DIY Spice Rack January 3, 2014

My cupboards are not set up to accommodate the amount of spices I own so what ends up happening is a bunch get thrown into baggies and I feel so disorganized trying to sift through all the numerous bags trying to find what I’m looking for (see below).  

Spice chaos

I finally got fed up and started looking for a solution online and I couldn’t believe how much places were charging for spice racks that I could mount on the wall so I decided to make my own with some help from the bf.  He had some leftover magnetic sheet metal (below) but you can buy them at a hardware store for under $20 depending on the size.  

Old scraps of magnetic sheet metal

We decided to paint it but the bf wanted things precise so he drew a grid on where he wanted the spice tins positioned. I was going to just glue the magnets on the tins themselves but he wanted them on the sheet metal in case I wanted to use the tins for something else in the future.  Smart man. We glued the magnets and then spray painted the sheet metal (pics below).  Fyi, the tins were purchased online at http://www.specialtybottle.com/metalcontainers.aspx.  Note the clear tops, although pretty, will not be good for the spices especially if it is exposed to light.  I also purchased the screw top lids in case a tin happened to fall from the board.  You need powerful rare earth magnets which can be purchased cheap online (Amazon) or Harbor Freight stores but they were sold out of them when we went there.  

Grid for the magnets

 

Spray paint complete

The last step was mounting them to the wall (simple heavy-duty velcro) and then labeling them and cutting them to size to fit each container.  Super easy and now I feel organized and cooking just seems so much easier to do now.  Yay! 

Test mount before adding labels and spices

 

Final product

 

Food Pic Friday ~ Summer Loving February 22, 2013

Food pic Friday: Random photos of food or drinks I make or put together at home because for some reason I can’t eat out all the time.

I’m longing for more sun or less rain, either one will do. This is not a surprising statement coming from a Portlander this time of year. So my food pic this week reminds me of summer so it seems fitting to put it up given my desire for warmer weather.  I can eat this way any time of the year but it’s a summer favorite so here it is.

I can stroll through Trader Joe’s or a nice deli (Pasta Works in this instance) and pick up a variety of foods and call it a meal. Pictured above and below include the following: cured meats (both Italian and Spanish from TJ’s), cheese (TJ’s vintage reserve cheddar is bomb), crackers (TJ’s), bread, fruit, imported sardines, white fish spread, lardo and salad. I also love marcona almonds but it never made the photo. Very filling and easy. Ahhhh is it summer yet????

Happy New Year and Thank You! January 4, 2013

I don’t really pay attention to stats or referrers to my little blog because I do it for fun.  I don’t care so much about my sentence structure or misuse or lack of punctuation and I apologize for that.  I do however try to spell everything correctly so I can keep your cringing to a minimum.  Try is the important word ok?

Anyways, thank you to everyone who is following me and taking the time to read my entries.   My goal is to check every one  of your sites because I tend to write a blurb then log off and forget about it until it publishes and then I realize people are actually reading it!  Who knew right? Ha!

So WordPress sent me my “year in review” and I noticed some local bloggers that referred people my way so I wanted to thank them as well and I hope I can return the favor and send a few people to their site too.

The entry they linked me to is here:  http://talkeatdrinkportland.blogspot.com/2012/07/swift-lounge.html

Check them out if you live in Portland!  They review happy hour spots around town and I’m always looking for new places so I can’t wait to read their suggestions.

Happy New Year to you all and thank you again!

Cheers,

B

 

Hello world! August 14, 2010

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