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Back in Grand Forks, there was a TV commercial that ran for several years.
It was a German restaurant in a little town somewhere in the area. Their specialty was "knepfla soup." They would advertise
that, then these little ladies would say, invitingly, "Come in, sit down und eat." That's what I'd like to invite you to do
with me. Until you save up enough money for the gas to make the trip, here's what you'll find in my kitchen.
This cupboard is very special to me. My mother bought it at an auction for $13.00. I was 4 years old. It was painted
an ugly dark green. As my mother, my brother and I spent the summer carefully removing the paint, we uncovered
13 colors. Mother often joked that "It was a very good buy; only a dollar a color." Like many things in life, once you got
down to the "heart" of the matter, there was this beautiful oak wood, which was varnished so it would be seen in its right
form. I have my very special dishes stored in there, and when I look at it, if I unleash my imagination, I can see
my mother standing in front of it.
The little raccoon on the stool beside the cupboard was given to me by Willy, our oldest son. He got it after he moved
to Las Vegas, back in 1998. For many years I suffered from severe sinus headaches. (Old age does have some advantages, I've
learned. They are very infrequent any longer.) It always helped if I put heat on my head. Well, my little pet raccoon has
a Velcro opening in the backend. According to the instructions, you are supposed to "gut the little critter, remove his insides,
place them in the oven or microwave for a few minutes, restuff him, seal the backend up, then apply to the sore area of your
body." You see, the inside of the critter is a bag of herbs, which when heated smell very good and supposedly have some healing
qualities, as well as applying the warmth. It works wonders. Of course I brought him along, just in case I get another headache.
The two pictures beside the refrigerator were handmade by Raquel. One is the story of the sand dollar, and the other
(one of my all-time favorites) is Footprints in the Sand. Like I said, everything just seems to fit in its own little place
in my new house!
If you look deep into the background of the picture you will see the nice little shelf unit Tom turned into a linen closet.
Billie added the cute finishing touch by adding a piece of crocheted-type lace to the front of each shelf. It's in the hallway
just outside the bathroom, which has the cutest rounded shower you ever saw!
This is where we will "sit und eat," unless you bring the whole family
with you, in which case we will have to move into the dining room.
The pineapple tablecloth was one I made. I had seen many pineapply items that were
crocheted through the years, but they were always done in an ecru thread. When I saw this crochet thread, I knew it had to
turn into a pineapple tablecloth. I mean, how many albino pineapples have you ever seen?
Ivan and I bought the ducks many years ago. The big one is a soup tureen and the
little ones are napkin rings. (There are more of them in the cupboard.) We always kept the big one on the table and Ivan kept
his pills in there. It now holds my pills, which are simply a Centrum one-a-day senior vitamin, complete with minerals (that
means plenty of iron), just in case Billie sees that I am "getting funny" sometimes. You don't know about our iron scraps?
They are very different from "scrap iron." If you want to know the rest of that story, you'll have to ask her. You can do
that at billie@billiewilliams.com .
I have had the goose canisters you see on the cupboards for many many years. The
strawberry cookie jar? I almost left it behind, but at the last minute Billie said, "Oh, take it along! It's so cute." The
kids gave it to me when they were pretty young. They would almost always check in it when they came home after school, and
if it was empty, they would let me know that I needed to do some serious baking! Despite how small it looks, it holds an awful
lot of cookies!
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