Cupboard reorganisation

As I mentioned in my pantry post I kept extra food, such as cans and other goodies that I stock up on, in our garage on shelves. Then it occurred to me that we have a cupboard in the passageway that was storing odds and ends that I hardly ever use. Yet I was walking past the cupboard all the way to the garage for food items.











Time for a switcheroo! But first I wanted to tackle a little project I've had on my mind for literally years: can rollers.

What are can rollers? They are little contraptions into which you put fresh tins of food at the top and take the older ones from the bottom. They are a way of storing and rotating your tinned food.

I used some of the free wood that my awesome friend R has rounded up for me. (The wood was from old pallets from The Warehouse.)

First I cut three lengths of 46cm each.



I screwed the sides to the bottom, with the front of the bottom flush with the base and the back raised slightly - this ensures that the cans will roll forward.



Back:




I added a lip to the front to stop the cans from rolling right out and falling on the floor.



Then I created the ramp. I cut a piece of wood shorter than the base so that it had a gap at the back, and screwed the back into the sides with two screws.



The front was raised slightly, ready to screw into the sides as I increased the height of them with more planks.



I added one side, screwing the ramp to it to hold it in place (you can see the incline of the ramp - the higher side is at the front of the can roller. The tins roll to the back and fall through the gap, then roll forward.)



I added the other side, and screwed a piece of wood into the back so that the tins didn't go flying off the back of the ramp, and to hold the top planks in place more firmly.



Let's test it out - put the tin on the top ramp and it rolls down ...



... and you can take tins from the front:



Works a treat, even if it is as ugly as sin! Hey, at least it was free! I made two - one for chopped tomatoes and one for baked beans. Here's how they look on the shelf in the cupboard once I'd rehomed the cupboard goodies in the garage. And yes, the beans one is really wonky but it still works.





(The shelves are fuller now that I've gone to the grocery store!)

I love that my groceries are closer now and I don't have to worry about the garage getting too hot in summer. Maybe one day I'm remake the can rollers out of thinner, prettier wood. But I suspect I may be a little too lazy for that.

My Memories winner

Today I had to take the boys to the oral health unit at the hospital for a consultation. (Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that both Daniel and Noah were lucky enough (not!) to inherit Grant's freaky gene and have extra teeth. Daniel has two hidden in his pallet and Noah has one which has actually emerged behind his teeth.) [Note: if you friend me on Facebook, please drop me a message to say how you know me! I'm not overly keen on friending random strangers who send me a request and I have no idea who they are.]

Anyhoo, while we were waiting for the dentist to see them the receptionist came over to me and said she just wanted to tell me that they were the best behaved children they have ever had in the reception area! It totally made my day, especially after the rough couple of parenting weeks I've had.

And now I hope to make someone else's day by revealing the winner of the My Memories giveaway. There were 9 comments and random.org selected number 4 as the winner.

Congratulations to Elaine Bowen! Please email me and I will reply with your download code. Thanks to everyone who entered :)

Rose cupcakes

Did I mention that I also included a dozen rose cupcakes with the hamper gift? I tried to make the icing red but after half a jar of red gel colouring I accepted that they were just going to be a deep rose pink colour.







P.S. Today is the last day to leave a comment on the My Memories post if you want to be in the running to win the software!

Birthday hamper

What do you do when a dear friend has a birthday and you have more time than money? You put together a little hamper, largely using what you have.

I like to theme things like this and my theme this time was Coca Cola colours - red, white and brown (she loves Coke). I also know that she loves red gingham. So this is what I came up with.

First up, I sewed a reversible apron as I knew she needed one:











I folded it up and popped it into a jam jar ...



... and added vintage-style labels:





I bought a Coca Cola flavoured lip balm on eBay and made a little box for it:





I made a vintage sign from pallet wood (I blanked their surname for privacy). The font is the same as the Coca Cola logo (the font is called Loki Cola):





Little rusty tin figures to represent the members of their family:



I also made some brown sugar body scrub and packaged it in a plastic honey jar:





I also made some mini chocolate cookies ...





... and some lemonade.



To make her card I simply printed a vintage Coke ad on cardstock and folded it. She loved it and plans to frame it:



Here it is - cracks me up!



Here are all of the goodies.



To package it all up I made a box out of cardboard ...



... squished some paper into it ...



I bought an absolutely enormous red and white tea-towel and laid it sideways across the box ...



... nestled the goodies inside ...



... and folded the tea-towel like this:







And voila, one birthday hamper. I later slid the sign under the ribbon to include it:





Verdict: she loved it! And I had a ball putting it together. Win!