I have just begun work on our kitchen, so please be patient.
It will be ready for company very soon.
Many people believe the kitchen is the heart of a home.
It is where many families gather around the table for meals and to share their day with one another. After spending a day of going about our own routines which often times keep us going in different directions, it is nice to be able to come home and gather around the kitchen table and fill each other in on what our day held. A place to gather and encourage one another, laugh with one another.
Some people once grown and out of their childhood homes, feel the warm memories come flooding back as soon as they sit down at the old kitchen table. Others have never known the comfort and encouragement of gathering as a family around the kitchen table.
It is with these thoughts in mind that I seek to make this kitchen a special place where we can come and gather and be encouraged. A place, I hope that will bring those warm memories flooding back for some. And a place to create some memories for others. Here you will find something tasty always simmering on the stove, and the kids newest art work hanging on the refrigerator. You can find tips on tea parties by clicking on the tea pot below.
Come and share a pot of tea, my
kitchen's warm and my friendship's free.
Remember that mealtime can provide nourishment for our bodies and our souls without being costly or extravagant. After all it's about the people around the table, not what's on the table that counts.
There are little things you can do to make your dinner table special and let the people
around the table know you think they are special. It doesn't have to cost a lot.
One way is candles. Candles say, "You are special to me."
My children love it when I set the table with candles. Whenever we have dinner
with candles, it doesn't really matter what is on the table, they love it!
When their friends have been here during one of our candle light dinners they always
ooh and ahh and talk about how special it is and how they wish their families would do this.
You don't need crystal or silver candlesticks to use candles for beauty. Try the inexpensive stores in your are, I like Michaels Craft store, Wal Mart, the .99 store, Pic N Save, etc... I love garden theme things so I really love the little flower pot candle holders that Wal Mart sells for .59 each! You find them in the craft section. You can choose either scented or unscented. If you are having a dinner that has a fabulous scent of it's own, then by all means use unscented. But if you are having something that really doesn't have a scent then you may wish to use wonderful scented candles. (Just be very careful with candles and NEVER leave them unattended while they are burning, and NEVER leave children around burning candles.)
You can buy inexpensive candles or the finest quality,
just light a few nice looking candles and bask in the glow.
Another way is by using special little touches. Maybe it is special placemats. Maybe it is one special piece of family china, or beautiful napkins. The trick is to find at least one little special touch to make your table special.
A vase of flowers is a wonderful touch! And it doesn't have to cost a lot. Over the years I have collected an assortment of different size vases so that I can hold anything from one little tiny flower bud brought in from the backyard by little loving hands, to a dozen long stemmed roses. They do not have to cost a fortune! (Most of mine have been picked up from thrift stores, Wal Mart, Michaels, the .99 Store) And as for me, I really prefer the littler ones, the ones that hold a little flower that my children pick me out of the backyard.
I have tried to gather an assortment of smaller vases so that I can pick up an inexpensive little bunch of flowers at the grocery store and break it up, cut it down and spread it around the house. I use one dozen flowers and put a few into different vases and put one on the kitchen table, one on a table in the living room, one in our bedroom and one in the bathroom.
And don't get stuck thinking that you have to have a vase to hold flowers! Put them in your favorite coffee mug. Put a bunch in a pretty teapot. What about an open bud floating in a glass bowl? Those cute little mini mason jar looking salt shakers from Michaels or Wal Mart make a very cute little vase for a couple of little blooms. Or those little mini watering cans from Wal Mart (only .99 each). Use your imagination! It only needs to be able to hold water. I really prefer living flowers myself, I stay away from silk flowers because there is just something beautiful about living flowers sitting in a room. But by all means if you really prefer silks, than use them.
Here are a couple of links to Amazon to help you find some things that you can use to make your kitchen a special place.
Setting The Table
I hope you will come back often. And whenever you need encouragement or comfort, I hope this will be a place where you can find it.
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,
for by this, some have entertained angels unawares."
Heb. 13:2
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