My kitchen :-)

I read a blog called Kelly's Korner. Today she decided to do something really fun. Everyone take pictures of their kitchens and post them. I've enjoyed looking at some really pretty kitchens, so I thought that I would post mine. Especially since I've been on a housecleansing kick.

So to be perfectly honest...and you know I always am. This is how my kitchen looked this morning. And frankly, lots of mornings:

I have a really bad habit of cleaning the kitchen when I cook (only I clean it from the last time I cooked). So it doesn't really make sense because then I have made another mess and am usually too tired to clean it up.

I like how there are three different seating options for Barclay. Sometimes I have to use all three during one cooking session just to make it through. The picture doesn't do it justice how MESSY it was.

Here is my fridge which is always covered with bills, cards, pictures, etc. That is a painting done by my little sister on the fridge.

A lot of my house is decorated with Black and White pictures from my past and present. So this is a collage of childhood, college, highschool, etc. It's such a cheap way to decorate and people never get board while walking around. The frames are from walmart and are never more than $2. I LOVE these frames because they're simple and cheap.

The top two pictures are very special to me. When I'm in the kitchen I always think about my mother and all the hours she spent in the kitchen while I was growing up. I really wanted to put some pictures of my favorite parts about her in the kitchen. I always remember her washing dishes and pulling her beautiful long hair into a bun. So I did a photo shoot of it a couple years ago and I love the picture on the left. I want to be like her! Also I think about her BEAUTIFUL worn, loving hands. They were always dirty from working in the garden or around the house. But they were still soft, loving and beautiful to me. So I did a photo shoot of her hands in the dirt.

One of my favorite parts of the kitchen. The recycling. I just started doing it a year and half ago, but I can't BELIEVE how much I can recycle! I have to take it to the dump though since they don't have a recycling service in our neck of the woods. I figure it counter acts all the diapers I'm dumping into the landfill :-/

A clean countertop.

Sink. I got those crates on top from Napa Valley at Goodwill. I love them.

Here's all my cookbooks, my dying orchid:-( And a painting I did the summer after college.

The whole view, clean. I love the yellow poppies on the top. That wooden bowl is 100 years old and I have taken a lot of picture of Barclay in it:-)

I love the lemons! Splashes of yellow everywhere.

Another picture of my mother's hands.

Here's my every day dishes I got at Pier 1. I LOVE how fun and simple they are. I've only broken 1 dish in three years! And that was yesterday...

Here's my "china". It's simple wedgewood everyday china but I love it. My Grandmother's advice to me about china was to go simple, so you'll never regret it. I certainly haven't.

One of my favorite things if finding things like this around the house. Notice the paci in the fruit bowl. I love finding little baby things around. I know it gets annoying never to be able to have everything in it's place. But I am so thankful for Barclay and all the little "reminders" of him I find everywhere.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour. Man at this rate, my whole house might be clean;-)