Cereal Station and Fruit Art

 I actually started this system several months ago, but it took the Miracle Workers coming to town for me to be able to blog about it. This counter in my kitchen is what the Flylady would call a Hot Spot--to the extreme! It is a magnet for clutter of all kinds. I thought if it served an attractive but functional purpose, I might be able to crack the whip on convince my family to help keep it clean. 

One of the things on my "Daddy Do" list for my parents' recent visit, was to finally get these cute fruit signs hung. They were the best thing to come out of the neighborhood garage sale I held a few months back. After he completed that task, I took advantage of the opportunity to banish the clutter from the counter so I could show you my cute cereal station, as it was meant to be!

I am not the first in blogland to think of this idea. In fact, when I first saw Sarah's post on her cereal jars, I wasn't convinced they were necessary (cute but maybe not practical). But day after day, my kids would haul giant boxes of cereal (Costco, anyone?) from the pantry and bring them to the breakfast table--never to return them to their rightful spot in the pantry. (And while I wish I could tell you that I prepare a hot and nutritious breakfast for my family each and every morning, my nose might grow a bit if I did). It hit me that Sarah (Thrifty Decor Chick) was on to something. I got these "cookie jars" at Walmart for around $5/each. They are not entirely airtight, which concerned me at first, but with the rate at which we eat cereal, this has never been a problem for us. I was going to make some great labels for them, but we don't always have the same cereal (depending on what is on sale), so I'm leaving them as is, for now.

I cant tell you what an improvement this is over the norm (no before picture, but it is at least as bad as you are imagining). Those sunflowers were around for my daughter's science fair project. I took this picture and lamented to my mother that I didn't have any fresh cinnamon rolls for the cake stand. And...

Voila! I love how things magically happen when my mom is in town. Cinnamon rolls. A consistently clean kitchen. Fresh bread. Too bad the magic leaves when she goes.

(And they tasted even better than they look--not to make you jealous or anything).

I really wish I had enough money to hire my parents as my blog assistants. Especially since my dad's post on the toy kitchen he built is my most popular by a mile, right now! And projects get done ever-so-much more quickly when they are around.

My kids love the cereal station, because it reminds them of the rare times we have stayed in a hotel and been greeted by a similar set-up for breakfast. I have scoops in each jar that I believe were also purchased at Walmart. It works quite nicely, and frees up pantry space! Now if only I could always keep the station stocked with fresh cinnamon rolls and clutter-free! Working on it (well, the clutter anyway)!

I have one other small project I've just about finished for this area that is cute and practical! (Insanity can be practical! Yea!) I will be sharing soon. And I WILL blog the rest of the Spa Party this week, so we can move on to other fun summery things!

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! We did!