The Problem With My Kitchen

OMG I love my kitchen.  I really really do, it's open and has a huge window (currently concealed behind Bruce's tapestry thing) and it's just big enough for two people.  But...once I got all my stuff in there I realized it's definitely too small to have what I would normally like to have out on the counters out on the counters, if I ever want to do any serious cooking.  Which as of today I have still yet to cook anything on my stove top...I know, I'm a bad wife.

Here's the problem...

Here's a better view of the problem...

I have very little counter space to begin with.  Currently the microwave has to live on the counter because there is no where else to put it.  In a perfect world I'd be able to mount it above the range but the headroom above the range is already too shallow.  The kitchen aide can really only go on top of the counter- and it's way too pretty to hide away anyways.  The blender usually lives on top of the counter as well because I use it like everyday.  All my cookbooks currently live on the counter because I don't have my super awesome wall spice racks turned into bookshelves yet.  The waffle iron shouldn't be on the counter I don't know why it's there but I'll move it immediately when I get home.  The dish drying rack I guess can move into the left sink but really what else am I supposed to use the counters space above the dishwasher for.

BUT even if I move all those things and organize a little better- I still have very little cabinet room.  The bottom cabinets are TINY.  I only have two drawers.  The cabinet to the right of the sink is really narrow.  And my pantry well I'll deal with the pantry later, I really really dislike the pantry but I'll make it work.  But like I said I still love my kitchen.  More than two people can stand in it- which is a vast improvement from the narrow, narrow, narrow kitchen we had at the apartment.  I like to be able to turn around in my kitchen and take a step back and all those little things.

This I do not see as a problem, except for the rug thing hung over the window.

This area doesn't bother me.  It's the perfect size for the table and it'll work fine.  Once we pull the table out a little bit you'll even be able to walk behind it and I'll have plenty of room on the wall for my plates. The tapestry is concealing the sliding doors and a 1 1/2' space between the sliding door and the other wall.  It's a lot narrower than I thought.  So I'm either gonna have to get smaller spice racks, or just figure something else out, but I do still want my cookbooks there. And drapes, drapes, drapes, gonna have to figure out how to have them but not hide that little space on the wall otherwise my whole plan will fall apart and I'll cry.

Sookie likes it when I pull the tapestry up cause then she can see outside and sit in the sunbeams.  Not relevant to the post but Sookie's cute.

Anyways so yesterday I did work a little more on the decorating stuff and went to Hobby Lobby. I love Hobby Lobby, they always always have sales and coupons online.  Coupons + Sales = lots of savings.  Guess what I found?

PLATES! On sale for $2 down from $7 I only bought one but if I go back later this summer and they are marked down more I'll buy 'em. I got the Asparagus one cause it's yellow.

Then since wall hangars were already cheap $1.99 no matter the side I snatched up one of each size so I could test them with my plates to see which'll work.  And then because frames were 50% off I bought a couple large sized clip frames, cause I can't pick out real frames to save my life and everything looks nice in a clip frame.  All in all I spent very little at Hobby Lobby and will go back next week to check out what new sales they're having.  

Current plate collection is kinda sad- that big wedding plate though is HUGE 17" diameter luckily my plate hanger works up to 18", the blue one looks way cooler in person and the IHOP one looks loved.