Kitchen Reorganization and TAST

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!
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Last weekend was spent doing some much needed reorganizing in the kitchen. I want to remodel it (soooooo bad) but finally decided (after much wailing and gnashing of teeth), that now is not the time to do it. In a few years we'll revisit the idea. Anyhoo... I decided that a hanging pot rack was the best way to go to get some much needed extra storage. I could get all the pots and pans out of the cabinets which would leave me room for other things... like food! ;0)

We headed out to find the perfect pot rack, with a stop along the way at Guitar World so Glenn could do a little drooling over the guitars. He had a great time playing all the REALLY nice guitars and we are hoping to be able to get him a good Martin acoustic in the spring. We liked it best, it had a nice, deep, rich sound. While we were there, Glenn looked up from his guitar and said, rather quietly... "There's Randy Johnson." I peeked around the corner and sure enough, there he was, all 6'10" of him. We kinda grinned and went about our business but the teenagers in the room about had a fit. As soon as he walked out of the room they all got on their cell phones, calling their friends and letting everybody know who they just saw... kinda like I'm doing now, come to think of it! Oh well... we don't see celebrities too often (since we never go anywhere) so I guess I'm allowed!

So, back to the pot rack. We finally found what I wanted, a for real, honest to goodness Calphalon stainless steel pot rack, with room for all my pots and pans. I put it together while Glenn watched the game and then he hung it from the ceiling. I like it where it is, although the huge overhead light is really close by.


It hangs right over my work area, which is a 2'x3' storage rack covered with a nice piece of white cutting board that we got at a restaurant supply store. It provides lots of space for prep work and is right in front of the stove, very convenient.


With the rack up, I was able to spend the next few hours rethinking how I wanted the kitchen to work. Now that it is done, and everything has a place (and is actually IN that place) I think it will work just fine.

There are a few more pictures on my Flickr page if you want to see more and/or bigger pictures.

I did manage to get some stitching done. I finished Block 2...

adding a seam treatment using Arrow stitch... part of
Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST)

and also Portuguese Stem Stitch (also from TAST)

The Portuguese Stem Stitch is snuggled in between two lines of back stitch wrapped in perle cotton.

These blocks seem to be getting done so slowly... I need to push a little bit more and get them done and quit messing around. I keep wanting to make intricate seam treatments, forgetting that the ones on the outer blocks need to be kept simple and streamlined so they fade into the background a bit. If I keep telling myself that little fact, maybe I'll actually remember it!