In The Kitchen - Page 2

More stuff from my kitchen ... and yeah, pretty much all of these things were in
my kitchen at some point in my married life. When I look back at all of these, I wonder where I kept them all. A lot of the stuff on the first page of kitchen stuff is from the time I was "into" antiques and collectibles, and the kitchen I had then was pretty big (about 20' X 14') with a lot of space on top of the cupboards to display that sort of thing. I also had several vintage kitchen cupboards that displayed a lot of these items as well.

Oval crock pot.

Now, in my retirement years I'm trying to keep things to a minimum, but I'm realizing that even a minimum of stuff is a lot. At least, it's a lot if you still want to cook without buying a pile of prepared meals. The older we get (my husband and I) the more I seem to have to think about the type of foods we eat - he has diabetes, so low-carb for him. I have thyroid issues, so gluten free for me. You'd think life would be easier after you retire, but sometimes, it just isn't. It can become more complicated than you ever thought it would be.

The things I use often, I keep handy, like the crock pots. I have a lot. They're a great way to keep food warm when you entertain.

In the Kitchen

Vintage jam and jelly jar with spoon.

Most kitchens are places where there are a plethora of gadgets - some useful, some useless, and some that only get used at specific times of year. I don't think I've been in a kitchen that doesn't have the proverbial "junk drawer".  In the house where we used to live, I had more than one junk drawer ... that's the drawer all the stuff you don't know what to do with gets tossed.

Eventually, you might start to clean that out, maybe once every few years when you can't get anything else in it, but it always exists.

Ours has held elastic bands, batteries, twist-ties, bits of paper with numbers on them (often no name to go with that number), old padlocks (sans keys), old keys that didn't fit anything in your home or shed or garage, but that you didn't want to throw away "just-in-case", drill bits, the odd screwdriver, film tubes, christmas light bulb replacements, old lids, a bandaid or two, broken keychains ... if it fit in the drawer and I didn't know where to put, that was the place.

Medical Stuff

Electric wheelchair.

This is mostly stuff related to the world of medicine - items used by nurses, or people with mobility issues, or found in hospitals and on store shelves, including examples of herbal extracts and natural products.  Personally, I'm not a big fan of medicines and would much rather use a natural product wherever I can, but there are some things that no vegetable, herb, or minerals can fix on their own, so overall I'm grateful there are medicinal ways to help fix some things in our lives.

My husband is alive today because of medicine, and without it, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be here. He did end up spending a year in a wheelchair (why I have access to so many mobility accessories, so there will be more added later!), but with therapy, and a lot of hard work and sweat on his part (and a lot of angst on my part), he has been walking and driving again for a couple of years now ... in fact, he's progressed to the point where he has a gym membership and not only uses the bikes and stair climbers, but the treadmill.

We're pretty thankful for his recovery!

Furniture - Interiors, Page 4

Other stuff you might find in the home furnishing category ... no, not might find, but most likely will find in the average home. Most bedrooms will incorporate things like dressers, storage cabinets, armoires, and night tables ... and of course a bed, but larger rooms often have a small desk, chaise lounge and side table, and sometimes even a fireplace.

Colonial Dresser - maple, circa late 1940s, early 1950s

This page is another with furniture that came mostly from my own home with the exception of the small drop-front desk, which was my aunt's.

I imagine someone looking at the site and seeing all this furniture "I" owned would think I lived in a monstrously large house, but I don't. Not all of this furniture is still in my home. Earlier I said change is a good thing right?  Over the years I've gone from the rather tacky 1970s furniture (new when we married) to vintage farmhouse/country type furntiure, to more traditional stylings of the 1910 to the 1930s ... my husband being a huge fan of Stickly style furntiure and then onto modern and contemporary designs.

Then of course, we've lived in a variety of homes too, with a vast difference in the number of rooms and room sizes so ... yeah, stuff happens and things change. It's a good thing to get yourself out of a rut sometimes.

Furniture - Interiors, Page 5

Modern Simple Footstool

More furniture ... sure why not? There are bits and pieces we add to our rooms that are considered furniture, though many serve other purposes than seating ... like the footstool (or ottoman, or hassock). They could be pushed into duty as "seating" if need be, but they are designed for comfort really ... put those feet up, lean back in your chair or sofa and relax.

Of course, with recliners being prevalent in the home today, footstools or ottoman's may not get as much use, and in tight spaces, the footstool can be "an accident waiting to happen".

