Tuesday 29 March 2016

A Clean & Simple Kitchen

 

I'm wondering why I ever said I would show you my scaled down kitchen now. I only have two pictures taken after all. But here it is...
 


I realize that I should get a close up sometime of my tea towel curtains. I bought the package of four at Wal-Mart's for six dollars and then used my embroidery machine to add the French bee design. They are very simple, but I like them.
 

Our local grocery had a nice selection of flowers for Easter. I was so surprised to see the hydrangeas. They are my favourite. We are not able to grow anything but the White Annabelle's here. Another customer told me that she bought one in past years and planted it and it did come back for two summers, but not the third. Surprisingly the bouquets of assorted flowers were $35. each, where the hydrangea plants were only $15.00. I would've thought the opposite. If I can just keep it alive until June I'll plant it outside and hopefully keep mine alive for a few years too.
 
I hope all of you enjoyed your Easter. Truthfully, mine and Tim's was pretty miserable. We had both been sick all last week with the flu. Today was the first day that we didn't spend half the day sleeping.
So happy to be feeling better! Now if I just regain my energy I'll be cook'in with gas.
Take care-Kim
 
 




Friday 25 March 2016

The Jewel Tea Man and My Easter Coat of Many Colours

 
The year was 1963 or 64. The Jewel Tea Man had arrived at our little home with his latest Spring catalogue. This was a moment I had long anticipated. It had already been decided by my mother that I was going to be the recipient of a new Easter dress this year. Now this didn't happen every year for me. I was the last of seven children and if your Easter dress from the preceding year still fit you there was certainly not going to be any money wasted on a new one this year.
Mom and I carefully viewed the dresses and agreed on a two piece outfit, how exciting. The jacket was a rainbow of pastel stripes matched with a white, narrow pleated skirt. This was my first grown up two piece outfit. Before I had always worn ruffled or lacy dresses. Mom also bought a pair of white patent shoes for me with a matching purse and white gloves, of course!
Now you can only imagine my excited anticipation of the day when my Easter outfit would arrive.  The Jewel Tea Man orders didn't arrive quickly, so it was weeks from the time it was purchased before my outfit did finally arrive.
And now here is the sad part...I was a wicked little girl. After school my cousins and I had taken to playing around the RR tracks beneath the 2nd street bridge.
not actual bridge, similar
Don't ask me why, it was so long ago I can't even remember. Maybe it was to collect rocks, I honestly can't say. But looming on the opposite side of the bridge was a factory-Hubinger.
 


 It wasn't long before it was noted by the workers of the factory that there were children playing around the RR tracks. A call was made to my mother. You may wonder how they knew where I lived. What I didn't tell you was that our home was only half a block from the factory. So it was very easy to watch as I walked from the bridge right to our back kitchen door.What turned out to be a very odd coincidence was that the very day that I arrived home after playing near the tracks was also the day my Easter coat of many colours had arrived from the Jewel Tea Man. I still remember so vividly to this day walking in the door, seeing my mother holding the jacket still wrapped in plastic in her hands. But she wasn't smiling. What could be wrong I had wondered?
It didn't take long for her to tell me that she had received  a call from Hubingers that her daughter had been repeatedly seen playing near the RR tracks beneath the 2nd street bridge. They were concerned, not only because of the trains that pass through, but also because they had dispensed rat poison among the gravel rocks surrounding the tracks. Worst of all, my mother informed me that they were going to call the police if they caught us down there again. I'm not really sure if this was so or Mom's own embellishment to stress just how serious this matter was. But the real tear jerker was that if she couldn't trust me to never go down to the RR tracks the Easter outfit was going to have to go back. I happy to say that through very tearful pleas and promises I managed to convince my mother that I would never go to play under the bridge again and was able to proudly wear my coat of many colours on that Easter Sunday.
And to this day, I have never been under that bridge again!
 
 

The Jewel Tea man was a welcome site to my mother. With seven children to care for it was wonderful luxury to order the goods right from her kitchen table, then have it delivered to our home as well. I remember her ordering everything; pots and pans, food items, clothing, toys and linens.
Did you have a Jewel Tea Man in your neighborhood?



Wednesday 23 March 2016

A Welcome to Grandchild #10

 

I just had to come back to blogland to introduce you to our newest grandson, Ganon. He is grandchild # 10 for me and Tim. Naturally, being a proud Grandmother, I think he is quite a handsome little fellow.
 

I have a feeling Reece and Brigam are going to be fighting over who gets to hold Ganon most! They are both pretty fond of him already I hear.
 

I just have to show all of you ladies that are relishing the arrival of Spring to take a look at my Spring.
 

This is a better photo showing the height of the snow pile in comparison to my clothes line. But we are at the melting stage. See the brown grass?
That is encouraging, at least.
 
I've been busy painting and de-cluttering-again. It seems to be never ending. The de-cluttering, not the
painting! I've noticed a pattern to my madness. I clean one room, then carry the junk from that room to hide in a closet in another room. When I get to that room, a few things are discarded, then the rest goes to another hiding place. When I get to the last room for de-cluttering I am usually ready to rid myself of those items that I've hauled from room, to room, to room. Whew, I just get tired reliving it all.
Someone tell me why I don't just chuck it the first time around.
 
Soon I will have to show you my simplified kitchen. You won't believe how stripped down it is. I'm truly proud of myself.
 I have to show you soon, before I start filling it with stuff again. I am not a sick hoarder, honest, even though I sound like one!
 
If I'm not back before Easter, friends, I pray yours is a most blessed one.
Kim