The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1.  I cleaned the front porch.

2. It's nice to be able to open the screen door and get a breeze.

3. Himself was tired of the Oak Barrel so we had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant. The place was noisy but the food was delicious especially the bread.

4.  I was meeting a friend for lunch. Himself parked on the good side of the driveway and set the radio to my favorite station.

5. It's a head cold. At least it happened before Two Old Ladies On the Road

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1.Over the weekend we had a rainy, dreary day, and I was not a slug

2. I had the first lobster roll of the season

3. One of my students taught herself how to make chainmail. She made me a bracelet.

4. I cleaned the flat file aka the dining room table

5. Thursday was the perfect weather for eating lunch outside and ice cream

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I made a big dent in cleaning the studio

2. We are enjoying our tradition of watching Holy movies during Holy Week.

3. Temps got in the 70s! I had my afternoon tea in the sunroom

4. Made the Easter deliveries to the grandnieces and grandnephew and ordered gyros takeout

5. Another week, I couldn't make it to Teague's, but we video chatted.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. We enjoyed a new to us series Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol

2. Because I had been sick, we postponed St. Patrick's Day corned beef dinner. I made corned beef, 2 loaves of sweet Irish soda bread, and we watched The Quiet Man.

3. Fun trip to the Dollar Store for Easter goodies for the Great Nieces and Great Nephew

4. I finally sorted a box of scrap and fodder for journaling.

5. I completed another tutorial on painting fun birds

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Good news, bad news. The new front doors arrived. The bad news, the company mixed up the doors. New doors ordered and will be installed in the Spring. 

2. The pantry is still organized.

3. We went to Beef's Qi Gong and Reiki Circle. Teague went, too.

4. Boot shoes that I liked went on sale.

5. Invited by a friend to attend his Fall Prevention Exercise Class via Zoom. 

How was your week?

T Stands for Coffee Pod Organizer

 

Once again it was time to organize the blivet of a pantry because someone (not me) keeps buying stuff without checking the pantry. It's a good price. It was on sale. It was Tuesday. The sky was blue.

The pantry is organized by shelf: jams, water enhancers, condiments, oil. Canned goods. Pasta, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, jars of gravy (pasta sauce). Baking, tea,  snacks, paper goods. On the floor, storage for platters, sports drinks.

When it was all organized, I stepped back to admire my work when I saw I had forgotten the Eldest's coffee pods. There is limited counter space in the kitchen and there was no more shelf space in the pantry.. What to do? What to do?

I ordered an over-the-door shoe organizer. I found one that wasn't too long because the closet is built over the cellar stairs so the floor of the pantry would have interfered with a long shoe organizer. 

I found one that was short and not too wide. I'll have to do something about the hooks because the closet door doesn't close all the way. The pockets aren't as deep as I was hoping, but for now it will do.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

are still busy organizing things in the studio. Not only to tidy the room, but to make it more functional. I keep forgetting to take before pictures. To be honest, I'd be embarrassed to show you what a disgrace this room is.

Anyway, the bulletin board which houses large art paper was a jumble as well as the items on the drying rack, but not any more.

The trinkets in this box used to live on the windowsill. That was fine until there were so many trinkets if I wanted to open the window, I had to remove them all.

So I began searching for printers trays. Many of them were too big or more than I wanted to pay.

My search took me to Michael's. There was a sale going on so when I found this Ink shadow shelf, I had to have it. I didn't really want it sitting on a table, but it's a lot heavier than I expected to be and not worth the time or effort to see if some hanging appliance could be attached to the back and then hung on the wall. It fits nicely on the taboret so it will live there. 

I bought two shadow box frames, but all the other trinkets fit inside one. The frame has a nice glass cover to keep out the dust, but a very flimsy saw-tooth hanger. Again, right now, not worth the time and effort to rig something sturdier. The shadowbox also fits on the taboret.

Monet and Me

are slowly making progress in cleaning and organizing the studio. I started in the closet and culled some of the books I rarely use.

Then organized the books I use most for teaching beginners by week on their own bookshelf

I used some food storage containers to corral tape, glue, and paints. A dowel across the shelving works to organize ribbon.

My desk drawer is very shallow. I had purchased some desk organizer containers, but they were too deep and the drawer wouldn't close. I improvised with shallow lids from boxes, and plastic inserts from cookie packaging. I am insufferably pleased with myself.

Monet and Me

 

are doing a deep clean and organizing of the studio. Funny thing while organizing, one seems to make more of a mess. This is the before.

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. The tornado, hail, and fierce thunderstorms, went North and South of us.

2. Quill and I took a nice nap together.

3. We had breakfast for supper. I made myself a fried egg over easy. I haven't had one of those in a long time, and I didn't break the yolk

4. I did a little organizing in the studio.

5. I went to  a birthday lunch with childhood friends to celebrate we're 70

How was your week?

Monet and Me

hate spaghetti. No, not the pasta, but the tangle of electrical and charging cords. Every device (usually) comes with its own charging cord. Many of the devices use the same type cord: USB-A, USB - B, USB-C, Mini-USB, Micro-USB,  Lightning cord. The chances that all of your devices need to be charged at the same time is pretty slim.

Monet and I detangled the mess and kept two of each kind. We went from the picture above to

all the cords fitting into the ark, two by two. Along with a dual  USB-A plug and a light that attaches over the camera of the laptop so you look pretty on a Zoom meeting.

