Since I jumped the gun on rearranging my room, I think I'll take part in the deep treatment this week. My kitchen's in pretty good shape, but it could use a little love.

hmmm, I uploaded photos yesterday but I'm not seeing them in the flickr group. I'll have to go back and make sure I tagged everything correctly. I'm doing a one room cure in my living room. I've been stuck for some time on how to pull it together and finish the room. I'm hoping that participating in the cure will help me make some forward progress.

It's quite wierd to see one of my pictures posted. Kinda freaky.

My plan last weekend was to work on the sofa bed that I am recovering with green fabric. I was pretty busy though, and I only got a little bit done.

I plan to do the room/graph paper schematic assignment tonight or tomorrow night.

Carina,
You need to add your pictures to the group. Above each of your pictures you will see Send To Group, click on that and add the picture to the group.

I didn't get all the floors done in my place - but I have evening to myself tonight, so hopefully I can play catch-up AND start cleaning the kitchen tonight (it definitely needs it). I have a list from top to bottom of the kitchen, so I can cross each of the 11 locations off as I do them (which always feels so good).

I find that I am now eyeing everything in my house suspiciously. Anything could get the axe.

heps1 - at least it's a beautiful room! I'd hate to see some of the photos I took (& didn't even post) make it to AT:SF....

Mace Elaine...LOL on the suspicious eye, I am feeling the exact same way. Nothing is safe!!!

Here's my current dilemma (although not appropriate for this week of the Cure, but pressing for the blik makeover deadline): Now that I've been outed about having concerns about the color of decals I chose (d'oh! Hope blik doesn't read this!), I can (hopefully) ask you all for some reassurance.
Here is the room as it stands now (well not really, we've cleaned up the two outside walls and done some crack repair on the inside one).

I chose two packs of 'gray midnite' and one pack of 'sky' blick Fly decals because I didn't want to crazy up the room with too many colors. Then after the decals had been ordered (they custom-make them), I sat in the room and really looked around. Guess what I noticed? Lots of accents in the 'sour apple' range. Now I'm thinking the 'green array' might have tied the room together nicely, while the more greyscale ones might make an otherwise bright, cheerful room too serious. I am not of the type who wants a kid's room to look childlike, but I also do really think it should be joyful.

Please, somebody, tell me I didn't screw up and make a design decision more for my own preconceived notions of what I would like rather than selecting appropriately for this actual room!
Even if I did, it's too late to change my order, so guess I'm just looking to ease my own mind a bit. Please? I'm currently planning to find some fabric that has some green in it (hopefully something leafy-ish) to make curtains for that little window, so maybe that will help. (Except of course that I have no idea how to sew, let alone make curtains! Heh.)

jessicat: looking at a larger photo of your room now, i think the neutrals are still a good choice. especially since it looks like the room has some nice shots of color here and there (blue, green, orange, yellow). i don't think the gray birds will turn the room serious; it might actually make the birds appear to be more like silhouettes ... oh, and for the curtains - you can easily make curtains with that iron-on hem tape stuff if you can't sew.

heps: i love that corner of your office! so i couldn't resist including it in today's post.

my kitchen is actually one of the few trouble-free areas of my home. so the real challenge for me this week will be to cook a meal i like! (cooking is not my thing.) and i think my home office/craft room is a good place to try the one-room workout.

Lisa from VA: Thanks for your assistance. I had the pics tagged but had not sent them to the group. They're up now.

jessicat: I agree with ahn-minh, the colors you have on order will look like silhouettes and will work great in the room. You can add splashes of green elsewhere if you'd like.

We are cautioned about not doing BOTH the one room remedy and the deep treatment at the same time: it's much too demanding. Of course, starting with the deep treatment, it's hard not to notice what "little things" need to be done, here and there, to perk things up, and then watch out!

In other words, do I say, not as I'm doing!

Yeesh, I bought four chairs from a charity shop today that need to be sanded and painted, re-glued and re-screwed. I have decided my colours for the dining room. But now we have to paint....and that's going to be a major upheaval. If any of you have been following the posts on the dining room, you'll know that I pretty much live my life here, except for eating and sleeping.

And perhaps I ought to think a little more about going green.

Just at this very moment:
I have two plastic bowls on the kitchen counter soaking with a diluted bleach solution in them. (They contained moldy raspberries picked in early August.)

