Just how small is my kitchen??

Nothing makes you feel "old" (even though I am only 26) like taking the "little" girl you used to babysit to dinner to congratulate her on her....ENGAGEMENT! So congrats to my little Lacy!!  Anyway, my point of this story is I did not cook last night. However, it did occur to me that some of you might wonder how small my kitchen is or what it looks like....since it is the title of my blog!! So I took some current pics and found some old ones taken before the remodel (and by remodel I mean new coat of paint and rearrangement of accessories....gotta work with what you've got in a duplex!).  So although my kitchen is small, it is still managable when it comes to cooking, I make due.  Sometimes I even put my cutting board on the stove for extra "counter" space (although ben hates that because he says one day the stove will be on and I will regret it....he's probably right...).  I have a few of my favorite cookbooks on the counter, ones that inspire me like Nigella Lawson's beautiful books, Paula Deen's Southern Comfort, Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (although I have yet  to make anything from that one yet....) but my favorite is Ina Garten's "Family Style" along with all of her other cookbooks.  If you have never caught an episode of "The Barefoot Contessa" on the foodnetwork, I encourage you to catch an episode or two.  She makes roast chicken seem like the most special meal!  Anyway, I digress, my kitchen is small but I have tried to fill it with a few inspirational pieces and keep the rest functional--all the necessary equipment, the knife block, mixer, toaster, and coffee maker.  The main point is, ya gotta work with what ya got! So here it is, a few pics of my little duplex oasis, where all the cooking magic happens!

The "Remodeled" Version Circa 2011.....you can see it is only about 4 1/2 feet wide from left to right! From back to front it is around 9 feet long.

 Pre-Remodel Circa 2009 (this is what it usually looks like when we are in "cooking mode")

 And waaaay back in the day with my roommates in College.....circa 2007!