Good MONDAY Morning

It is sooooo green here in NC. Guess we are totally politically correct! We got lots of lovely rain and every living thing is responding.


As I have said before, as of this July, we will have owned our home for 20 years, wow. when we bought the house the builder informed us we would probably need to have the house painted in about 7 years. Ha! I thought, we will not be here that long. Oh how wrong I was....the place has been painted 5 times (once because of the housefire)! We have gone through 2 water heaters, 3 heat/ac units, millions of lighbulbs and of course the FIRE. Raised our daughters here and is known as "home" to all our grands. Our son came here after getting out of the Air Force and we have moved into the house a total of 3 times ourselves! Arrowhead Way is Home. I have always desired a cottage. I have never wanted a McMansion. I like cozy and tidy. I wanted a cutting garden and a vegetable garden...lots of peonies and iris and lilacs too....so, got them! The deer like the iris a lot. Would love to have a nice fence around our yard so I could enjoy the flowers a bit more.....We (I should say: Paul) put in two raised beds that resemble coffins. This year will be a dedicated vegetable garden...I PROMISE. I love the Square Foot Gardner book, it is full of great ideas for getting the most our of a small piece of land! I am going to grow a ton of tomatoes, squash, green beans and zuchini and fill my freezer!!!
This is the "pantry" in my kitchen. I have, since day one, used this for dish storage. As you can see....I am a dish collector. I love particularly, Homer Laughlin China. The patterns are so "cottage" and charming. I just enjoy looking at them and oh, a table set with miss-matched HL, it is a beautiful sight. When I had my tea business, I needed to have enough china to serve 200. Bliss....I gathered lovely pieces all around....alas, my tea business (the one where I catered food) ended and I had no real use for over 200 dessert plates (altho, I loved owning them...) I sold quite a few to another tea shop owner....along with many cups and saucers....I have well over 100 sets in my own private collection as of now. I also enjoy Lenox China and Royal Daulton and of course Wedgewood, but these are high-end and not as easy to come by, so I just have a few and would never use in a tea business. Homer is great for a tea business, he washes up nice in a commercial dish machine and if you do break one, well....there are many more.
Now, my pantry is located in what used to be the laundry room....we have no washer/dryer so I have a nice room, lined with shelving for all sorts of storage. I do our laundry at the laundromatt. Remind me to tell you about it someday.....
ttfn
tts
Cathy