The oven has been sprayed with the Toxic oven cleaner stuff.

And I have a small table behind me, coated in oil-based wood stain, slowly curing (and waiting for the next step: polyurethane!)

That tickle in the back of my throat is NOT a cold!

Hey, anhminh: does AT: The Kitchen have any recipes for you (and the rest of us?)

Maybe we could agree to post what we cooked for our meal(s) this week?

I'll go first.
I took some boneless pork chops I found in the freezer when I cleaned it. Thawed it and cut off the freezer burnt bits which gave me small medallion sized pieces.

Dredged it in 3 tablespoons of flour mixed with salt and pepper. Browned it with one tablespoon of olive oil.

Once it was browned I added a cup of balsamic vinegar. When that reduced by a bit, I added 1 cup of chicken broth. Then I just simmered it until the egg noodles and beans were cooked.

The instructions called for a bit of rosemary to be added to the sauce, after the meat was cooked (and keeping it warm, reducing the liquid further) but we didn't have any.

You could certainly add some parsley and a bit of butter to the noodles--or eat them as we do, with low-fat sour cream. The sauce is also nice with rice or any other grain you may prefer.

Oh--and we had pre-mixed bagged coleslaw with a wonderful organic store bought coleslaw dressing.

We had flowers on the table and beautiful plates. It was lovely.

Hope that helps.

jessicat: the link seems to be broken. Which room did you want us to see?

I finally managed to post my pictures *and* find the Send to Group button (Thanks, Lisa). I resisted the urge to "clean up for company" before I took them. My deep treatment progress was to finish all of week one, force myself to not try to do the one room workout at the same time, and start on the kitchen. My outbox is getting very full already. I love it!

Well, I left a whole bunch of comments on flickr.
You all have such great spaces!

Ack! Having been either out of town, overworked, or sick in the last two weeks has left me feeling very behind. That said, I finally managed to add the floor plans for my living room to the SF cure group this evening. Though I actually made a decision over the weekend and moved the furniture around, though not finding the right place for my couch yet.

Hopefully I can get some pictures taken tomorrow or Wednesday. The big thing for me this cure is really getting my office space organized and forcing myself to throw out or recycle a lot of the random debris I manage to keep in my office in the name of "I might need that..."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/graphxgrrl/sets/72157601811792091/

alana - i LOVE the idea of posting about the special dinners we cook this week! and, yes, at:kitchen does offer recipes. i'm going to pop over there right now and see if there's anything that i can manage with my lame culinary skills ...

(btw, just check the archives on at:k for a list of the recipes. i'm all over the "easy" section.)

jessicat: I also can't get your link to work, but if you're worried about the Sky colored ones not tying into your color scheme, why not choose a curtain fabric that has both sour apple and sky blue in it? Something like this, maybe. Or this.

i think this is the photo jessicat wanted feedback on:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7685410@N02/1357369614/

I intended on cooking AND cleaning last night, but for stupid reasons (only one of which was the open bottle of wine), it took me an hour and a half to make dinner, so by the time I ate and cleaned the dishes I was exhausted and made no headway on the deep kitchen clean. I did take some pre-clean pictures of the kitchen, though, and would love some feedback on ways to perk it up. I'll hopefully post them tonight.

For dinner, I made this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/238945, which is probably much faster when you have a real food processor and not just a hand blender. I decided to live it up a little and bought a whole pre-roasted chicken to cut up and throw in. Now, I've just stopped being a vegetarian after six years, and even before that I never handled a lot of meat. _I never want to take a apart a chicken again._ I touched the spine and it make me gag a little. Next time T (the boyfriend) gets to do it. HOWEVER, the meal was excellent and I now have enough leftovers for at least two more meals.

Whupps! Thank you anh-minh for fixing my broken link, how embarassing. Many thanks on the feedback, everyone! a-m, yes, silhouettes are the look I wanted, I just started to panic. But all the comments have definitely calmed me back down again.

dancingspring -- thank you for the fabric suggestions! I think I'm going to try and find something in the brighter green range (the decals will indeed match the color scheme but I don't want them to tone down the room too much)...when I track down some options I'll post them and hope for opinions. Yes anh-minh, I think the iron-together fabric hem is about all I've ever done for 'curtains'...I'm sure that's all this window will get this time around, but perhaps in the future I'll learn to make a proper curtain. I think I'll have my mother-in-law show me how when she visits us next month.

