Kitchen Drawer Organization

It was high time I organized a couple of kitchen drawers. We have one drawer for mostly plastic utensils, and one for mostly metal ones. These two drawers have been bugging me for years and I finally decided to do something about it. 

Here's the metal utensil drawer before. It's not too bad, but it was still hard to find the item I was looking for. 

Here's the plastic utensil drawer before. This was actually on a good day. It's usually not this neat. :)

Here's what I bought to help me out. I got all these at Dollar Tree. Those plastic bins actually snap together on the sides.

Here's the "after" of the plastic utensil drawer. Not a huge difference, but it's easier to find stuff now. By the way, that yellow smiley face pringle container works perfectly to pack individual daily wear contacts in when you're on vacation. :)

Here's the metal utensil drawer after the organization. Much better. 

I also cleaned up this little spice drawer. It mostly holds spices, sprinkles, food coloring gels, kool aid, and birthday candles. :)

I had my little helper with me in the kitchen this day. She loves to be right in front of the fridge. I think she likes the warmth that comes out the bottom. :)

Speaking of cats, look what I found at the store the other day. It's called "Meowstard" and it's a condiment to squeeze out onto your cat's food! So weird! No, I didn't buy it. :)

You may have noticed this little green thingy in my drawer. ..

My aunt gave it to me and look what it does...it holds a ziplock bag upright for you if you're pouring something into it! Neat, huh? I use it all the time. It really comes in handy for lots of things. 

The arms are adjustable and it has a little suction cup on the bottom to keep it in place. It has these little clips at the top of the arms that you slide the top of the bag into.

Well, thanks for stopping by! Y'all have a great day!

~Lisa

Random things...

This post is going to be short and sweet. :) Here's a little bit of what I've been up to lately...

This arrived in the mail the other day...Oh my word. It's actually not as hard as I expected it to be, but still a great workout.

My younger son made this for me in Graphics Design class at the end of the school year. It's "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. He knows Edvard Munch is my favorite artist. Wasn't that sweet? :)

I happened to catch Holly mid-yawn, although it looks like she's about to attack. LOL!

I love the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" so when I made this bundt cake, I had to put some flowers in the middle! Have y'all seen that movie? I love it! My hubby and I quote this movie almost as much as we quote Seinfeld and The Big Bang Theory! Yes, we watch A LOT of television. Ha!

My hubby was cooking some tortillas the other day and look how this one came out! Can you see the face? So funny!

Here's Holly right after she caught two baby geckos inside the house! Gross! She was pretty content with herself. Now THAT'S earning her keep, for sure!

That's all I've got for now. Y'all have a great day!

~Lisa

Eating Out of Baby Bowls and Almost Antique Cups

How's that for a post title? LOL! I was looking in my kitchen cabinets the other day and it was kind of weird to still see baby feeding bowls. Especially since my boys are in high school and college now. :) We've kept a lot of their old bowls for pretty much one reason...we eat our dessert out of them. Ha! We really do...it's a small bowl, so you can't eat too much when using them. You can pretty much only fit one scoop of ice cream in them. Anytime we have a dessert, we usually eat out of these. :) Weird, huh?

Here are a couple of the First Years bowls and an ABC bowl.

While I was looking in that cabinet, I spotted these. We haven't used these in years, but I can't throw them away. I ordered them so many years ago. My oldest was really into Toy Story and Ocean Spray had a thing where you could send in some UPCs from their juice and they would send you these collectible mugs. :) 

This is the back of the mug. Notice how it says "on video." Yep, no dvds at that time. :)

And here are some of my hubby's childhood mugs as well. We have Robin, Tony The Tiger, and of course, Batman. 

I think I've shared a pic like this before, but Holly loves to hide under my son's remote control car cover thingy. She's almost too big for it now. Anytime this is out, she immediately gets under it. She thinks she's hidden, but her tail always gives her away. :)

Speaking of desserts...I made this cobbler the other day. I should have doubled the "cobbler" part like my hubby suggested. I like a little more cobbler than fruit in this recipe. And yes...we ate it out of the baby bowls. Ha!

Hope y'all have a wonderful day!

~Lisa

Ice Cream Cake Tutorial

I shared HERE how I made my son an ice cream cake for his birthday. I was a little intimidated to do an ice cream cake, mostly because it's so humid here and I just knew the humidity would be an issue. It was actually pretty easy, once I figured it all out. Here are some pics with an explanation of how I did it.

First I just baked a cake (I used a store bought mix) in two 8 inch rounds. After they cooled, I removed them from the pans and wrapped them in wax paper and secured it with masking tape.