And then, well we do live in more than the living room, there are bedrooms, family rooms, dining rooms ... other spaces we (if we so desire) fill with a variety of decorative furnishings ... even the entry hall of a home, if it's large enough, can hold some type of furniture.

Furniture - Interiors, Page 3

A variety of other seating furniture can be found on this page because, hey, nobody can just have a bunch of chairs, right? Well, perhaps they can but a sofa or love seat is often found in most living rooms and family rooms - sometimes because they are a more functional choice, and sometimes because that's what fits.

Beige leather love seat with dual recliners.

In a smaller home (like ours) the living room space can sometimes be a tad on the small side, which necessitates having smaller furniture. Sometimes 2 love seats can work better with oddly shaped rooms, or a medium-length sofa and an extra large (what they often call "chair-and-a-half") chair, which (depending on the size of the people) can hold two people (or 3 kids).

Choosing what to buy and how to arrange it in a new space can be a daunting experience - you might know what you want and like, but will it fit in the room and how long will it last?  Unless you have "dough to spare", you want to choose the best quality you can for the money you want (have) to spend.

Furniture - Interiors, Page 2

Furniture - Interiors - Page 2

Old metal chair for outdoor use.

More chairs, mostly older types. Check out the white metal chair on this page. It's old, missing it's cushion, badly weathered and very worn, and I don't think I've ever seen one quite like it before. It's outdoor furniture from some era (I don't know which), and it has wheels on the back. I've seen wheels on the back of older-style chaise lounges, but not just a regular chair like this one. Weird, huh?

The old wooden highchair is another interesting piece. It was used as a display piece in a friend's home, but when it was built, it would have had the attached tray like any modern one, but certainly lacks the functionality of today's offerings ... and the safety and comfort!

All of the victorian styles on this page were furniture in my aunt's home. She was a modern-thinking woman, for the most part, but she did love the traditional Victorian styles and spent years searching out original pieces for her home. It was almost like walking into a museum sometimes, but she didn't treat it as such - she lived in her home using the furniture for every day living, just like anyone of the Victorian era would have.

Furniture - Interiors, Page 1

Contemporary Wing-back Chair

A selection of furniture ... everyone has different tastes in furnishings, and over the years even as we, ourselves age and change our own tastes in furniture will change. Some of us like change, while some of us don't ... I like changing styles and furniture design/shape but ... well, the hubby, he is not one who likes big changes like that. In fact, he complains if I change the layout of the furniture in a room.  Still ... a little change can be good for the soul, right?

Three of the chairs here were found in hotels - either the lobby, or a public area, or in a room, while the others are (or were) chairs in my own home. I'm pretty sure you can tell which ones are from the hotels. Most of the time the hotel furnishings are of simple, but sturdy design and materials, meant to weather the onslaught of use. The upholstery types often are of industrial quality and and easy-clean surfaces.

Holiday Items - Christmas - Page 3

Some of things on this page are pretty old, although I guess it depends on what you call "old". The ceramic snowman was one of the items I made during the first year of my ceramics classes ... that would have been somewhere are 1979, but the Christmas Elves are from the 1950s, so no, they are NOT "Elf on the Shelf".

Something I haven't figured out about the current elf craze ... is why all the 'young-uns' seems to think this is a new thing. Those elf designs have been around since before I was born (in the '50s). The one difference I can see between them is that the current elf is somewhat uglier than the older elves on this page but they are essentially the same otherwise.

Something young people should learn ... "everything old is new again".  That's an old saying, but it still holds true.

Glitter Christmas Train.

Holiday Items - Christmas - Page 2

Santa Cookie Jar with gifts.

More Christmas stuff ... not much else to say is there (see, sometimes I do realize you only come here to grab some images, and I can be a little to wordy sometimes, right)?

And to update our Christmas holiday in Florida ... well, it wasn't something I'd want to repeat unless we have our family with us.

It was a little lonely having Christmas with just the two of us. We weren't really sure what to do that day. We didn't plan a big dinner since we had ours before we left home for Florida. What we did discover, though, was that some of the stores were open, even on Christmas Day (that was something of a surprise!).

Maybe it changes from year-to-year, I don't know since we've only done it once. That year, Family Dollar was open; so was Walgreen's and a CVS and a few others. We spent part of our day shopping at Walgreen's for a few gifts to take home. The store was a lot busier than we thought it would be.