jkom, that's funny, my mother loved pickled pigs feet, and their similar product, pickled pigs knuckles. The person who taught her to eat them? My Aunt Amy, whose real name was Yoshiko and who came to the States with my Uncle Chuck, he met her and married her while he was in the service stationed in Japan. I always liked liver, although I seemed to be an oddity among my friends for it. I still like liver with bacon and onions, although I seldom eat it now on the advice on my doctor. Peppi, all of those things are also available here, and none are considered particularly odd. In fact, Jiffy muffin mix is made here in Michigan, and I've always got canned salmon, canned sardines and canned smoked oysters in the pantry. I don't particularly like the oysters, but Elery loves them. I don't really like headcheese much either, truthfully, but I can get it and I've eaten it. Ashley still likes the Mrs. Grass' chicken noodle soup in a box as well as the Vienna sausages in a can. So, although I'll eat liver and headcheese, I think "non-dairy creamer" is weird, how can it be creamer, but be non-diary? I haven't figured out yet what exactly Cool Whip is, but my brother eats it frozen, like ice cream. Annie

Yay! I have a Hobby Lobby store now so I'll have to check it out. I wouldn't mind having one for every holiday. How are you doing?? I feel bad that I've been MIA around here. Just so much going on. I was gone all day yesterday. Got up early and did my grocery shopping for the superbowl party we do every year. Then DH and I had to make a run to Costco for a few more things. Took the kids out to Godfathers Pizza Buffet, then bowling for a few hours for DS's b-day. Came home and he opened presents and we had cake and ice cream. I slept so badly last night that I overslept this morning and we are not going to make it to church. We have all my family and a few friends coming over for the Superbowl party later. So have a lot of prep to do for that. Busy Busy Busy. The next few weeks I'll be caught up in Science Fair stuff. You know how crazy I get with that on top of all the other homework and things these kids have to do. ha Hopefully we can pick some simple ones that don't involve too much overtime. It's blizzarding here again today. Can it be spring yet? I seriously may not come back from Hawaii. ha I'll just have my parents ship my kids out to me and I'll build myself a little beach hut out of palm leaves and eat sand....I don't care as long as I'm warm for a change!!! ha Anyway, I miss participating here more. So many projects staring at me wanting to be done. Here are a few things I have lined up.....a washboard, a shelf, bricks, glass block light, 3 baskets, a lighthouse (for my mom),a rocking horse (for my SIL), a sailboat (for my DB), some stacking cans, an Americana sign and a tray. There's more, but that's what I've got pulled out for right now. I may have to put a few things away to work on later so I don't have so many out. I have a kit that I found at the TS of Raggety Ann and Andy that I wanted to do for Valentines too, but when will I get to it??? What have you got lined up to work on? Anything fun? Guess I'll go get breakfast out of the way so I can start on Superbowl snackage. Have a good one. ~Anj

Buckeyegoldenmom just posted the tins I bought from Specialty Bottle. I like the clear lids for being able to do a quick glance into the tops without even touching them before I go to the store, but they have other types of lids and containers. I use the 4 oz size for the majority of my spices and salts. I also use a few of the 8 oz size in the back for larger size herbs (bay leaves) or ones I use in large quantities like cinnamon, chili powder, and my homemade Italian spice blend. For some reason, the 8 oz lids don't fit as snugly as the 4 oz lids. I go nuts over these tins. They appeal to my OCD need to have sameness and organization wherever I go. Plus, the price is definetly right! The lids fit tightly, yet are easy to get remove. The only issue I've had in 18 months is the ground cloves tin, which had a sticky lid after about 16 months. I removed the cloves and washed the tin, fixing the problem. I made some spice blends at Christmas and poured them in little tins as gifts. I also ordered some of their clear Boston bottles to package my homemade vanilla extract gifts. I might be coming addicted to that online store! The drawer storage idea and source for the tins came from GW, of course! The drawer is so easy to use, it's genius! Here is a link that might be useful: Direct link to the 4 oz tins at Specialty Bottle

I would love to have them in a drawer but not sure how. I've seen the slanted dividers for displaying them in drawers, but I know that not all of the bottles shapes would fit that design. I've thought about changing out all the bottles to a standard size and using a label maker to mark the tops so that I can put them all standing upright in a drawer - just not sure if that's worth the effort. That is pretty much what I did, and it was definately worth the effort. I designed some drawers that were high enough for the bottles I wanted to store, including some half pint canning jars that I use for bay leaves and that sort of thing. Here's a thread started in 2008 about storing large collections of spices. Lots of good ideas. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg02124116986.html Cj