Things are looking up!

Joel and I have long discussed putting hardwood floors in our living room.  It's a high traffic area and really isn't suitable for carpet.  We also both really like the look of wood floors.  In one of our many discussions, Joel had mentioned also putting hardwood in the box ceiling.  At first I wasn't too keen on the idea, but after seeing a few of these pictures, it started to be more appealing:

Alas, the project proved to be cost-prohibitive, so Joel had another brilliant idea - paint it!  I'm a bad, bad blogger because I forgot to take "before" pictures in the midst of my excitement, so here is a picture from the MLS listing before we bought our home:

Observe the boring white box ceiling.

Luckily there was a gap above the ceiling fan, so rather than having to remove it I just taped around the base of the fan and around the edge of the "box."

And the after:

I'll admit, it's not exactly a gasp-producing massive makeover.  It's a pretty subtle change, but in person it really makes the room feel much taller because the color guides your eye up a bit.  It also makes our ceiling fan look richer!

We love it!  What do you think?

Getting Organized!

It looks like the contents of our spice cabinet have come crashing down on me for the last time.  When I opened the cabinet this morning while making breakfast, towers of spices spilled out of it, eliciting a few not-very-nice words from me.  As part of our recent resolution to cook more and eat out less, I decided to get my spices organized so that they're more accessible and less dangerous.

After a trip to WallyWorld and World Market, I brought home 15 empty spice jars, 2 bamboo tiered shelves, a plastic bin, and this guy:

I've wanted a label maker for a while because it helps to stay organized when you know where everything's "place" is.  With my new supplies, our spice cabinet went from this:

to this:

Here's another look at those labels.  For anyone looking for a little organizing boost, I'd highly recommend the Dymo!