Cheery Kitchens

Here are some of my very favorite kitchens:




























I feel like these pictures capture my style, which I call "Farmhouse Cottage." :)



A mom and her daughters live in this cottage with the pink frig. Though I don't think TL would go for a pink frig & stove, they're adorable!



Maybe he could go for turquoise ones though. :) Those pendant lights are amazing!



Love the green island and the open shelving. :) Hope these have brightened your day!

It would be fun to be here today...

And while we're on the subject of aprons...

Let me pass along a sweet story that my very dear friend Laura Mann shared with me today...

Susannah Wesley
"Susannah Wesley, mother of Charles and John Wesley, wrote some of the famous hymns that we know. She had 19 active children, but she said she seldom gave the Lord less than a full hour for prayer. At her prayer time, she would take her apron up and pull it over her face. Her children were instructed never to disturb mother when she was praying in her apron. I think we need to make some of those aprons!"

Wow! How cool is that?! I want to be that kind of a mother someday!

History of Aprons...and the Farm Chicks!

A fellow blogger named LuAnn recently posted a very fun article called "The History of Aprons" on her blog and I thought I would share it as well. It just makes me smile and makes me wish for simple times...

HISTORY OF APRONS.

I don’t think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So while we're on the subject of aprons, look at Serena's cute apron on her Farm Chicks blog! :)



I love those girls, the Farm Chicks. I got to meet them at the Country Living festival in Ohio a couple of years ago with TL and it was one of the funnest days ever!

Here is the link on Country Living's website to pictures of their antique show which happens to be THIS weekend and I would do anything to go! Only one problem, it's in Spokane, Washington. Sigh. If only. :)

Hello, sunshine!

A very dear friend has returned to east Tennessee! His name is "the sun" and I'm so very grateful he has decided to come home to us! I have had daffodils sitting on my desk all week and they have been setting my heart a flutter with hope for spring! And to top it off, I just looked outside and saw a sprinkler watering the grass (I think they were just testing the sprinklers) and my heart skipped a beat! Because that means that spring is almost here and THEN it's summertime! Sweet summertime!

Here are a few pictures that inspire me and make me so ready for spring:





Oh how I love daffodils! And this picture from Country Living magazine makes me excited for a fun spring outdoor party:





C'mon spring breeze, blow our way!
Lazy afternoons on the porch (again, from Country Living)...






Happy almost spring, everyone! :)

Some things I've discovered...

This is by far the best stainless steel cleaner in the world! I have tried several different brands of spray cleaners and wipes and they always leave me frustrated and our appliances streaky and worse off than before I cleaned them. So I had to share this wonderful discovery given to me by my dear godmother Judy Daniels. :) I bought it at Home Depot.



Here you have another miracle-worker. Last Monday I had the day off for Martin Luther King Day. So I decided to deep clean our kitchen. I thought this was a good idea, but I managed to cause a bigger problem. I scrubbed and cleaned the tray from our toaster oven in our sink with brillo pads. Sounds like a great idea, right?

Well little did I know that while I was cleaning the tray I was bringing much harm to the bottom of our beautiful new white porcelain sink. When I rinsed everything and thought I had accomplished a great task, I looked and saw black scratches all over the bottom of our sink. And oh man did I panic. I tried all of the cleaners and scrubbers we had to no avail and thought I had ruined our sink. So what did I do, I went straight to google and typed in my problem. And of course there was a blog to help my very dilemma. I am forever grateful to those fine blogging people for their help. So here you have the best porcelain sink cleaner in the world. Cerama Bryte. This also can be found at your local Home Depot. It takes out the scratches pots and pans can leave, too!



And lastly, we just discovered this carpet cleaner...again, a miracle worker. It got up stains in our carpet that seemed like they would never come out. Like paint, yes paint! Good stuff! (And again, purchased at Home Depot.)

I hope I have made somebody's cleaning efforts a little easier today. For all other cleaning needs I am a huge fan of Windex for which TL always makes fun of me. I learned from my Grandad that Windex can clean anything! One time I walked out into his driveway and he was cleaning my cloth seats in my car with Windex! And they had never looked better! :) But I cannot give this as an official recommendation so please do not try this at home with your cloth car seats. :)