Cooking Up Happiness

My kitchen is less than ideal. Oh how I would love a vaulted ceiling. An island with chair-backed stools. Loads of counter space. And marble counter space, if you please. An above-the-sink window that looks out on something more spectacular than my neighbor's driveway and patio deck would be nice. White subway tile. Loads of it on the walls. A few glass-front kitchen cabinets would make me smile. And a new floor. Ee-gads, my ancient linoleum screams kitchen makeover.

Yet as I stand at my stove (electric . . . ahhh, to have a gas stove again would be the bomb diggity), I look at the small shelf above it, and there is happiness to be found in its inhabitants. There is the baby food jar snow globe, one of many that Harleigh and I made one year for Christmas gifts. This one has a gold-horned unicorn and a bottle brush Christmas tree. I never tire of shaking it as I stir something stovetop.

The Bless This House tile is one that Harleigh gave me for Christmas one year. It was purchased at one of those makeshift Christmas bazaars that elementary schools have so that students can purchase gifts on the cheap. I love how each word begins with a capital letter. Makes me want to read it with emphasis on each and every word.

The ceramic turtle is. Well. He just is.

I've had the Lux timer since I first started keeping house as a college graduate. The ticking off of minutes conjures up a lifetime of kitchen memories.

The three vintage pieces are all thrift store finds. The two salt and pepper shakers are simply there to look pretty. The miniature cup holds toothpicks, a must for testing the doneness of cakes.

And the picture "Welcome to Baltimore HON!" is clipped from a very old edition of The Baltimore Sun newspaper. Seems that this Welcome to Baltimore sign on a Maryland expressway is constantly being edited to include the moniker "hon," which is what every waitress uses when addressing a patron in the diners of my hometown Bal-mer.

And the hodgepodge of trinkets hanging from a cabinet knob are things that Harleigh created as a little girl. You'd think that they'd get in my way, but instead, they seem like just a part of the kitchen hardware.

All in all, my kitchen will never grace the pages of Elle Decor or Country Living, but it sure warms my heart just by being . . . me.