It’s that time of year again. We actually really enjoy hosting Thanksgiving, and this is the first Thanksgiving since 2019 that M will be joining us (Covid gap year in Breckenridge followed by four years of college in Iowa). But it’s also a project. In Novembers past, we’ve pondered Big Issues like whether we have enough sheets, or enough wine glasses, or if our refrigerator may die soon. We typically try to organize something-or-other, like the basement playroom, especially, which has historically been Cousins Sleepover zone. It’s a little bit like that nesting urge when you’re pregnant.
This year’s been no different. One project was our spice cabinet. I swear, I think anyone who has a beautifully organized spice cabinet probably isn’t someone who actually cooks. There’s no way you can have matchy-matchy containers when you’re actually using garlic powder and nutmeg: things have to be stored in different sizes according to how quickly you go through them! And I’m not one of those people who’s going to do ASMR restocking videos: I’m too busy doing actual activities for that. But with the confluence of my little double-decker carousel shelf getting rickety, the sheer shame of disorganization causing me to double-buy spices when people were losing food stamps, and my Thanksgiving nesting instinct, I did a major purge and reorganization. Now all the spices are alphabetized except for the super tall ones, and I feel very Zen about it. I brought a big bag to the free fridge, too, and they were all gone when I visited again two days later. So…. Ta da!
For his part in the kitchen organizing, Cute W bought a new toaster oven (a Breville Mini) because our old toaster oven had been only responding to requests after four or five button pushes, and then had been making its own decisions about how brown our toast should be. But as part of that process, Cute W reorganized the items on our kitchen counter, which has been acquiring new residents to accommodate his extremely fancy home coffee making habit. And just by shuffling things around, we have a better work space. So: yay!
On Friday, I did my preliminary, main grocery shopping trip. It was a lot of stuff.
Cute W has also been working on a DIY project that was a birthday present for me. You may recall that we fixed up our back room, which I use as my office, a while back. It was a big project, so we ran out of steam by the end and didn’t paint around the window sill, which means we also didn’t put the window shades back up. The window shades thing was kind of a bummer, because the room is very bright in the morning, so bright that in order to see my computer monitor, I’d have to hold my arms up to block the sun. But meanwhile, I wanted something extra: a shelf to stretch across the window so that I could put more of my plants there. And, while we were at it, Cute W decided that we should make the bench that covers our radiator a bit wider, mostly because the cats love to sit there in the winter, but the surface was not entirely wide enough for a cat bed, so sometimes they would randomly fall off. And also because the surface was this yucky laminate stuff. Last week, he finished it:
And after a few days of letting the paint cure, I was actually able to arrange my plants on the shelves this weekend! I am extremely happy about it!
It brings me a lot of joy. Plus it inspired me to get my bookshelves a little more organized, pulling out some books to swap with family over the holiday. And while I was putting the room back together and washing our (fantastic) rug, I did a bit of a scrub-down of the pads under our rug at just the right time, as it was beginning to snow.
Another project I was tackling on Friday and Saturday was creating some new cloth napkins inspired by this Instagram post. This appeared on my feed probably a year ago, and I saved it, thinking it was a good idea to do someday. Then, when I heard Joann’s Crafts was closing, I reported to my local store and bought some fabric for the project, which has been lying in wait since the springtime. This process was pretty comical, because bless this influencer’s heart, she is unbelievably adorable in an extremely beautiful house, and she shows you how easy it is to rip linen napkins, demonstrating on camera and making fantastically gorgeous napkins instantly. She mentions that there are “usually a few threads” when you wash them the first few times. So.. how did that go for me? Let me show you in pictures. First, my “before picture,” and then a picture from after the first rip, when I realized that I wasn’t great at ripping in a straight line.
So, that’s too bad. I persevered, and after ripping my napkins, I put them in the washing machine. And here’s how they came out:
“A few threads” indeed! I was able to disentangle and trim all of the napkins, and then it was a trip through the dryer. Here are some post-dryer shots:
I’ve gotta say, I was feeling pretty discouraged during the process, and if I had it to do over again, I might have made the napkins a bit bigger to start with, because more than just a few threads have been lost. But I’m happy with the final product. So even if it was not as glamorous and easy as it appeared, I’m glad to have a nice stack of cheap and pretty napkins.
And if you want to make them, here’s where she tells you what kind of fabric to buy.
Along with Thanksgiving preparations, we’re also preparing for our Christmas kick-off, since we want to take advantage of both kids being home to acquire and decorate our tree on Saturday. Today I prepped our caramel-filled chocolate cookies and popped them in the freezer, plus I crushed graham crackers for magic cookie bars so that I can fill the holiday tins quickly and easily after our Thanksgiving visitors go home on Friday.
