It's pretty sad when...

you get so excited your kitchen is clean, that you have to take pictures of it.

when we moved in, we painted our cabinets black and changed the hardware.

i'm thinking about changing them again. : )

my sweet parents bought us our appliances when we got married. We got the "stainless steal look a like" stuff. it's wonderful because it gives the appearance of stainless steal, but not the fingerprints. So you are probably wondering why then is it so hard for me to keep my kitchen clean. My worst enemy is my glass top stove. Seriously, i can never keep that baby looking clean. The fact it's black is also a big reason. I guess that's why i felt the urge to take these pics because it never looks like this.

and because i love the look of a plain white flour sack towel hanging off the oven door. : )

I mean come on, this kitchen is clean!

The fly lady would be so proud of my spotless sink!

I want to point out one of my loves: my Kitchen Aid mixer. This is totally worth the cost. I love it! Also, notice my owl cookie jar. It's the one we used growing up. My Moma got tired of it and was going to through it out. Come on, are you kidding me. That jar held too many memories just to be thrown out because it had to be glued back together in one part.

this is why she (my Moma) calls me a pack rat. : )

This is another reason my kitchen is never clean: my white grout. Last year we tiled our counter top and back splash. I wanted sparkling white tiles and white grout. everyone, and i mean EVERYONE tried to get me to use grey or something other than white grout. But you know how hard it is to change a girl's mind. I'm now thinking I should have listened. Do you see the stains? uggh. i love the white tile and it looks soo sparkling clean. But that grout grosses me out.

please, share any miracle cleaning suggestions? My grout needs help!

The same day i did my super clean, I brought down some of my Blue Glass collection to add around the kitchen. I was a little nervous about how it would look with our colors. Not sure why, because it looks perfect (to me at least). See what you think?

a dish by the sink for soap, sponges, or just to look pretty : )

some odds and ends to pretty up the window seal

added some of my Blue Glass dishes to the hutch

i like how the touches of blue really pop against the black, white and green

this has been my chalktray's message most of this month.

i wouldn't mind another snow day! : )

maybe other things in my house would get clean enough to make me want to take pictures!