric cutting bench instead. I'm hoping to get lots of christmas pressies whipped up while I have lots of room to spread out.

But first, I need to make some tags to attach to my fete goodies....

This is....my favourite kitchen gadget

Sharon has picked a great one this week....I've wandered around the kitchen and had a think about it. I was thinking that the food processor might be my favourite. I can mix a cake batter in it, grate vegetables to hide in other foods (yes I have to hide the vegies for myself or I won't eat them), it can mince things up to a pulp, and I can throw it all in the dishwasher at the end.

But then I had a think about the most essential thing that happens in my kitchen on a daily basis....drinking coffee. I have this whizz bang machine on the bench but I'm usually too lazy to actually use it.....

So, the hands down winner for me is the humble coffee plunger. Single cup size when it's just for me, multi-cup size for when I have company...along with my favourite coffee...Vittoria Espresso.

It means I can make good coffee in a flash...and that's a great thing!

For more players, head on over and visit Angela....and a huge thanks to Sharon for being a fabulouso fill in hostess.

Kitchen Curtain

I finally managed to finish the curtain for the sliding door that leads from the kitchen to the deck.
I had a bit of a love / hate relationship going on while I was making it......

I made the top patterned section first from some fabric that I found in the remnant bin at Spotlight and sewed curtain tape along the top edge. Apparently it was the wrong type of curtain tape so when I pulled the curtain back, it actually fell off the curtain rod!

So back to Spotlight for a different type of curtain tape......

Then I hung the top section again and figured out how long the bottom section needed to be for the curtain to just touch the floor. I cut up the bottom section, sewed it all together, hemmed the bottom, and hung it up again to find that it was about 4 inches too long! I know I shouldn't be using inches (I live in Australia and we use metric measurements) but I was using a quilting ruler at the time! Maybe that was the cause of my problems all along.....

So I took it down again and shortened it.....and then re-hung it.....and thank goodness, the sun was shining and it fit!
It looks pretty good when it's bunched up........ just don't look too closely once it's pulled closed.....


The great thing is that it's made a noticeable difference to the warmth of the kitchen at night and we haven't had to turn the heater up as high (I really should have done this years ago)......

This is.......my creation

Continuing on the lovely meme from Angela, todays fantastic theme is from Betty the Geek.

This was a difficult one because I post little creations on my blog all the time.

I've decided to go with the biggest and most expensive creation that I've ever made!

This was the kitchen of our house when the old owners were still living there. They had floral wallpaper on every wall of the house. The kitchen tiles were light grey with pink spots. The wallpaper border had rabbits in a field of flowers and they covered up the lovely wooden floors with flowery rugs.

When we moved in, we stripped the wallpaper and painted......

Until we could afford to take out the kitchen......

.......and knock down a wall and the ceiling

......before installing a new kitchen

......and last but not least......finally polishing the floors 17 months later!

This is...........Soup...........New Floors

This weeks theme suggested by the lovely Pip is........This is my inspiration board.

I don't actually have an inspiration board. I am inspired by way too many things (books, magazines, tv shows, other blogs, nature, landscapes, art, people, etc) and there are always ideas floating around in my head. So I decided to wander around the garden thismorning and take some photos to make a inspiring garden mosaic.

To see who else is playing along, head on over to Angela's blog!


Pip is also having a soup recipe challenge so here is my entry. I made this soup for dinner lastnight and there's plenty left to put some single portions in the freezer for lunches.

Roast Chicken and Whatever Vegies are in the Fridge Soup

1. Peel and prepare any vegies that you have. As a minimum, I usually use potato, pumpkin, onion, garlic, carrot, and celery (because I usually always have these in the fridge).

2. Choose any extra vegies that you have. I had a corn cob in the fridge lastnight so I added it.

3. Put all the vegies through the food processor using the grating attachment.

4. Put the grated vegies in a large stock pot (I actually use my electric wok).

5. Add chicken stock (I usually use 2 litres).

6. Simmer for a couple of hours.

7. Take all the meat from a roasted chicken (I buy one at my local Charcoal chicken shop for extra flavour). Chop up and add to the soup.

8. At this stage, you can also add Basmati Rice (for a more substantial meal).

9. Simmer for another 20-30 minutes (or until the rice is cooked).

Whoops....I forgot to add this step.....add salt and pepper (as little or as much as you like)!

10. Serve with toast or some nice crusty bread and butter.


And last but not least:

My kitchen floors are finally finished (which is why I was able to cook soup lastnight).

We still have no furniture in there until Monday but at least we don't have to eat takeaway food any more....yippee!

The before shot (bare boards where the old kitchen units used to be and where we took out a wall.

The after shot.......nice shiny floor!

Have a great Sunday.