Cookin' Up Love in a Clutterd Kitchen

My kitchen is the center of my home - literally. :-) And it is, it seems, the center of my universe. Cluttered though that may be...

I enjoy having things around me that make me happy. So, my kitchen may be cluttered by the standards of many, but it cooks up love and happy memories. Not just those that our own family have made here, but also through the things that are in it. I am a sentimental fool who loves my family - both my immediate and my extended. So, you can see that I have happy memorabilia on my frig - magnets w/pics of the girls, magnets of places that we have been to and enjoyed from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Erie and beyond.

At my kitchen window I have things that I enjoy looking at and having around me while washing dishes, making morning coffee or cutting up chicken at the counter...my dish at the sink is a colonial cabin interior, it's "Colonial Homestead" by Royal and I got it for 50 cents at a barn sale! In the window is my mortor and pestel that I grind herbs in for cooking, seasoning mixes and soaps; a small framed piece that says, "Christ is the Head of this house; the unseen Guest at every meal, the unseen Listener to every conversation;" there is a 'stained glass' ornament that one of the girls made when they were little, it's faded, but I still love it. There's a Cat's Meow wood cutting of the Miami County Barn that is just a 1/2 mile from my home - 2003 was Ohio's bi-centennial and all 88 counties had one barn painted by a particular Ohio artist and Cat's Meow made a cut out of each one. My favorite things by my sink are the 2 little antique pictures I have nailed to each of the sink-side cabinets - 1 on the right and 1 on the left - of log cabin interiors. They were my gr-ma's and they remind me of her cozy little home. I'll show those to you sometime.

In the fore-ground (above), on the couter, you can see jars of fresh honey next to our tea basket and the very large Lipton's Tea ice tea "pot" (the siggot is on the other side), this was the last thing my Daddy gave me the last time he came to my house before he passed away. My parents found it at an antique shop years ago and they decided they didn't need it anymore and he brought it to me b/c he knew I always admired it. Under the window you can see my dry sink that was given to me by an aunt. On it are my antique pitcher/bowl, various bottles of seasoned olive oils and my butter crock ready w/soft sweet butter. Behind that, on the wall, you can see a small plate w/The Last Supper on it that belonged to my gr-ma. Above, on the window sill, are a hodge-podge of favorites - the beautiful yellow carnival glass dish has The Last Supper on it and was my MIL's; however most of the items on that sill are keepsakes from one of our favorite places on earth: Lakeside, Ohio on Lake Erie. Our dear friends own a cottage up there and we go up at least 1 week each summer; it's also 10 minutes away from Marblehead Lighthouse (the lighthouse that is on some Ohio license plates). There are some of my large tins that I keep noodles, pasta and large bags of flour in. And the shelf that my Daddy made me for my antique/reproduction tins collection.

This is the back of the cabinets that are over the bar area that divides the cooking area of the kitchen from the eating area. As you can see, it has taken on a life of its own! We call this our "Wall of Fame"! It used to hold merely our calender and the 3D chicken...thing. But as the years have passed, more and more photos of favorite people began to find little resting places in the corners and along the edges and then I just started putting them all over like a big collage. There are baby announcements, vacation pics, the children of family and friends from all over the country, graduation pics from our daughters' homeschool friends, pics of President Bush when he spoke in the center of the traffic circle of our county seat in 2004...there's a memory and a loved one in every face.

There's always LOVE cookin' up somewhere in my cluttered country kitchen!

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><