Popsicles & Paint: What I've Been Up to...

I've spent the past two days organizing and cleaning my kitchen and I had to take pictures because it may be a while before it looks like this again (it also gave me a chance to play with my new camera)! So here we go with a tour of my newly organized kitchen...

This is the view of the kitchen from the dining room:

We moved into our house a little over a year ago and

I think the builder did a great job designing the kitchen.

The appliances are nice and there is tons of storage.

Marcos installed the back splash and I painted--other than that

everything is exactly the same as the day we moved in.

Do I like my kitchen? Yes...Is it my dream kitchen? No...

If I had it my way, I would have all of the cabinets painted white, use subway tile for the back splash and replace the granite with marble...My husband thought that I was joking when I mentioned this. My dream kitchen would look something like this:

People (Marcos) say that I need to live in reality, so I have come up with some ideas of how to turn my "real kitchen" into my "dream kitchen" (without painting the cabinets).

First, I will make roman shades out of this fabric (I think):

Tell me what you think because I hope to order it soon.

I also want to replace the pendents with something like these and
the bar stools with something like this :

(I am in love with these stools.)

My Kitchen "To Do" List:
1. Order fabric and make shades.
2. Touch up wall paint.
3. Paint another coat on trim.
4. Sale "stuff" on Craig's List to buy the above mentioned stools.

Marcos' Kitchen "Honey Do" List:
1. Cough up the $$ to buy my new lights.
2. Install my new lights.
3. Fix the grout on HIS back splash.

OK, my mind has wondered on to what needs to be done,
let's get back to what has already been done...My organization:

We don't have a traditional pantry so all of out food has to be stored in cabinets. With some baskets and a little creativity we've made it work for us.

I've cleaned up onion peals one too many times, so I decided to line the bottom of the wire basket that holds the onions and potatoes with tin foil...my broom thanks me.

This is one of the sights in my kitchen that makes me smile. It's an old cracker tin that belonged to my grandmother--every time I see it I think of her.

The cabinet to the left of the stove houses all of the baking goods...

The one to the right houses all of the spices. (This is the one that needed the most help!)

Under the sink:

I mentioned that we have a lot of storage in our kitchen, therefore,
some "non-kitchen" items are stored in there.

Max's art supplies--I learned very quickly NOT to store these in his bedroom! Yellow paint on the sheets and quilt, anyone?