Man, dahlias are gorgeous, but mine just did. not. last.
More fresh flowers are in order!

Alana-in-Canada...do you mind a suggestion? Toss the plastic bowls entirely, especially now that you've been bleaching them! Go for glass!!! And *definitely* check out AT:Green. I posted a recommendation for a great natural-cleaning recipe book over there in their week 1 cure thread; let me know if you want the info and I can re-post it here.

I am laughing about Alana's mention of how we aren't supposed to combine the two types of treatments...I just last night was pawing through the book trying to figure out where the more one-room-y stuff was within the deep treatment plan. In one way I'm totally relieved, but at the same time I will definitely need to continue forth after these 8 weeks and do a mini-one-room-cure for each room. As was said, it's impossible NOT to notice all the things that need to be bought/replaced/changed as I go through each room for the deep treatment....

As for cooking, wel, I cook two meals a day for our family of three (hubby makes the porridge most mornings) and man, I feel like what I need is a break from rather than more of it! Either that, or childcare while I'm trying to cook, that would make a big difference. Obviously though the spirit of the cure is to embrace and welcome it, so I think what I need to do is figure out what would, for me, help me with an attitude adjustment. We have a somewhat restricted diet because of my son's sensitivities, so that can take some of the fun out of finding new recipes. That said, I just need to ditch my annoyance with the situation and carve out the time to do some serious meal planning...that always makes such an amazing difference in my relationship to the week's meals. I'm also enjoying hearing about everyone else's culinary adventures!

I'm going to try and take some photos of my kitchen and post them soon; definitely have things I need feedback on even though we just re-did our kitchen last year.

Speaking of posting photos...
I am really having a tough time keeping up with all the flickr photos, especially since my computer time is severely limited. Is there any way folks could post here with questions/requests for feedback about their rooms with links (that actually work, unlike mine!) to specific photos? Or maybe post a couple photos to the group stream that really need comments, but mention that there are more in an off-group set for those who want to dig deeper? Personally speaking, just a bit of UI like that would certainly make me better able to participate in commenting, etc. Every time I try to check out the full group photostream I end up getting a bit overwhelmed & lost, especially since half the time the posting member changes without me even realizing it. Hope I'm not stepping on any toes here! Just realized that if I was having some trouble, maybe other people are too(?).

let's raise a pixel pint to lisa/isa for her patience and help....

alana

plastic is generally not a good thing, particularly where food is concerned. Glass, ceramic, stainless steel are all better choices for bowls.

I will happily raise a pixel pint, but who is lisa/isa?

jessicat: i think jonathanb is referring to the lisa who offered up the flickr advice.

and i like your idea of commenting/linking here if people have a specific photo they want to point to for advice.

Yes, there have been a whirlwind of postings of late! Some lovely people and places have appeared. I'm leaving comments on flickr for easier reference to specific photos. I'll try to be more fastidious about leaving links here when that seems appropriate or if comments might have a wider appeal. Like jessicat, I find it a bit confusing to be hopping back and forth between here and flickr, particularly when different user names are involved. It'll undoubtedly get easier as names become more familiar.

On my end of things, it looks highly likely that we may tear out the yucky parquet tile and refinish to our original fir sooner rather than later. Does anyone have an amazing floor person that they would recommend?

Also, based on positive feedback here and the fact that the Danish Modern chairs belonged to my Mom and are comfortable, I've decide to reupholster rather than replace them. I'd love fabric suggestions for those chairs.

And lastly, does anyone have a media console that pops to mind when they look at our living room? We have a turntable, a tuner, a CD player and a tape deck (I record demos on a 4-track on occasion) that would need to be accommodated as well as a tv that will someday hopefully turn into a flat screen tv.

Hm, I'm not seeing how I might link to photographs specifically, but both the living room and the chairs can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98704941@N00/1356374581/in/set-72157601955717111

Okay, back to my torn apart kitchen!

jessicat

yes, as anh-minh said, I was referring to Lisa from VA/Isaspacey.

my apologies, I should have been clearer.

Yes, it works much better to link to specific photos in a post. We used to do that in our names before the system changed, but no matter, urls/links work too.

