Martha Stewart, Pinterest, What's a Gal to do?!

Martha Stewart kind of annoys me. She really annoys me. But it's mostly in the "I can't believe what a crafty, organized, gardening, over the top amazingly good chef she is!" I'm not Martha Stewart. But that's ok. I've got Pinterest!!!

Pinterest. Oh my. It's good and bad. It has great ideas, but it can be so time consuming! I spent the better part of last year 'pinning' ideas. I used some of them, but a higher percentage of my pins are still sitting there. Waiting. Waiting on me to find culinary and domestic design awesomeness (is that a real word?). They are also waiting for me to fail. EPIC FAIL, like those stupid rainbow cakes baked in Mason jars. I feel a twinge of anger just thinking about that......moving on.

About 8 months ago I saw a Pinterest idea of storing your spices in empty baby food jars. The idea looked great b/c honestly, I hate looking at my spice shelf. I basically buy any brand of spice. I'm not really picky, until recently, which means that my spice's were in all sizes of containers. I'm not OCD, but I am trying to be a little more organized and I'd like to atleast LOOK like I am organized. (We can all dream right?) Anyway, so here was the first step in my organizing the spices (in alphabetical order, no less):

Just getting this done took me, well, I don't know. A few hours because kids need to eat, and they make messes, and I have to work and teach them so you know, it was an off and on thing. And don't judge the masking tape labels b/c like I said, I'm not Martha Stewart. I do things like this to give the rest of the regular people hope. Anyway.......moving on......

I started buying spices in bulk this past weekend b/c it is SO much cheaper. Well, we've been buying natural peanut butter for about 18 months now so I've been using the jars to store things, mostly leftover soup, since then. I was cleaning this weekend and thought these jars would be the perfect size for my bulk spices! (Note: I am still using masking tape and a marker because I want to feel normal. All those pinners who do this and print out those cute little labels, you make me sick. Really. Stay normal. Use the tape)

Now this, I've been doing for awhile. Using old gallon size pickle jars to store different types of flour and beans. It looks so purty! (Plus, I can see when I am running out on something):

This is my newest, just started yesterday kitchen organization project:

The INSIDE of my cabinets! We don't buy much in boxes or cans anymore since we eat organic, but things like cocoa powder, nuts, oatmeal, etc can clutter up a cabinet pretty quick. I actually was lucky enought to snag about 150 old mason jars this summer from a lady who was trying to just clean out her garage. I want to have a garden this summer and then be able to can my veggies, but until then, most of the jars are just sitting in my cabinets, empty. Empty and Waiting. UNTIL NOW!! So far I've got flax seed, walnuts, sunflower seed, oatmeal, homemade cocoa mix, chick peas, black beans and shredded coconut. This looks so much better than different size boxes and bags. I can also see what I'm low on with a quick glance. (I think I pointed this out before, I'm doing it again so you will remember. This is great b/c you can see what you need to stock up on with a quick glance! Repeating myself again. You get the point)

What's the point of today's blog post? The point is this: Pinterest has some great ideas, but if you're always looking on pinterest for more, you're never going to actually USE the ideas you've already found. My kitchen project gives me hope. Hope that I might really make turn that old closet into a desk area or make old pallets into awesome patio furniture. Hope that a Mason jar cake will turn out or a *2 ingredient cake* will really turn out to only have 2 ingredients in it. Oh well, my kitchen is starting to come along so I better just be happy with that and call myself Martha, heaven knows no one else ever will!