I do have a nice kitchen pantry closet that I keep my spices in, but there are several different spice rack set-ups in there. One of them is a double-decked lazy susan. Another one is a newer kind that I cannot remember what it is called but it is ingenious in the design – it has four shelves that flip and twist and slide around. To be honest, I’d like something like that on a larger scale because this particular one only holds small cans and bottles, and many of the cans, jars and bottles that spices are sold in just do not fit. That is the most aggravating part of storing spices, don’t you agree?

There are a few things that I collect in this world. And the main thing that I love to collect is purses. It’s just that it’s so much fun when you can wear around your collection! I’m kind of known among my friends for my bag obsession but it’s gotten to a point where I really need to find a better way to store of them so they’ll still be in good quality.

I want to be able to see more of my collection too and was looking for some ideas when I saw information regarding bankruptcy alternatives. We’ve talked about our debt and different options like debt settlement, counseling, and other alternatives for a while and we’d love to avoid it, so we’re going to have to read some more into it.

I found a shelving system that I’m going to try and recreate so that I can keep all of them organized. If only I had a dust bag for each one of them! Maybe I’ll look into that and attaching a picture of the bag on the outside of each bag so I know which one is in which bag.

I was looking at a website I found recently – houzz.com – and saw that it had a lot of resources for interior decorating. Some of the featured bathroom designs really made me want to have my master bathroom renovated; there were some fabulous baths there. The website has a search function to search for a local professional interior designer. Out of curiosity I typed in the name of my town, and was very surprised that there were no results. The biggest reason for my surprise is that just last week I met two different ladies that told me that they are professional interior decorators! The next time I see them I think I’ll mention this website to them as a resource and suggest that they check it out. My guess is that they will have to pay for a listing, but I think it is worth checking out anyway. After all, when trying to promote a business, all avenues should be explored, right?

Every now and then I would find a couple of bronze address plaques that identified the rooms behind them. Sadly none of them were the office that I was looking for. Looking around for a building directory and floor plan, I couldn’t even find one of those! Maybe I just entered the building at the wrong entrance, I don’t know. But as I was wandering around, looking at the different custom address plaques I was getting frustrated because I am sure that I was going around in circles for a while.

Finally I used my cell phone to call the doctor’s office and told them that I was hopelessly lost inside their complex, and they gave me directions on how to get to their office. I never realized before then exactly how important personalized address plaques could be for a business complex and their customers!

My wife and I have decided that we are going to put a large storage building out in the back yard. One large enough to be used as a two car garage and storage to boot. We’ve been taking a look at the code requirements and expense of having one stick built versus buying a kit from a company like Future Steel Buildings and have it delivered. One of the advantages of the Future steel buildings over a stick built wood building is that with a metal building there is never any concern about termites or carpenter ants or carpenter bees or woodpeckers destroying the building.

Having seen the front door of my mother-in-law’s house destroyed by carpenter bees, and my brother-in-law’s wood siding ruined by termites, I think that we will save ourselves a lot of aggravation by going with metal. Checking with the code enforcement officer of the town, there is nothing standing in the way of us getting a building permit for the building once we decide which one we are going to want to order. We will need a set of plans to show the town code inspector to make sure that they will be approved, but that should be as easy as pie. From what I understand their biggest concern is the snow load rating of the roof.

One of the sheds was strictly for lawn and garden products – the serious stuff like lawn mowers, bags of mulch and fertilizer. We called that “the tool shed.” The other Arrow Sheds were used to store bicycles and skateboards, wagons, croquet sets, badminton nets and horse shoes. We called that the “toy shed.” I have to admit that was a pretty good system to have separate sheds like that. Kept the kids out of the potentially dangerous things that were stored in the tool shed.

Yet, I’ve read that spices should not be kept near a source of heat, so that tells me that they should be stored away from the range. I like the idea of the racks that fold up under the cabinets, but they don’t seem to hold very much.Organizing a kitchen would be so much easier if all spice cans and bottles were the exact same size and shape; it is difficult to properly store so many different odd mix and match containers!

Right before Christmas my mother decided that she wanted me to accompany her to a fantastic display up at the Shenandoah Caverns. The display was of historical parade floats, and antique
Christmas window displays from storefronts.

Having always been fascinated by things like that, I readily agreed, although I would have preferred doing it after Christmas. Nonetheless, we went up there and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the window displays. One of the things that I really appreciated was the fact that the main room of the window displays was decorated with artificial flowering wisteria hanging from garden arbors.

The effect of the flowers climbing the arbors was very effective, and it made the entire room feel charming and romantic and old fashioned. The display has inspired me to put an arbor on my “wish list” for the landscaping plans for the side yard of the house.