Welcome to my happy kitchen on this sweet, pink Saturday!

It's PINK SATURDAY again over at Beverly's blog HOW SWEET THE SOUND. As I looked around today wondering what I would share with all of you this Saturday, I decided that I would take photos of things that are all in one room of my home instead of bits and pieces from here and there. With that thought in mind, I'm sharing photos of items I have in my kitchen, which of course, is loaded with pink, what else?

The first pinkie that I enjoy so much is my pink, Zenith television. Made in the early '80s, I found it on eBay for $35.00. For years I always thought that having a television in the kitchen was just the most decadent thing imaginable, especially if it was hooked up to Cable. I have since moved on from that thought, but that doesn't reduce the affection I have my pink television. Every now and then it acts like it doesn't feel so good, coughing and burping with a not-so-wonderful noise coming from somewhere in the back and underneath. When that happens I hold my breath and close my eyes and wonder where on earth I will find someone to fix the darned thing if it dies. Then, like magic, it comes back to life. I breathe a sigh of relief, but in the back of my mind I know that the day will come (hopefully years from now) when I'll walk into the kitchen, flip the switch to turn it on...and nothing will happen. When that happens I hope someone is around to hold me tight because I'm sure I'll feel as though I have lost a good friend. Then I'll pull myself together, boot up my computer, log onto eBay and cross my fingers hoping that someone is selling a pink tv they found at a yard sale!

Next in line is something that is very precious to my ♥heart♥. Back when I still smoked cigarettes, I told myself that if the day ever came when I stopped smoking I'd get the cutest sign I could find to put in my house that would announce to my visitors that I lived in a smoke-free zone. Well, two years ago I gave up smoking and within a couple of weeks I found this cutie pie on eBay (again). A little more than two years have passed since then. I still haven't smoked and the sign is still on my kitchen counter to remind me that I accomplished something that used to be only a dream.


When I saw this little, pink, KitchenAid clock I knew that it had to be mine because I have the real thing sitting on my kitchen counter. KitchenAid is a brand that I rely on when it comes to small appliances. I got my small-appliance-admiration from my mother. I remember standing on a stool next to my mother when I was a little girl as she poured ingredients into the bowl of her mixer. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that whatever she was making was going to be delicious and she never let me down! I have two sons who have KitchenAid's in their homes. I guess none of us wants to break the chain of good luck that began in the '30s when my mother received her first in a long line of KitchenAid appliances.

I'm sharing my little polka dot miniatures today because I am hoping that one of you might recognize the pattern and be able to tell me where to find more. A while back I was browsing the isles at my local Goodwill Store (I love that place) and spied just one plate/saucer and one, itsy, bitsy cup. I plunked down my fifty cents, brought the two home and felt as though I had won the prize of the day. I'd love to find more pieces to add to these. To give you an idea of their size, those are three mini-marshmallows inside the cup. Cute, huh?

Lastly, every kitchen worth its salt needs a kettle on the stove, don't you think? I found this sweet piece of graniteware at our local Habitat for Humanity Re-sale Store. You've really got to rummage around in there, and can't mind getting dusty, but that's part of the fun when you're on the prowl with a couple of bucks in your pocket.

Well, that winds things up for me this Saturday. Be sure to drop by HOW SWEET THE SOUND to find all of the other blogs that are participating in PINK SATURDAY. Everyone shares a wide variety of pink goodies, some you'd never imagine would show up in a blog...but they do!

Beautiful words...

I love words. I love what words can do when placed "just right" in a sentence. I love the way words can instill hope, inspire bravery, bring tears of grief or of happiness. Without words, and the people who loved words in history, we would not have the word of God preserved for us in the Bible. Last evening I took the time to just browse the web to read some words. I found words that moved me to literally sob, sometimes in sorrow and sometimes with profound understanding. I read words that inspired me to achieve greatness and to create beauty and to work harder. I saved hundreds and thousands of those words. Tonight I am sharing some of the words that touched my heart deeply, so deeply that they cried out for me to share them with you.

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. Think only of the best, work only for the best,and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you! ~Christian D. Larson

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

"I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone." ~Author Unknown

Be still and know that I am God. Psalms 46:8

When GOD had made the earth and sky, the flowers and the trees, He then made all the animals and the birds and bees.

And when His work was finished and not one was quite the same, He said, "I'll walk this earth of mine and give each one a name".
And so He traveled land and sea, and everywhere He went, a little creature followed Him until its strength was spent. When all were named upon the earth and in the sky and sea, the little creature said: "Dear Lord, there's no name left for me!".

The Father smiled and softly said, "I've left you to the end, I've turned my own name back to front and called you dog, my friend." ~author unknown

Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone. ~Jim Fiebig

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ~The Holy Bible, John 15:13

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again. ~Elizabeth Lawrence

He carried his childhood like a hurt warm bird held to his middle-aged breast. ~Herbert Gold

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

Just a little bit flakey...snow flakey and a touch of cabin fever with a dab of spring fever

When it's all white, fluffy and clean. When we are inside and warm and cuddling by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa to warm our hands, little marshmallows floating on top looking like tiny icebergs...we tend to think of winter in an almost romantic way. We view the season in a different light. The snowflakes alight on the whiskers of kittens, or so we imagine. We bundle up and lay in the white feather-like mounds making angels. We giggle and laugh and literally embrace the cold and clean loveliness. Yes, that that is a part of winter that all of us adore. It's the part of winter that we yearn for when we are away from our northern home during the Christmas holidays. Songs are written about it and we sing those songs with friends and a tear in our eye when we long for the comfort of our childhood nest, the one our mother made for us when we were mere babes.


But, there is another side of winter. The ugly, mean, dirty and necessary part of winter when it begins to die as it is giving birth to the tiny smatterings of spring, a season yearned for after the cold and snow and high heating bills. We are tired of the dust and dirt when we clean out the fireplace. We tell ourselves that if we have to shovel one more pile of "that stuff" we will go crazy running from door to door on our block asking our neighbors if we can go to Disneyland with them and their kids for Easter break! We listen to the weather forecast wrinkling our nose at the mere mention of more of the stuff falling from the sky, the same sky that radiates the warmth of the sun. The sun that takes away the winter blues, leaving us with rosy cheeks and happy smiles.

Yes, there is a nasty, dark, dirty, messy and unwanted part of winter and right now, at this very moment, it is knocking on my door. I went out to meet it the other day and even spent some of my precious time cleaning up some of the mess it leaves behind. But right now I am hiding. I am warm and the sun is shining through the lace curtains in my dining room and I am pretending that it is summer and that my yard is green and that my tulips are blooming and that, if I wanted to, I could just open my back door, walk out into the sunshine WITHOUT my coat, and mittens, and boots, and muffler, and my winter survival tote that contains a flashlight, extra blanket, an extra cell phone battery (fully charged), a pack of power protein bars, and a pencil and paper to compose my farewell letter to friends and family, just in case no one comes to my rescue if I get stuck in that white stuff and no one ever hears my pitiful cries for help as the snow continues to bury me...my pathetic, curled up body not to be found until the spring thaw.


Or...maybe I'll tackle "every" part of winter...the beginning...and the end, through the eyes of a child. My grandson, Benny, knows how to enjoy each and every part of the season, no matter how he has to dress, or how dirty the snow looks, or how wet his socks get, or how cold his hands are (even when they are in his pockets), with a sense of joy and anticipation, looking forward to how many boats he'll be able to sail in his parents' backyard.