KonMari: Office Supplies

February 2018 Reading List

Carolina by Yvonne Lehman
Mountain Man
Smoky Mountain Sunrise
Call of the Mountain
Whiter than Snow

Easy and Healthy Lentil Soup

 

¼ cup olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1½ cups chopped carrots

2 stalks celery, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

2 cups dry lentils

8 cups chicken broth

1 cup spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced

½ tsp. salt

1/8  tsp. ground black pepper

In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery. Sauté until onion is tender (about 3-4 minutes). Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 1 more minute. Add lentils, broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Clutter Busting Challenge February 2018

I'm purging 13 items.

My Purge Pile:

Mini Notebook Crafting

I decorated a mini notebook to carry in my purse. I have a couple of these style mini notebooks. This one is a Five Star brand but I have bought other brands of this style notebooks at the Dollar General. I'll use this notebook in my purse to write down any notes that I need while I'm out of the house.


I used a elastic head band to keep it closed and added a pen.

I decorated the little folders with Mary Engelbreit pages that I cut out from an old page a day calendar and washi tape.

My list of appointment and errands for the day. 

Valentine Treats

This is what I made to give to my grandkids for Valentines day. My husband bought 2 of the larger Pringles chips cans and I saved them for this project. I washed the cans with a damp soapy rag after the chips were eaten. I decoupaged old wallpaper border onto the cans and folded the bit of extra on the bottoms.  I used treats from the pantry and treat baggies that I already. This was a no cost project and my grandkids will love them.


 















The treats before they went into the cans.

 














 All packed and ready to go. I added the treats with the strawberry applesauce on the top and put the lids back on the cans.The foil makes the can look like it hadn't been opened.

Living Room Renovation: Part 2

I worked on the living room all afternoon yesterday. Shawn and I worked on it all evening until midnight. We found some surprises under the wallpaper. As the previous residents in the 1940's-1961 hung the wallpaper they wrote their names and dates on the walls. Amazing and very interesting. It's most likely that the wallpaper we're removing is from the 1961 papering. LOL Its almost makes us sad to paint over the names but they take up a good portions of walls. Shawn loves this type of thing. 

My husband repairing the old vent for chimney for a wood burning stove.

The old wallpaper getting strapped off the walls. 

We fixed a few spots were the plaster was pulled away from the back slats.

Diet Cabbage Soup

 

1 head green cabbage, finely shredded or chopped

2 large onions, chopped

16 to 28 ounces canned tomatoes, chopped with juices

2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped

4 celery stalks with leaves, chopped

6 carrots, peeled and sliced

1/2 pound green beans, stem ends snapped, sliced on the diagonal

1 tsp. garlic

Black pepper to taste

1 tsp. salt

Chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, sage, dill, cilantro, or thyme

Put all the prepared vegetables in a big soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and boil gently for 10 minutes. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until all the vegetables are soft. Stir in the black pepper and chopped herbs.

To Serve: This soup can be served hot or cold. It can be pureed or partially pureed to vary textures. It can be seasoned differently for variety, with balsamic vinegar, lemon or lime juice, different fresh herbs, or chopped green onions.

KonMari: Reaching Click Points for Clothes, Books, and Papers

I'm on cloud 9! I've completely finished the Paper Category. My hold out was my Cooking Notebooks. It took 5 hours but I finished those today. My last categories to fulfill my KonMari goals are to finish projects and reach click points for Children’s Belongings, Furniture, and Sentimental. It can't believe it I'm almost finished. I have hope that I'll make it by the end of this round. :)

Living Room Renovation: Part 1

Shawn and I emptied our living room on Sunday night to prepare to paint. Our living room has painted over wallpaper, done by previous owners. We haven't painted the living room before and we've owned our home for 16 yrs.We're refinishing the floors too. I had removed the Living room carpet when we move in since its was dirty old 70's shag orange carpet.


Our empty Living room.

Our stuff moved around in the family room. We moved the couch and corner cabinet in from the living room. This was before I decide to remove the family room decor.

After removing the decor.

















Our Exercise room turned temporary Living room. We took the decor and end tables to basement.

KonMari: Papers

KonMari: Kitchenware and Pantry Supplies

Before: Kitchen sink and dishwasher. 

 

















After

Before:



















After: I gave it a good scrub.

Before: Our pantry.

After:

 

The discards:

Our Lower pantry.

Before: Our canned good cabinet.

After: