Little I-Spy & Home Improvement

I finished a little I-Spy quilt for a friend last week, she's leaving for Colorado soon and I wanted to give her a going away present. It's just a little one, but I adore I-spy quilts. 

Something about them just appeals to me. I tend to make mine nature-themed.


I've also discovered that I have spring cleaning fever. It makes me want to fix things. So starting on about the first of the month, I installed a bannister in our staircase, which previously lacked one.

The baby gate on the landing is actually not for the baby. It's for the dumb pets who like to nap upstairs, then wake up and jump down from whatever perch they are on and wake the baby up. So maybe it is kind of for the baby...

A couple of months ago, I drew up some plans on engineering paper for a spice rack to fit above my oven (yes, I know, you shouldn't store spices above the oven. But that's where I like them and so that's where they go in my house). But my carpentry skills are limited, so I commissioned a friend to make it for me. He got it done last Friday, and I just love it!! Other than fitting my space, I designed it to fit the short little Tone's spices. Has anyone else noticed that you just can't get a good spice rack for those suckers? Everything is too tall and ends up wasting space! Or, you're supposed to transfer the spices from the Tone's spice containers and put them into pretty glass containers that only have certain spices labeled. It's all very silly. So now the chaos that was my tiny spice rack and spice cupboard is beautiful once again. Thanks Paul!

Last, but not least, we hung a magnetic knife rack this last weekend. Just ignore the dirty dishes starting to stack up under it, that's not the point.


Anyway, I had been meaning to do something like this for some time, but last week Hazel got tall enough and smart enough to get into the knife drawer. I looked over and she had the handle of the wicked looking shark-shaped bread knife in her hot little hands. Yeah, that was not cool. So now the knives are out of her reach! On another plus side, they are way easier for me to get to and some of the knives that never got used are getting used again. 


I am, as usual, thrilled spring seems to finally be here. It's sunny and beautiful, and snow is predicted on Friday. Yeah, we live in Iowa.