My friend is a Superstar. She has a Very Important Job where she has to dress like a Grown Up, she organises hugely successful events in her spare time, has 2 beautiful girls and now to add to her list, also does 10km runs and charity swims. When she throws a party (or even a Birthday Soiree just for the 2 of us on my last birthday) every detail is perfect so I was not at all surprised when she told me her plans for her Christmas Phoenix Trading Card party for another of our friends. Rather than just decorate a few cupcakes (or open a packet of biscuits) she set herself the task of making a Gingerbread house based on the design of Phoenix's Townhouse Advent calendar. She rang to ask if I had any gel colours to assist with getting the right shades for the roof and window dressings and I was very glad to help. Unfortunately I didn't get to the party as we had a house and gardenful of John's research students with their partners and kids for a bbq. All went to plan, her gingerbread house was fantastic.
Yesterday she popped in to give back my colours. As she opened the drawer to put them away she laughed and said "See? Honesty!" I was mortified! We agreed that it would make a great Before and After post so here it is!
So this is what she found when she opened the drawer...
I have been meaning to clear it out for a while, especially when she rang last week I and couldn't find anything that she was after! Empty flour containers, upside-down packets, out-of-date stuff, and old, rock solid balls of icing.
So this afternoon while one was at tennis and another had gone comic-shopping with his Dad, I turned on the hose for the 3 wee ones in the garden and emptied the drawer. A whole lot went straight in the bin and everything else got a wipe, re-packaged and returned. One of the things I was most looking forward to when we came to Australia, other than a laundry and an en-suite, was a pantry. Sadly I have none of these still and this drawer and another cupboard have to do.
A wee while later and I had this...
My flour containers are now full, the 3 opened packets of almond meal have now been put into one nice container, all the decorating bits have been clubbed together and I found a use for some left-over jam jars as homes for all my seeds and nuts for Granola making. The kids were quite pleased to see a few packets of Space Dust left after Dad's birthday cake - that was a fun cake!
Anyway, let's see how long it lasts...
Hope you're having a lovely weekend!
Oh I love this post Sandra! Well done on the big cleanup and 'before and after' material for the post... I do enjoy a before and after shot :o)
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE a pantry also, but alas, do not have one, so have a very similar situation to yours... all my baking goods are packed into a large tupperware container... because ironically we have a bit of a pantry moth problem, so need to keep everything in an air-tight seal. Totally not fair having pantry moths, when we don't even have a pantry! ;o) But anyway, one day, I'm sure we'll both get the pantry of our dreams.
And your friend is a marvel. That gingerbread home is simply breathtaking. I couldn't stop looking at it! Gorgeous and I bet it tasted great too xo
Love the gingerbread house, I've bought that advent calendar for my daughter, but we'll not be able to eat ours!
ReplyDeleteNice tidy drawers now. My granny had a pantry, it would be nice but we've no room.
My food cupboard is a tall narrow cupboard that once in a while gets a sort and tins go on one shelf, pasta, rice etc... On the second and baking things on the top. After a day it is normally back to anything anywhere and generally you reach in to get something out and something else falls out. There is always a little heap of sugar, flour, rice ....just under the cupboard....I've become quite a dab hand on catching things as they fall! Reactions of a young thing!
ReplyDeleteGood on you for your messy cupboard pic....I reckon I have plenty more where that came from!
Your friends cake is very clever!
honestly! well its about being it with yourself not necessarily sharing it all the time anyways. Love your post but really the Pantry concept is all relative as the shelves are deeper & easy to lose stuff & takes MORE cleaning out in the long run....do the best with what you have Sandra very proud of your pro-active tendencies, organised chaos works well everytime....adore Gingerbread house she is a clever chic that one & loves it too. xo
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant post hon! I had to laugh - it's like we're living parallel lives! I too had to sort out my entire flippin' pantry last week and it was appalling the amount of out of date things I found all the way at the back! I also discovered that I am a closet brown sugar collector - 5 bags in total!! It is now so organised and tidy that I make all my visitors (not that I have many) come and look at it. How sad is that. Aaahhhh - to feel organised for five minutes huh. Long may it continue! Have a fab week hon.
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