Thursday, December 9, 2010

Auntie Leila's Linky Party

Auntie Leila of Like Mother, Like Daughter (one of my favorite blogs!) is having a linky party about kitchen sinks! I thought I'd join in and show you mine.

First is a picture of my kitchen sink area in its entirety:



It's a small room~~just 13' x 8'~~but I've decided I don't really mind because everything is only a step or two away. Leila has been talking about making the kitchen work for you instead of you working against it, and that's really quite easy to accomplish when the space is so small. In fact, reading her post about her kitchen made me laugh because our kitchen set-up is almost identical!

The windows up close:





I like to put these "gingerbread" Christmas decorations in the kitchen. Girl of the House made the paperbag gingerbread boy when she was four. Isn't he cute? The little red gingham bag was made by the director of the preschool where I used to teach and is over 20 years old. The felt ornaments were made by my grandmother, the one who lived to be 96. She gave them to Girl of the House a few years ago. Remember when sequined felt decorations were all the rage in the 70's? Grandma made oodles of them and have passed lots on to both my girls. Of course, those belonging to Girl Out of the House now reside with her. (You can see them here. A grammatical aside: Aren't you so glad she capitalized "is" in her title because ALL verbs are capitalized in titles, even when they are only two letters long? I'm so proud of her!) And don't you just love geraniums on window sills? I brought this one in from my front porch when the weather turned cold.

The curtains are just dish towels put up with clips and cafe rods. Very inexpensive and easy to care for. I just unclip them, wash and dry them, and hang them back up.

Notice the view? Yes, it is really that dismal. The house next door sits a mere six feet from ours; hence the blank white wall. That's why I try to keep pretty things on the windowsills. I have to have something to look at!

The little objects between the two windows are my British thimbles. My mother bought them all during her visits to Great Britain over the years. The first is of Clandon Park, then Victoria and Albert in silhouette, the Queen Mother sporting one of her famous hats, a Wedgwood thimble, and lastly a thimble from Windsor Castle. I'm sorry the picture isn't clearer. I miss Girl Out of the House for her photography skills!



The colors in this room were horrible when we moved in: olive green walls and floor and dark wood cabinets and paneling, which were not so bad in themselves, but this small room needed to be lightened up. So we painted the walls and cabinets a color just shy of white and leaning slightly to yellow and refinished the floor, stripping away ancient vinyl and even more ancient linoleum until we got to the original hardwood. We kept the gold counters. Much, much better now!

That's my contribution to the linky party. Be sure to visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more kitchen sink fun!

15 comments:

  1. Love your sweet kitchen! I'm particularly attached to that kind of scalloped valance above the sink.
    Pretty!

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  2. My stocking (circa 1971) is a sequin felt one made by mom! :)

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  3. Very nice! Your kitchen has a warm and welcoming look. I love the thimbles and the paper bag gingerbread boy.

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  4. Pretty! I like all your little personal touches.

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  5. I love your red geranium in the terracotta pot, really nice.......
    Suzanne

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  6. Those are absolutely beautiful windows!

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  7. Wow, our kitchen's are so similiar. I even have the scalloped wood valance above my sink. I still have the dark cabinets though and I want to paint mine a lighter color. I just haven't been brave enough yet. :)

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  8. Oh I'm so glad I clicked over today! I really like your curtain idea and especially the idea of having them down lower rather than a valance (which is what I have, and dislike). I'm going to have to consider this idea when I make new ones...
    Your decorations are so charming! I have a 5 & 6 year old who would love making those paper bag gingerbread men...you gave me a great idea for a craft project with my littles.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Darling! Your window sill with the gingerbread man is so cute :)

    Linking up from Like Mother, Like Daughter.

    Have a lovely week, Tamara

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  10. Love the gingerbread theme...and that wood valance!

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  11. Thank you, all, for your kind comments! The linky party has been fun!

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  12. I am wondering how you got the old linoleum off of your floors? We have tried doing that do and only made small progress. There is concern about asbestos and it is just very, very hard to get it off. There is wood underneath and we wanted to finish it and have a wood floor. Kind of gave up and we are putting vinyl down on top at present. Sigh.

    You have made your kitchen very cute. Nice work!

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  13. Dear Pockets~

    To be honest, asbestos never crossed our minds, though we did wear dust masks and sealed the kitchen off from the rest of the house (after empyting it of all contents). The vinyl just came up in one piece, but some of the linoleum was still well stuck to the floor. We scraped it off with a scraper where it didn't just come off. It was very, very old and in some places the glue had deteriorated. Then we sanded the floor with a rented floor sander to get the rest of the glue off. After that, applying the finish was relatively easy. It was a pretty long and involved process but well worth it.

    I hope you are pleased with your results!

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  14. Just saw your windowsill. I love it. You have the touch for making it so homey and nice. Love your blog. You sound a lot like my daughters and the woman I'd love to grow into.
    God bless,
    Carolyn

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