OK: You've probably all seen my nasty photo of the dining room wall o' shelves.

What I need help with is this: I'm painting the wall those sit on an almond colour: almost exactly the colour of the brackets as they are now. I think I ought to paint the pine shelving white. (So it harmonizes and helps blend in the HUGE white expedit going up on an adjacent wall).

Should I leave the brackets the same colour as the (new)walls? or should I do white to make the shelving look like a "unit."

I put the whole conundrum on the blog:
http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/

I hope that's OK. Thanks.

btw: in total exhaustion, with the kitchen disrupted by the colossal task of oven cleaning, we had KFC for supper. A rare treat, really. Thankfully. I can't imagine living on a diet of that much grease!

nice elevation, alana.

I'd make the brackets the same color (or colour) as the wall.

If we're asking for help here, please let me point you all in the direction of my bizarre high kitchen shelf: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maceelaine/1406167478/. I dusted it, put the espresso cups in my Outbox, relocated the waffle iron to a lower cabinet. So now there is only my cookbooks, the oil set, and the shaker up there. It's looking a little sparse. What can I put up there? And what on earth are those hooks under the shelf for?

To show you how high the shelf is, here is a shot of the whole room: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maceelaine/1406168122/.

Please feel free to comment on the photos.

And alana, I agree with JonathanB. I like when the brackets fade into the wall, especially when the wall is a nice medium color like almond.

Mace Elaine

sometimes the problem isn't that there is something wrong with something, but rather it's a jarring contrast to what had been there before. Try living with the "spareness" for a bit and then decide. What I would suggest is do nothing and let additional cookbook slowly fill the space.....

Thank you all for the help with the brackets. Funny how something like that can cause so much anxiety.

Mac Elaine--do you need the shelf? Can you take it down?

I agree it the hooks were put there proably to hold a rod of some kind. Since you already have your pots hanging, perhaps you could rehang a rod (a dowl or light white metal cafe curtain rod would do) and perhaps drape a table cloth over it?

But, if it bugs you and you don't need it, take it down and put some artwork up on that long wall--perhaps a few pieces all framed the same--in one horizontal row?

So, looking at my new bookshelf configuration here, scraplolly commented that they might look better moved towards the window, and after thinking it over I'm inclined to agree - they kind of look like they're cowering in the corners. On the other hand, leaving gaps between the bookcases and the walls seems like a waste of space. I was thinking maybe I could put some plants on top of the bookcases to make them seem taller instead. Thoughts?

JonathanB, Alana, thanks for your input. I'm going to leave the shelf up, since I don't know if there's extra paint around to patch the hole, but I think I'll take the hooks off. Anything hanging from those hooks is going to bother me. Even the potholder and elephant get in my way.
I'm going to leave the shelf empty for a while and see how much I like it/how much it bothers me.

Has anyone seen a good mixture of plates and art on a kitchen wall? I have the two decorative plates my mother gave me as a housewarming present up, but the wall still seems sparse.

Alana- I like the idea of keeping the brackets the same almond color as the wall. I think it would be nice to draw attention to the shelves & their items rather than the brackets.

Dancingspring- I would center the bookcases halfway between the wall and the window on each side. Don't worry about the gaps, that will be fine.

I am quite stuck at cleaning my oven racks. Actually, sugar, from placing pastries directly on the rack mixed with grease is what's sticking to them.

I've sprayed them with oven cleaner, soaked paper towels in oven cleaner and wrapped them, and I've tried a toothbrush and baking soda.

I've been at this about 48 hours now.

Any suggestions?
Thanks.

oh--and dancingspring: it's not a waste of space: it's called breathing room. If it's any consolation, it'll help the drapes fall more cleanly too.

Mace Elaine, if I get some time, I'll see what I can find for you.

Mace Elaine:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambernussbaum/761013891/

Um--maybe another row of prints instead of the knives in this one?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tacoma-political-cartoonist/691220676/

--Use that cool new search function at AT:NY--type in kitchen. There's all kinds of stuff to see.

I got some help with the rack cleaning problem over at AT:NY--steel wool!

Someone suggested a Brillo pad--I don't even know if we have those here. And I don't use anything like that--but, hey, down in the "painting cupboard" we have steel wool! The grade marked "coarse" has done a lot--it's even shiny in places!

where are my manners?
Mace Elaine, Jillian and JonathanB--thank you for your input on my shelving "problem." It's unanimous: I'll leave them. The frugal husband will be VERY happy!

