Project 13/366: Digital Steamer

Last year on the month of November, my husband surprised me when a huge package came in the mail two weeks after I gave birth to our little girl. I didn't know what was in it until I opened the box and saw this- Digital Steamer. 

I asked him before that I would love to have a steamer as my Christmas gift and nothing else. I don't want anything except things that I can use in the kitchen and not just me who can benefit it. With that said, my husband bought it for me online and I didn't know that he was going to as he didn't say anything to me. I was sure excited to have it. The reason that I wanted the steamer is that I want to make some siopao (steamed buns). I miss the siopao in the Philippines and I wanted to make some homemade. I did, but it didn't turn out quite right, but there is always room for improvement and next time I know what to do. Anyway, here is my digital steamer.

I was making some homemade pizza and bread sticks the other night and I wanted some chicken for one of my toppings so what I did was to steam the chicken so that I don't have to cook it in oil. The steamer worked so well and faster. I love this thing! I always thank my husband for getting me things for the kitchen that I can absolutely use.

(Steaming the chicken is less fat and much healthier.)

I love that whenever I am cooking some meat I can use the drippings to make some gravy, then I can cook some rice as well on the top rack if I wanted to. 

This is one thing off of my wish list and hopefully next Christmas, Santa will grant me my other wish. This baby- KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer in PEAR. Ahhhhhhhh!!!

Simple Christmas Touches & Kitchen Update

This is our humble abode ready for the Christmas Holiday! We have some simple Christmas touches all throughout the house to keep us the spirit of Christmas. I hope you like the simplicity of it! Our Christmas tree is a simple one with decorations that are from my husband's childhood or from my mother-in-law, thrift store find ornaments, from the dollar store, and some handmade like the fabric birds. Although you won't be able to see it that clear, but those are the kinds of ornaments we have.

My lovely family


Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Also, I would like to share you some photos of the changes we have in our what used to be a cave like kitchen. I love the white and green combo in our kitchen this time as it feels bright and clean than what it used to look like. So I am really excited to get all the things I need for this kitchen to get it totally done. I know it is taking us so long, but I live in a small town far from the stores where I have the stuff I need. Oh well!

Here is my little Harley in his own little nook in the kitchen. This board I got from a rummage sale years ago and did not know what to do at that time since I didn't have a baby yet. But I know that sooner or later I am going to need it for something and now it is put to use. Glad I kept it!

To the right side as you can see are some pans and grocery bags hanging on the wall. I remember I saw this idea on a magazine (can't think of the name) and I thought it was such a pretty neat one that I want to do that in my own kitchen. For me it is easy to access all the pans and my husband don't have to keep asking me where I placed them. I pretty much dominate the kitchen area so he has no clue anymore as to where I place things. We purchased pegboards and lots of heavy duty hooks and screw the board on the wall. The back of it all houses my chopping boards and huge round plastic plates so I pretty much got another storage space. Awesome!

BEFORE

AFTER

I apologize for my ugly looking pans. You can tell I cook a lot. These are just few of the pans I have and I need new ones to replace the old and ugly ones. I also use my fabric bags as storage for the lids so I know where there at, and the rest are my grocery shopping bags. I think this idea is so great especially if you have small space as it utilizes your floor to ceiling storage space.

Kitchen window. The shutter is from the rummage sale and it was attached to a huge window frame and all I needed was the shutters so took that off and save the frame for later project.

I have seen a lot of these paper wreaths so I decided to make one last night and this is how it turned out. It was so easy to make and pretty inexpensive as well. All I needed was my old cookbook pages that I used for my wallpaper project, then I formed them into long cones and tapes them onto a ring. The ring I used was from an embroidery ring that I got from rummage sale of course. I just taped all my cone papers all around the ring, then added a ribbon to hang it and voila! What do you think? I am thinking I need to make more of these to put around the house. Sorry about the bad lighting though. I am also on a hunt for some old signs to hang above the sink so wish me luck and hope to find some. Hopefully for free! That would be nice. If not, then maybe I should make one.

This is how our kitchen used to look like. Yucky!!! I was thinking of ordering some kitchen back splash that I found online that is easy to assemble- just peel and stick, and I think it would make the kitchen look more fancier.


Thrift-ed Jars


The mirror is from a friend of mine that she no longer use so it was a freebie, thank you so much! The white jar is a thrift store find.

Some of the things that we have around our kitchen are rummage sale finds like that hanging basket, two glass containers with red lids, and liquid soap dispenser. I just love it when I find new things (well, new old things) that does not cost me a fortune. So here are few of the things we have going on in our little Blankenship nest. Enjoy!

Kitchen Update

My work in the kitchen is still very far from being done. I still need plenty of things to complete my project and I have to make sure I get most of it the next time we go out of town. With my work in the kitchen and the upcoming vacation, this will not be done soon. But I wanted to get most of the work done before we take off again so that we can come home to a clean and organized kitchen. Anyway, here are some photos of my progress so far and there are still lots of things to be done. Mind you, I am the only one doing all the work since my husband is the babysitter. I only need his help when I have to move heavy things or build something like building my dining bench and shelves. So it is a slow progress, but I now can pull it off and all the hard work will be worth it. I am really excited for my kitchen work to be done and show you the finished product. I can't wait!

(What do you think?)

Yes! You see it right. White cabinet door it is. I know! Some of you might be scared of painting their cabinets white, but not me. I wanted to have a fresh new look to our kitchen that I decided to do it and so far I am still happy and haven't changed my mind yet. LOL!

This one will be my little man's nook in the kitchen, so he can be entertained on his own while I do some cooking or baking. Well, this is actually and old chalkboard that I purchased from a rummage sale years ago. I didn't know what to do with it until now, so I decided to bring it out and use it for Harley's board. Right now it is still looking old and ugly, but once I am done with it, it will be a whole new board. I attached it to the door with the use of some picture hanging strips just so I can figure out where to put it. Since I used this amazing hanging strips, I can take it off and on at any time I want too, so basically no nailing job in this product which saves my door from nail wholes. Yaye! Don't you just love it?

Thanks for visiting. I hope you all have a great evening!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

It's a busy week for me since I have a painting job to do in the kitchen. I grew tired of our old kitchen wall paint so I wanted to have a fresh new look this time. With all these painting job to do, I am going to have a huge right arm muscle. LOL! Woosh! It is not easy painting cabinets and to mention the cabinet doors. Sanding, painting and assembling them back together. But that is okay because I know that our kitchen will look a whole lot better. No more cave like feeling to the kitchen and right now it actually feels and looks a lot better even though it is not yet finished.

Sorry I have not done any postings yet, but I hope I will get back to sharing something with you as soon as things are normal here. There are so many things to do so I had better get going. I hope you guys are still there and continue visiting me. Have a great evening!