Our Great Wall Of China!

The next room I would like to invite you to is the dinning room.  (Although there have been changes in the eat in part of the kitchen since our last visit!)   Not a lot of organizing tips in here to share but I can show you how I can mange to keep all the dishes I love and not appear too cluttered. You may feel otherwise but it works for us.  To start with I will have to tell you how the color scheme as well as the huge built in cupboard came to be.
   When I was a little girl at the age of 8 I told my Non Non I loved her pretty blue dishes and asked when I grew up could I have them. (  I told you how I inherited my love for dishes from her in an earlier post. )  Now bear in mind that these were her everyday dishes that we were eating off at that time.      She packed them away that day and and gave them to me as a wedding gift!  I cannot tell you how much they mean to me.  All the more shocking is that they are still my taste!  (I wouldn't want to use a lot of the things I loved as a child!)  But these dishes sparked a passion for collecting in me.  I get a warm fuzzy looking at them remembering meals eaten from them at my Grandmothers table. She was an awesome cook!  They are blue and white Staffordshire transfer ware by Clarice Cliff.  I added to the original set over the years but know the ones that came from Non Non's house.  I planned the whole dinning room with them being the star!  Choosing the color for the walls and cupboard  to compliment them.   When I asked Mike to build the big cupboard, he  asked this big?  I would reply " bigger!" Until he built it as big as would fit.  His brother saw it and teased us calling it the "great wall of china!!"

 This is a room all about family, from Non Non's dishes to all of the meals we share there.  We will cram as many chairs as we possibly can squeeze around the table so that we can eat and pray together.  Making memories for my family!   I hope Mollie, my gran daughter, say's to me someday......Nonny, I love your dishes!

 Good storage for other antique china!

 The corner cupboard is the oldest antique we own circa 1790 and houses another problem, I mean collection!

This little jelly cupboard is a cherry reproduction built by the same man we commissioned to build our bed.   It holds my Grandchildren Mollie and Andrew's snacks.

Thanks for coming back and allowing me to share what keeps my heart in home!  Be it ever so humble there truly is no place else like it!



 

Kitchen Contentment 2!

 I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back to the kitchen so to speak.  Only in the blog world though because it feels like I have physically been in  it a lot lately!  My daughter and her husband were in for a visit from Illinois and we had several family dinners here.  She and her sister also took a girls week end getaway to New York so we were babysitting as well.  All the kind of things that make this mother happy! (But tired too!)
 Mike and I have taken on another do it yourself project  of enclosing the small back porch of our dinning room. And we started this endeavor on the very same week! (Crazy aren't we?)

  I am going to try to share more ways that I have made our love of antiques and collectables function better in our home.  (I say try, as I have already posted one blog today and somehow me or blogger did not save it properly and I lost it! ugh)
 Although the eat end side of the kitchen is not full of clever ideals of storage an organization it works to hide all the things that I need today to prepare meals but maintain the colonial/prim decor that I so love.

I love this old walnut 2 board farm table.  It has one drawer and part of its original blue paint. The splits and old nails do not bother Mike and me a bit, we eat here most often when it is only the two of us.  My son teases that you have to find the perfect spot for your plate not to rock, but the splits are handy to hold your steak knife! lol

The walnut corner cabinet is the newest addition to our home.  It is from upper East Tennessee and stayed in the same family until the dealer we got it from acquired it.  When all the doors are closed (like in the picture with the table)  the kitchen appears uncluttered and tidy. 
 It holds or hides ( depending on how you want to look at it) another obsession of mine....dishes!   Another inherited trait from my Non Non!  I will share more about this love another visit.  One door open on the corner cabinet gives a peak at my transfer ware if I want to see it on any given day with out over whelming the eyes with all of them open.

 The pine one door piece was once a built in from New England and is home to most of my small appliances.  The walnut church pew is where everyone sits and visits with me during meal preps.  I love that!  Although the bench has changed through out the years, I have always had one in my kitchen.

 The pine cupboard will be moved to the new room when it is finished but will maintain its same purpose.
It holds almost all of my small appliances as well as mixing bowls.  I put simple cup hooks on the back of the door to hold all of the measuring tools.  Keeping them handy with the mixers and bowls.

This stack of firkins hides all of the kitchen decor such as fake fruits that I am not using at the time.  Easily found when I want to change what is on the table.

Although all of my butter molds and treen ware is out in plain sight grouped together on the shelf makes it look good to me.  The shelf over the window holds my copper kettle collection in the same fashion.

Lastly, I will share Mollies cabinet.  I rarely neaten it as I get a "warm fuzzy" seeing it as she left it!  My Dad built all of his gran-daughters one. (They all still have them.)  Mike patterned one from it and built one for our house.  I cannot begin to tell you how many cups of tea and coffee she has prepared for us here!

 Thanks so much for coming!!  I hope you have enjoyed your visit to my kitchen and that you drew a bit of inspiration from my sharing how living with antiques keeps my heart in  our home.   Be it ever so humble there truly is no place else like it!