The life of a toaster oven

There has been more packing going on here. About half of my office and supplies have now been packed. All of the yarn supply was stashed into 3 large Rubbermaid bins. From this I discovered two things (1) I have a ton of yarn, I mean seriously I could wrap my house with it several times and still have yarn left over and (2) I can pack yarn pretty well together, it squishes nicely. The rest of the week I’ll be packing up the rest of the office and getting as much of that moved as possible. We also moved many of the smaller kitchen appliances that aren’t used often, some that are but I can live w/o for a little bit. One small appliance that we aren’t taking with us is our toaster oven. This toaster oven has seen better days. It has been a good little appliance, and done its job well. We use it practically ever day from baking a small dish, reheating leftovers, toasting some fries, heating up a frozen dish. You name it we’ve probably done it in this thing. It has served us well for 5-6 years. But now, it looks like something that has been run over by a truck, hit by a baseball bat and tossed into a fire-pit. No, really, it does. It has also survived my husband trying to retrieve a Corningware casserole dish from the cupboard but instead dropping it onto the toaster oven and cracking the handle. The casserole dish wasn’t so lucky, it shattered. The little oven continued to do its work, but the handle was always a bit precarious after that, and it seemed that the door didn’t quite shut all the way any more. It will have its last days here, heating up a few more dishes, toasting a few more fries. Then it will visit the dumpster. Poor toaster oven. I’ve already been searching for its replacement and found a few good ideas. We’ve decided to make sure we get a really good one since we use this appliance heavily and need one that will keep up with us. I do use my range oven, but that is for larger item like large cakes, really big casserole in Pyrex dishes, roasted veggies and anything else that I need to use in my larger pans. We don’t own an actual toaster; it makes no sense when you think about it since we have the toaster oven. I should be ordering the new one this week either from Bed, Bath & Beyond or Macy’s, whomever is having the best sale with free shipping 😉

Since we are moving in slowly, I have time to do a few things to the house before all the larger things arrive. I’ve already sealed the grout on all the floors (talk about a sore back and butt….) so the next item on my agenda is painting. Unlike a lot of people out there, I LOVE to paint. Seriously, I get a great deal of joy out picking out colours, taping off the areas, and sprucing up the walls to create a new look. I’ve had fun with this before. My last office I painted one wall a solid sapphire blue, two of the walls a light sky blue and then the last wall I did vertical stripes in alternating colours of blues, yellows and greys in 3 thicknesses. I had so much fun with that wall! I planned it out on Excel, taped up my sketch to the door and then used my laser level to make sure the tape was applied in straight lines. I learned the trick to painting lines is to paint the neighboring color first, so it bleeds under the tape to its own color side. Let that dry, then paint the colour you want. Then remove the tape before it dries completely. Not wet, just tacky. It really worked well. So now, I need to decide what to do here at the new home. Rooms I’m considering include the laundry, my office, the kitchen, the master bedroom and maybe the living area. Lots to consider. Maybe I’ll start small with the laundry room and then work up to the larger rooms. Sounds like a plan to me!