The extra cords will be donated.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week

1. I celebrated Towel Day by wearing my 42 tee shirt and keeping my towel close by

2. I washed the outside windows. At least I got the top layer of dirt off

3. The checkout clerk called me Miss. I'm probably old enough to be his grandmother.

4. Haircuts. First ones in the shop and no wait.

5. We have ice. Himself fixed the ice maker in the fridge that went on the fritz when a bitty ice cube got stuck at the back

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Great-Grandpa picked up the baby books and was pleased with the work.

2. An uber productive day. I decluttered some stuff to go to charity, washed the kitchen window and changed the kitchen curtain.

3. A package went missing. The company sent another and the missing package arrived the same day.

4. Enjoyed the free class in how to draw a medieval rabbit

5. Teague gave me some frozen bake and eat chocolate chunk cookies to take home.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week

1. The hospital let the Eldest stay overnight so she didn't have to drive through the snowstorm

2. The Boat Anchor couldn't handle the heavy, wet snow. Ma-Bo was able to shovel 1/4 of the driveway and the walk and stairs before her back gave out.

3.Another Tuesday play day instead of the usual Thursday due to another storm

4. Stopped at the Post Office to mail a package. S, my favorite clerk was on duty. I haven't seen her for some time so we had a nice chat

5. Cleaned the flat file and put on a new tablecloth

How was your week?

T Stands For After All That Work

 

of cleaning and organizing the pantry, Monet and Me deserve a nice cuppa.

 Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

Before

decided after the success we had organizing the Lazy Susan, it was time to tackle the blivet, otherwise known as the pantry.

In case you don't know, a blivet is a bag that will hold a weight of five pounds, but you proceed to try to stuff the bag with ten pounds.

After

T Stands For After All That Work

 

of cleaning and organizing the Lazy Susan cabinet, Monet and Me deserve a nice cuppa.

 Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

finally found silicone, round, Lazy Susan liners. We bought them before Christmas, but forgot where we put them.

Sooner or later, usually later, things turn up. I pulled out all of the cannisters, ran the lids through the dishwasher. Checked for expired items. Scrubbed the shelves, put the liners on. Ta-Da! All nice, neat, and the liners will be easier to clean then the metal shelves.

Monet and Me

 Are getting rid of old kitchen utensils. Out with the old and in with the new. 

The New Stove

 

There was nothing wrong with the old stove. Shown here in 2011 when it was brand-new. It worked well. Baked at an even temperature and the self-clean feature was a gawdsend. But aesthetically it was a nightmare. And the more I looked at it, the more I hated it until I couldn't stand it any longer.

What was the problem, you ask? The glass door front. Specifically the inside layers of glass. Of course, the problem was one of my own making. Somewhere along the line, I got over zealous with cleaning. It doesn't happen often but when the cleaning bug bites, it bites hard. Either I over enthusiastically sprayed the cleaning fluid so that some spurted through the door vents and ran down the inside of the glass leaving a white streak or I slopped or spilled something greasy while cooking. Oh, 🤬 what do do? 

Well, it seemed like a simple solution. But a quick check with YouTube to see if it could be done. Yes, I thought so. See? There are a series of screws holding the glass to the door frame. Take it apart, simple. Clean between the layers and put everything back together again. Easy peasy.

Wrong! The door came apart quite easily. And cleaning between the glass panes was easy, too. The door didn't go back together as easily as the YouTube videos showed. 🤬🤬🤬

I called the repairman and even he had a tough time getting the door put back together again. 🤬 And he yelled at me! In my defense, if the manufacturer didn't want the owner to take the door apart, then the screws should have been hidden! He told me next time, to hang a dish towel on the handle to hide the streak! Next time.

Shortly after, because the door wasn't put back quite like it came from the factory, the screws on the handle would loosen up and I'd have to tighten them before baking or risk grave injury.  And then the damn cleaning fluid or grease or something that  found its way through the door vent, streaked the inside of the glass, again!

Another feature I didn't like was one of the burners was sized for a giant lobster pot. I had a lobster pot once and used it on the first stove we bought in the house in order to cook Mr. Pinchy. After that, if we wanted lobster, we went out to eat it at a restaurant so I gave my lobster pot away. Without the giant pot, the burner was useless.

As I said, I couldn't stand to look at that dirty door any longer. It mocked me and of course, it showed my poor skills as a housekeeper.

So on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. I dragged Himself to the appliance store to look at 3 models I had researched. I was actually looking for a model that didn't have the gaping vents on the oven door. Seems they all came that way. 

Did you know that a lot of the ranges now communicate via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to your phone? What is is it with all things and appliances that have to be controlled by a phone? Those models were out.

One of the ranges I looked at had 15 different cooking modes. 15!!! I don't want to go to the moon, I just want to bake brownies, loaves of bread, roast beef, and the annual turkey. So that model was out.

The model I bought was an upgrade of the same model I had. It does have bake, convection bake, air fry, broil, and self-clean features. Bake, broil, and self-clean were a must. It doesn't connect to my phone, either. It also has a frozen lasagna and frozen pizza mode. The frozen mode is a bit like having a teat on a bull, if you ask me. And the giant burner is now a dual burner. So you can use a big pan or regular size pots and pans. People must have complained. 

Anyway, here is a picture of the new oven in all its shiny glory right after the delivery guys set it up and tested it.

And I found the best way to keep it pristine, is not to cook.