Then I used one of the cake pans and spread some (slightly melted) ice cream into it. I put waxed paper under and on top of the ice cream. After I put the wax paper on top of the ice cream, I gently pressed down with my hands to smooth it out. The heat from your hands will kind of melt and squish the ice cream so it's flat on top. 

Here's a pic of the ice cream in the cake pan and one of the cake layers ready to go into the freezer. 

This is a great tip...I turned my freezer up to freeze the ice cream faster. On my fridge/freezer, a setting of 5 is "normal" and 9 is the coldest. As you can see, I turned mine up to 8. This helped tremendously to freeze the ice cream in the cake pan. 

 I froze the cake layers and the ice cream for several hours in the freezer. 

Then I took the cake layers out and cut any high spots off the top so they would be flat and even. 

I also took the ice cream out and cut about an inch away from the sides. You want the ice cream layer to be a little smaller than the cake layers, otherwise, the frosting won't stick to it very well. For some reason, if you kind of "indent" the ice cream a little, the frosting is able to "hold on" to the cake a little better. Does that make sense? 

Then I just stacked them up with the ice cream in the middle and put the assembled cake back into the freezer for a couple of hours.

Here's what it looked like after it was assembled. You can see how the ice cream is "indented" a little. 

After a couple of hours, I took it back out of the freezer and frosted it. I could only frost about 1/3 of the cake at a time, then I had to put it back in the freezer so it wouldn't melt. It was a long process. :) 

Here's what I stored the finished cake in. I bought this plastic cake container at my local bakery for $2. I bought the cardboard cake round (on the left) at Hob Lob. It was a little big, so I had to cut it down to size with some scissors. 

And here's the finished product! It was really good! 

Here it is after we cut into it. So yummy!

Doesn't it make you want a slice? :)

Well, hopefully you picked up a tip or two on how to make an ice cream cake. Let me know if any of you try it. It's such a perfect cake for a summer birthday. 

~Lisa

Fiskars Fantastic Warranty, Circle E Candles, and Scones

Do y'all have any Fiskars products? I have one of their punches. I use it all the time. I made cupcake toppers for my son's graduation party with my punch. Well, the other day, it broke. Like, the handle completely broke off. 

Case in point...

I actually still had my receipt even though I bought it a couple of years ago. I started by calling Joann's where I purchased it. I asked if I could just exchange it, but they told me to call the manufacturer. They said Fiskars has a pretty good warranty program. Well, I was skeptical, but I called anyway. The guy on the phone said they do give them a lifetime warranty. All I had to do was take a pic of the broken item, then email them the pic with a description of the item. They said to put the word "warranty" in the subject box and include my contact info.  

He said they would mail me a new one once they received my photo. Hmm...I was still very skeptical. I thought for sure they would find a reason NOT to replace it. 

I went ahead and took a pic with my phone and sent it to them with the description (extra large circle punch with scalloped edges) and my contact info. and waited...

Look what arrived a couple of weeks later!!!! A brand new one, with no questions asked! They paid the $6 shipping too! Kudos to Fiskars!! 

Have y'all tried these Circle E candles? I just have this one in the "Bird of Paradise" scent, but it's so, so good! 

I put this on Instagram the other day. Mostly to make my mom jealous. Hee! I made these Mocha Chip Scones and they were so good! The recipe uses Bisquick and it's so easy. It's a Sandra Lee recipe, if you're interested. I'm sure it'll come up if you google it. :)

That's all for now. Have a great day!

~Lisa

Around The House...

I seem to be all about random posts lately. :) I thought I'd share a few pics from the kitchen today. 

I've used Dawn dish washing liquid for years because I love how they donate to Save The Wildlife (and because of how well it works), but did you know it's also an excellent stain remover? I discovered this years ago when my boys were little. Just squirt some Dawn on the stain, and rub it in with some water, then wash immediately. BTW...it has to be the "original blue dawn." Also, I just saw on the Today Show that you can mix 50% Dawn with 50% hydrogen peroxide for a super powerful stain remover. Good to know! (especially if you have boys...what is it about boys attracting so many stains?!)

Sometimes I share these kinds of pics on Instagram with the hashtag "fridge peeks." Ha! I thought this might make y'all laugh...see that note on top of the milk?

Here's a closer look. "Use the half gallon first!" Ha! I bought a new gallon of milk the other day, but we still had an unopened half gallon from the week before. Since the half gallon expired first, I wanted to make sure the boys opened it first. LOL!

And of course, I also had to put a note on the half gallon. :)

Do y'all like these? I'm crazy for these zesty pickle spears! I eat one each day.  