Hey there everyone!

I have a request for opinions...again relating to the blik room rather than my kitchen, although I have lots of questions there as well and will hopefully be posting those photos soon (goody goody). But given that blik has a very tight deadline (documentation of finished room by MONDAY) I'm just a tad bit preoccupied with those decisions first.

Anyway, if anyone can give me some help on curtain fabrics, I would much appreciate the feedback! Sometime soon I'll be coming at'cha with choices for paint color on the wall outside the little window....

Oh my, jessicat! That is a serious deadline. reprodepot has a great selection of fabrics. I'm particularly fond of the Aviary Woodgrain:
http://www.reprodepot.com/nature.html

On my end, the fridge is sparkling and now filled with groceries from my favorite food store ever, Berkeley Bowl.

I'm now on the hunt for some new kitchen cabinet hardware. The test set of Ikea kitchen knobs that I bought for $3.25 today will not work as the diameter of the old knob is wider than the new one that I selected so there would be an unfinished ring around each knob. I'm planning on doing some more shopping at Hundley hardware.

Does anyone have favorite hardware stores or sites to recommend?

wig - wish I knew where to send you for hardware, but alas, I am not good with such things. I am jealous of your Berkeley Bowl haul; I *still* have never had the pleasure of shopping there after 13 years in SF. I myself am very much looking forward to Friday's delivery from Three Stone Hearth!

Re: fabrics: oooo I love that woodgrain. That's now a serious contender. I was salivating over the blooming abstract waveslast night, but not for this project. Curtains for hubby's VW van though, now that would work!
I didn't know about the nature category @ reprodepot, and somehow missed this lovely one: oak leaves - chestnut. Anyone think that one could be amazing? It could help disappear the window, even when the curtain is closed.

Yes, the deadline is certainly intense...especially since it's in the ONE room we can't work in when mr. busybody McNo naps is finally asleep at night! It's going to be quite a productive weekend, to say the least.

oh goodness, I just realized that reprodepot fabric would cost me $22 in 2-day shipping charges. Aak!
I could also always leave new curtains out of the scope of the blik makeover and add them later if the perfect fabric just isn't proving itself to be locally available, but I think they'll be so sweet it's hard to be ok with that. I curse thee, perfectionism!

i like that there is a specified "chair for putting on shoes".

—michael

Oh my, jessicat, I love the oak leaves - chestnut! However, I think your idea of working without curtains for this Monday's deadline is wise. I'd want to match the curtain color to the bird decal color because, I too, am a perfectionist and it would bother me forever if the colors did not.

If you like to cook, do go to the Berkeley Bowl. The gas/trip money will be returned via better prices on a produce selection that is insane! Caveat: go off-peak and not on Fridays as it is popular with many folks and the parking lot will prove it.

Alana -- although you've already solved your oven-cleaning problem (sorry to hear about the cookies...) for future reference I *think* Brillo Pads would equal S.O.S. pads here in Canada. Steel wool sorta stuff with blue soapy stuff in 'em. I use them occasionally when I have something that really needs scrubbing. (and yes, I can use them without ill effects. I don't know what they do to the environment, tho...)

That chair is completely because of my cats! There's no way to keep them off the upholstered furniture, so when I'm putting on my shoes in the morning--the only way to avoid getting cat hair all over myself before heading out the was to bring in a non-upholstered surface to sit on!

So strange to see the floor plan up there! I already have arranged things into a configuration very close to this one (it was my favorite of my plans). I'll have to take pictures this weekend to see what everyone thinks of how it turned out in real life. I'm liking the flow thus far.

My next hurdle is organizing and purging in the office area!

It's interesting, the thing I'm feeling guiltiest about this cure is that while I'm working on things--I've been so busy offline with work that I feel like I haven't had any time to keep up with everything going on here!

Thanks SCB. Yes, the husband and I were discussing what the "Canadian equivalent" to a brillo pad might be. I don't use them because all my cookware is stainless steel and teflon. If anything burns, I just use low heat and lots of baking soda and a bit of water.

Besides, my last S.O.S pad got mouldy AND rusty--that was more years ago than I care to admit.

