Freezing Soup

When making soup I usually make it in big batches.

This is usually great because we then have leftovers for a few meals, but sometimes I already have leftovers from other nights in the fridge and I know it won't get eaten before it goes bad.

So, I will often times freeze the leftover soup.

When I do this I always freeze it in a freezer ziplock bag horizontally (laying flat).  This way once frozen, I can stand it up in the freezer and it doesn't take up as much space.  It also thaws much more quickly and evenly when I decide to pull it out of the freezer to eat later!  :-)

When frozen, it is about as thick as a cutting board.

New Kitchen Table - diy

After moving into our house one of the first thing that was reno'd was our kitchen.

I love our painted cabinets - I knew I wanted a mix of colors (rustic blue on the bottom and white on the top).

I love our built-in bench!  It adds so much more sitting to the kitchen area.

So many more people can keep me company while cooking :-)

I just couldn't find a kitchen table that I loved for the spot.  Since we have lived in this house I think I have tried 4 or 5 different tables in this spot.

I knew I needed a pedestal because people need to be able to slide in from both sides.

I found this table on craigslist:

So I painted the base the bright coral-y red color and painted the top white.  I distressed it and added glaze to warm it up a bit.  I liked the base a lot, but the top was too small for the space.

So I was left with this base:

I decided that I would make a top to fit the space that would also coordinate with the other woodwork in the kitchen.

The back of the bench (top left of picture above) is framed with trim that now matches the trim I put on my tabletop.

I am pretty sure this table will sit 4 very comfortably (using only the benches - no added chairs) and 6 a little tighter.

A few more looks at the table:

And a few more looks at the base:

I painted the pedestal and then roughed it up a bit (sanded some of the edges) to show the wood through the paint.

I also added "worm holes" by sticking a screw driver into the base in some spots.

Lastly, I added a glaze over the entire base.

I will post a tutorial on how I added the top just in case someone was wondering or wants to repurpose their old pedestal table base for a new table.

Baby-proofing the Fire Places

One of the reasons I fell in love with this house was for its charm.  It is an older house with a unique layout.   And, it has three fireplaces that I love.

At the time we didn't have children, so we didn't realize that fireplaces were also baby magnets.

How much fun to crawl into the fireplace (a fun cave!) and play with soot...

They sell fireplace screens and grates.  They also sell metal or glass doors that can be installed into the fireplace to make them safe and more "off-limits".

Most of these cost (surprisingly) hundreds of dollars.  And I really didn't want to screw anything into the fireplace surrounds (brick and wood) knowing they would only be temporary.

So I searched for baby gates that would fit inside the fireplace, but they were hard to find - every baby gate seems to advertise "extra long" or "extra tall".  I needed a pretty narrow baby gate that was also short enough to fit inside the fireplace opening.  So after perusing the web for hours and coming up with nothing I stumbled upon these very cheap gates at Burlington Coat Factory.  I had seen others similar to these, but most were too tall.

They aren't the prettiest, but they do the job.

I told myself that I would spray paint them black so that they would blend in.  I haven't done that yet.  I would still like to get around to it at some point, but for now I am just happy that Eliana is not able to crawl into our fireplaces!

They aren't too bad, but if they were painted black I think they would (almost) blend into the black mesh we already have

******UPDATE***** I spray painted the baby gate.  It does look so much better painted black - better than I thought - it blends in so well that I sometimes forget we have a baby gate there!  See pictures below!

I put the adjustable arm on the inside so she can't get to it.

So, just in case you are also struggling with how to child-proof your fireplace (or any other narrow and short space), here is a cheap solution!  Good Luck!

I think the only area I need to child-proof now is our steps down to the basement...wish me luck!