And look at that...NO CALORIES AND NO FAT!! Just don't look at the sodium. :) Speaking of pickles...be sure to check back soon because I plan to do a post about my mom's homemade pickles. Oh my word...they're so good! The best part is that you don't have to boil jars or anything like that. The whole process takes less than an hour and most of that time is spent just chopping up the cucumbers. :)

Look at these cute measuring cups my hubby bought for me at Pier 1! I've definitely trained him well. LOL!

Is anyone else watching "Under The Dome?" My oldest son watches it with me every week. It's really good! My aunt watches it too, and after every episode, we have to discuss it and talk about what happened and what we think will happen the next week. :) I guess that's all the randomness for now. Does anyone else have to put notes on things in their fridge? 

~Lisa

Gel Eye Liner, Lantana, Ferns, and Peanut Butter and Jelly

I put this on Instagram today. (chels70) I never thought I'd like gel eyeliner in a little pot, but I can't tell you how much I love this stuff! It glides on really smooth and lasts ALL DAY LONG. Now, keep in mind I live in a very hot and humid climate and for this stuff to stay on so well is amazing. A friend kept trying to get me to try this stuff and I'm so glad I finally listened to her. :)

Here's a pic of what I bought. I just looked at my receipt and I paid $6.74 at my local HEB grocery store. I also had a coupon from the Sunday paper. :)

I also thought I'd do a little mini update on my garden. I love Lantana. I had a ton of it at my last house and it always did really well. I planted some in the Spring of this year and it didn't seem to be growing very well...until now. Here's a "before" pic taken on May 25th.

You can really see how small it is. That's a soaker hose around it. :)

And this pic was taken on July 24th. In just a couple of months, its grown tremendously! Yes, I still have my flags in the flower pots from the 4th of July. :) I keep forgetting to put them up, then it rains just enough to get them wet, so I let them dry out, then I forget to put them up again, then it rains again etc.  It's kind of like Escher...it just keeps going on and on for infinity. Ha!

I love this fern! We had a freeze a couple of years ago and I thought it was dead. I almost threw it away, but I'm so glad I didn't. I came back better than before! It's kind of hard to tell in this pic how big it is, so I measured it for you. :) It's four and a half feet wide! 

Do y'all like peanut butter and jelly? I used to only eat it occasionally, but I recently discovered my local grocery store has a machine that will grind fresh peanut butter for you. Life changing, people! Seriously, it's soooo much better than the kind sold in a jar. They have 3 containers. One with regular peanuts, one with honey roasted peanuts (my favorite) and one with almonds. You pick which one you want and flip the switch and it grinds it into a little container for you. So neat! It's so good. It's like the difference between store bought frosting and homemade. It's that good. :)

Now y'all go out and buy some eyeliner and fresh peanut butter. I promise you won't be disappointed. :)

~Lisa

Cake Bunting Tutorial

I recently made another cake bunting for my younger son's birthday cake. When I made the one for my older son's cake, I kind of went about it the hard way. Since then, I learned an easier way and that's what I'm showing you today. 

I just googled "diamond shape" and once I found one the right size, I put a piece of paper up to my computer screen and literally traced the diamond onto the paper. Then I cut out that diamond shape and used it to trace diamond shapes on this cute scrap paper. I love this paper that looks like frosting and sprinkles. :)

Once I cut them out, I folded them in half.

I set them on top of my $1 baker's twine I got at Target awhile back to see how they'd look.

Then I covered them with stick glue and folded them over the baker's twine.

Here they are all glued onto the twine.

I used this glitter glue to write "14" on it since my son was turning 14.

Then in typical "Lisa fashion" I changed my mind and decided the "one" and "four" would look better if they were on one flag instead of two. So then I started over and made more flags and used the blue glitter glue to make it how I wanted it. :)

I put a little drop of hot glue on the straws and quickly wrapped the ends of the twine around it so it would stay and wouldn't slip down the straw. BTW, those straws look black, but they're really navy blue. :)

Here's a pic of the finished product, along with some pics of the decorations.

Yes, this is what my house looked like for the party. I recently pulled out this old teepee that used to belong to my kids. I thought Holly would enjoy playing with it, and she does! So, we had a teepee with a cat toy hanging from it in front of the mantel for the party. LOL!

Here's how I used the first bunting I made. I didn't want it to go to waste. :)

I put this pic on Instagram. Here's how the cake started out...it was an ice cream cake! I was nervous making it, but it turned out really well. :)

So good and refreshing on such a hot day!

I plan on doing a tutorial on how I made this ice cream cake soon. :)

One more tip...take the cute bunting off the cake BEFORE you light the candles. :) I also put this one on Instagram (@texasdecor) because I thought it was kind of funny!

Hope y'all have a great day!

~Lisa