I’m a terrible wife. No, an awful wife. No, the worst wife ever.
We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and all my husband got was this stinking blog post (late at that).
In the meantime, what did he gift me but the spice rack that I’ve been wanting for about 10 years. (And you thought the fourth anniversary was fruits and flowers…)
Still bowling me over with his handiwork and vision after all these years, he created this under-the-cabinet spice rack using all of the old Earth’s Best baby food jars that I’ve been accumulating the past few months.
How will I ever tell our baby that I chose his nutrition based on the lines and form of this baby brand jar? In this case, Gerber just wouldn’t do.
It’s everything I needed in my light-flooded, raspberry-Yoplait-colored Barbie dream kitchen. And it’s just like us: a little utilitarian, a little upcycled, a little parsimonious, a little homage to getting by farther on what we already have.
I will make it up to Adam. But this time, I’ll let him watch me creating his gift for two weeks so that his heart, too, may be stunned into a similar inaction.
He wouldn’t admit it to you, but this gift of love is really an attempt to impose his world order on me in my own space. Otherwise, my spices would be a tumbling circus family of marjoram and garlic salt in an already overflowing cabinet.
The other sneaky thing? More spices = more originality = more creativity = more food for him. That cheeky monkey!
And so, I’ve been working my way through Modern Vegetarian cookbook, which I’ve charitably given back to the Salem Public Library on time. And the process has forced me to find out where in this town of secret places and impossible-to-find products you find spices fit for my glorious rack.
Stay tuned for Desperately Seeking Spices!
You do have a very nice rack! My grandfather organized his screws, nuts and little nails this way. Where are the labels? On the bottom? Or are you bold enough to not worry about what’s in each jar?
And Foy, you know what a joke this cleaned up countertop is… le magic de wishful thinking through blog posts…
Thanks! I’m pretty sure Grampa Eddie organized his nuts this way too… The labels are still in production. I’m trying to decide between utilitarian label-maker labels (I don’t actually have a label maker), and hand-drawn labels that might get the worse for wear through frequent use. In the meantime, I’m going to continue to forget that I have dill. And sometimes mix up my tumeric with my curry powder. (this isn’t really a problem, I generally just taste them and know, but it’s time-consuming).
I love this!! Can you disclose the details of how he made it? Or a photo from underneath? I have one of those twirly spice racks and it drives me crazy! As does the whole extra shelf all the other spices take up!
He screwed the lids to a long wooden board. There were some snafus in the process. For one, we’re not sure that baby food jars are a perfect idea… the relative heat in this summer means sometimes they are a little difficult to screw on… maybe ball jars would work better? Either way, lids spaced enough apart that you can get your hands on them, screw them into the wooden board, screw board into cabinet. Voila! Adam also washed and sterilized all of the jars before we loaded them up.
In addition to steril jars, make sure they are good and dry. We put ours in the oven at about 200F to get them hot so we were sure they were dry. Any moisture could lead to mold.
Ahhh…. Thanks for the insight. I also wonder if you could use heavy duty magnets on the jar lids. I see a project in my future.
Well, magnets on the lids and metal on the wood board. I know magnets don’t stick to wood.
I have no idea. I would lean away from that in the off chance that a magnet isn’t strong enough and I spill saffron threads on the floor… how heavy duty is heavy duty? might be worth trying.
I use some pretty heavy duty magnets in my craft room for a similar concept, but with glitter instead of spices. Might have to conduct some tests! Either way, I love the idea of clearing off my counters and cupboards.
Wow, that was super charitable of you to return the book to the library! Lol.
I like this idea. I think half pint jelly jars would work well….and my mom has a whole garage full of those.
Hermmm… I’ve been known to keep books I wish I owned on my shelf well past their due date… and then happily pay the fine… Jelly jars are a great idea, good way to get around the tightness issue.
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