Tackle It Tuesday #15 - Birthday and kitchen

Today is a very fun tackle for me - it's my birthday! :)

And so I will be tackling finding some kind of treat to take in to work this morning, since I couldn't motivate myself to go out and buy brownie mix last night and definitely wasn't motivated enough to attempt to make anything from scratch. I think a visit to a bagel shop might be in order - after all of the Halloween candy I've eaten in the past week, something somewhat healthy-ish probably isn't a bad idea anyway.

After work, we will be tackling going out to dinner - we're going to bypass our usual birthday dinner joint and try Logan's Roadhouse for the first time. I hear that they're great and they have some really good deals on weekdays. I'm just hoping that Ron will make it home in time for dinner - he's thinking about asking for the day off, just to make sure.

Somehow, there's just something wrong with that idea - it's my birthday and yet he's the one who might get the day off? Although after taking 2 days off last week with sick kids, I definitely can't afford the time today. And hmmm, if he's home all day, who knows what else he might be able to tackle... Like maybe the lawn that needs mowing, leaves that need raking, re-arranging our living room so the Christmas tree will fit back in there in a few weeks, or he could really go crazy - and clean! I'm liking that idea... That's my idea of a birthday present!

I did tackle something around the house this week though - and it was such a quick, easy (free!) fix that I can't believe I never tried it before. We have a stand-alone island countertop that we bought for our kitchen a few years ago since counter space is not something we have a ton of. (Not to mention our lack of storage space as well) We placed the island up against the banister that forms one 'wall' of our kitchen and there it's sat ever since.

Saturday I got the bright idea of turning the thing 90 degrees to actually be able to use it as an 'island' - this way we also could raise the hinged part and create even more counter space and even a little breakfast bar, complete with a bar stool that I bought 10 years ago for an apartment I was living in and haven't had a use for since. Until now, that is.

I can't believe how one little change so completely affects the total look and feel of the room. It's like we now have 2 separate spaces - a 'kitchen' area and a 'dining' area. And the kitchen part feels so much more cozier than before. I still need to find some kind of small desk or utility cart to put in there in place of the plastic drawers, but here you can get an idea of how it looks...

This is what it looked like before (these photos are from a couple of years ago, right after we got the island):



And here's the after - it looks and functions so much better for just a simple little thing! Ignore all the clutter and Ron's work equipment though...



What are you tackling this week? And check out other Tackle It Tuesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!