We have both brands in the U.S. And other's with no soap like Chore Boy. I used them on my mom's cast iron and RevereWare (stainless steel) growing up.

hey graphxgrrl -- i'm having the exact opposite problem; way too much time keeping up online is using up all my action time! think i'll have to swap that around if i want to get anything done.

wig...thank you for your sanity. here i was this morning already stressing out again about how to do the curtains this weekend. i wonder though, how can i match the fabric to the decals if i can't have both in-hand? does reprodepot ship swatches?
i will definitely plan a trip to the bb one of these days; my son will be thrilled because he has a favorite playground over there that he doesn't get to visit much.

I have another colour conundrum, if anyone has a minute?
You were all so wonderfully helpful last time!
Thanks.
http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/

jessicat, swatches are $10 inc. shipping at reprodepot. That seems a bit high, doesn't it? It looks like that price includes up to 6 swatches, so if you have a number of projects in the works, it becomes more reasonable.

alana, I always love yellow in the kitchen. It's so inviting. I say definitely buy the colors that you want (your dream batch). It shouldn't require a lot of paint, and if you're going to put in all of that effort painting, you should be rewarded with the colors that you truly want.

Oh wig--I wish you were my husband. Um, no. Sorry, that sounded strange.

And I just gave out that advice, too, yesterday. But it seems to be hard to take.

I now have one chair done in soft yellow, the other in a medium blue. They look strange. I'm not sure I like it. The light yellow looks like I tried to find white paint in the dark, the darker one, the blue, just looks, well, odd.

I'm not going to rush into anything today (though it is disruptive not to have chairs to sit on)

I'll wait a bit and see if it grows on me.

Gaah, this week has been crazy busy! Managed to clean countertops and rearrange counter appliances and accoutrements for better functionality AND make a batch of pasta sauce and a batch of pesto, no painting has occurred in the kitchen but we will be having friends over for dinner tomorrow night, that's good right? Not going out but staying in for dinner!

I finally posted my pictures. I am surprised how white my walls look. If the texture of the builder paint wasn't bad enough (hate the feel of super flat paint) after seeing the pictures it is all I can do not to break out the paint roller. Only thing stopping me is that I am stumped on the color.

Perhaps I should focus on the kitchen though. I threw out a bunch of expired food last night so my fridge is fairly empty. Now I need to tackle the cabinets. I was thinking of adding extra shelves since I have a lot of dead space above my glasses and plate. I currently have 3 shelves per cabinet and am thinking of going up to 4. Has anyone done this before? Is it easy to have cabinet shelves cut at Home Depot?

Hey caliloud--how much space are we talking about? When you are at home depot, ask someone in kitchens to show you there "space saver plate racks, or whatever they are called. You can put vertical dividers in--that you can also take out for your next place. Take some measurements.

Here's a pic: not very good, but see those white wire things stacked in the cabinet to the right? That's what I'm thinking of:
http://www.closetmaid.com/Look/Glamour_Photos/kitchen_rollovers.cfm?kitchenset=0

You can get things like these at Walmart and whatever else you have in the States that would carry organizers.

caliloud - i have the shelving racks that alana's talking about and they do the trick nicely. i bought mine from hold everything (now closed) and container store.

caliloud - I have some of those shelving racks too...a few bought at a hardware store & a cool adjustable one from Bed, Bath & Beyond. This is the third apartment they've lived in, they still look & work really well.

Thanks to those who commented on my pictures. I, too, love my kitchen cabinets. It's one of the reasons I took the apartment. Bookshelves are in the budget, and I have some thoughts on how to deal with that top heavy shelf thing in the living room...I'm going to tackle it next week since I have essentially no entryway to declutter. I really like the idea of painting the frame of the mirror on the medicine cabinet. I'll have to ruminate on what color.

Okay, the kitchen is 'done'. Cleaning a vintage Wedgewood is truly a beast of a job, but after looking over the range more closely, I've realized I haven't been taking full advantage of it. I think I'll have to try its griddle feature!

One other thing of note to the chefs out there: some of my Morton and Bassett herbs and spices needed to be dumped. It's sad to say cuz the manufacturer is local to SF, but their product is really not holding up and staying fresh like other brands, organic or not.

JonathanB!
Thanks for the shout-out! I just saw it.