Home Sweet Home...Part 2

Today, we visit my kitchen...such as it is.

One thing I loved and adored about my Antioch apartment was my huge, gorgeous, roomy kitchen. When I moved to Stockton, I was in quite a hurry to find a place to live, and I picked a place with what could be called a "galley" kitchen. In other words, it's tiny. Itty bitty. Miniscule.

And the storage is...well, I've had to be creative.

But I've made it my own, and even though I keep my computer hutch in the "breakfast nook," it works for me.


From the front door, you have my kitchen on the left and hte living room to the right. You can see down the hallway to my bedroom (there's Duchess in the hallway!).

From the hallway, you can see how small my kitchen really is. It has a tiny window and not much room for moving around. Somehow, I manage.

I have a dishwasher and a washer/dryer combo that doesn't work half the time. The dryer portion, when it does work, sucks, so I end up hanging everything to dry. The cabinets, counters and appliances were all new when I moved in.

Some close-ups of what I have on the counters...First, my cooking utensils and napkin holder (I use cloth napkins exclusively) and a teapot cozy. The spray bottle is used to discourage the neighborhood Tomcat from hanging out by my windows and upsetting my cats.

My microwave, food scales, sugar bowl (that's organic, non-processed, fair trade sugar!).

Dish drainer, teapot and mug at the ready, and my electric kettle.

Pretty self-explanatory. I will add that the lucky bamboo and the cuttings from one of Mom's plants are about the only green things I can keep alive...and even that sometimes gets dicey.

When I first moved in I kept my kitchen towels in here, because I don't have a lot of drawer space. But eventually I bought a little set of drawers and moved my spices and whatnot into this cabinet.

Dishes, glasses, mugs, etc.

To the right of the stove, my tea canisters, a cute little lamp from Ikea and what I use as my cooking space for chopping, dicing, slicing, etc.

To the left of the stove--a fall display and a view of the living room.

Pumpkins! Candles! Fall!!

I have a small collection of magnets on the fridge. I've provided close-ups of some of my favorites. On top of the fridge are a couple of tin boxes.

Then there's the part of the kitchen where I spend a lot of time--the computer. I don't have a laptop (I can't get used to those flat keyboards!) and am very happy with my desktop setup. I used to have my china hutch in this spot, but a while back I moved that and the computer around when my wireless router stopped working. Rather than get a new one, I just moved everything, plugged my internet into the phone jack and I've been happy with this arrangement.

My file cabinet always has a mess of stuff on it. There's an absentee ballot, a calorie-counter, and some other stuff in there.

My monitor and the infamous Mr. Swimmy.

My phone, a little desk organizer, and my clarinet mug full of pens. I buy pens when I travel--they're the perfect souvenir: easy to slip into a suitcase, useful, and they don't collect dust. Nice!

Above the hutch, my proudest document: my diploma from CSU, Chico. Bachelor of Arts in Music, Option in Music Education.

Below the diploma I have a small display--a lovely picture of Mom and Dad, a Chico alumni mug, and my fabulous peacock from Pier 1 Imports...I got him on clearance for $5 a few years ago.

When I'm sitting at the computer, the kitchen itself is to my left. To my right is a small closet that I've turned into a pantry. I put a small bookcase in there and it's where I keep canned food, cereal, small appliances when they're not in use (the toaster, the blender, the hand mixer) and stuff like laundry detergent, the ironing board and iron, and large amounts of cat food.

Just outside of that is the little set of drawers I bought to keep my kitchen towels in. On top of that, I keep my fruit bowl and onions, etc. Those yams were turned into fries a few days ago. My regular fruit bowl is currently being used as a ginormous water dish until the number of cats in the apartment goes from four back to two.

Above the fruit: a painting bought from a street artist in Paris.

A glimpse into one of the drawers...in case you didn't notice, my apartment has an overwhelming theme of blue decor.

Finally, at the end of the counter, on the floor, is Cat Food Central. Normally I keep hard food in one bowl and water in the other, but with Bella and Duchess visiting, we need double the food and water out at all times. The bowls say "Tuna Breath" and "Chico Cat." Did you know that ceramic or stainless steel bowls are the way to go for cats? Plastic can give them acne.



So that's my kitchen/office. Between cooking and blogging, I spend a lot of time in here.