Beautifully Organized Recipes

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How was your Thanksgiving weekend? Did you eat a lot of turkey?  I was fortunate to spend the holiday with my family.  My husband, the chef of the day, made the most delicious meal: turkey, mushroom and thyme mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, onion rolls, and to top it off pumpkin pie. Yum!

Speaking of food, how do you all organize your family recipes?  I currently organize digitally, most of the recipes that I find in magazines, blogs, etc. (Evernote is great for that),  but  there are  special family recipes I've been meaning to write down (like  the recipe for mom's menudo, grandma's tortillas, etc.) and keep in something beautiful and tactile.  I was delighted to find several lovely options:

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Love that this on is monogrammed and is clear so you can show off pretty recipe cards:

Speaking of pretty recipe cards...

Entryway Solution: Basket for Shoes & Slippers

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Sometimes inevitably shoes end up in the entryway.  If you don't have a closet to hide them behind, a solution for keeping it from looking too messy, is to have a beautiful basket for them:

If you have a no shoes in the house rule, you can also fill the basket with slippers to encourage guests to remove their shoes upon entering.

image credits: 1- the marion house book, 2- the elegant abode via decor8

Hanging Pot Rack in a Small Kitchen

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Last week I did a post on hanging pot racks, which featured mostly large kitchens.  This kitchen below shows how a hanging pot rack can be integrated into smaller quarters:

It works here because there's free wall space, as in the pots aren't blocking any cabinet doors.  They do look quite high up there though, so I'm guessing the homeowner keeps a step stool handy :)

image credit: photography by patrick cline for lonny mag

Organizing a Large Handbag

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A great way to organize the contents in a large handbag is to separate things out into smaller bags and pouches. Heres what I like to use in my own bag:

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In lieu of a wallet, I use a wristlet (love this one from dooney and bourke) and a card organizer (card cubby has some great options).  In the wristlet I keep my credit & debit card, cash, license, insurance card, cell phone, and lip balm -basically all the essentials I need to have close at hand.  All the non-essentials, like store rewards cards, gift cards, back-up credit cards, and coupons, go into the card organizer and are filed alphabetically into the little labeled compartments.

Items like lipgloss, blotting sheets, a mirror, hand cream, and hand sanitizer go into a cosmetic bag (love this one from tory burch).

Separating things out like this allows me to quickly and easily pull out what I need when I need it (nothing is more annoying than having to rummage through your bag to find items), and also lightens my load when I'm on the go. If I need to make a quick errand, I can just pull out the wristlet and take that with me instead of lugging the big handbag and its entire contents.

How do you like to organize your handbag? Have any of you ever tried one of those inserts used for switching from purse to purse?

handbag - dooney & bourke, card organizer - card cubby, wristlet - dooney & bourke, cosmetic bag - tory burch

Hanging Pot Racks

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Hanging racks are a great option for storing and displaying beautiful cookware. Hung right above a center island, they make pots and pans easily accessible and create a visual centerpiece. Additionally, pot racks free up cabinet space so there's more room to store dinnerware, food items, etc.

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image credits: 1- nate berkus, 2- via house beautiful, 3- via elle decor, 4- via home bunch, 5- martha stewart, 6- country living, 7- via elle decor, 8- via elle decor, 9-mick de giulio