My Cozy Christmas Kitchen!
It's mid-December now and I'm deeply thankful for it. The snow, the chill of the air, the resting of the earth around us. It's given my body a break from the gardens so I can curl up in my cozy Christmas kitchen! Only made possible by devoting the last week to two things: tiling the kitchen floor and baking cookies.
Call me ambitious, but I even contemplated writing a naturally-sweetened, einkorn cookie book this winter. Cookies are apparently fueling my ambitions.
I shall not, however, be writing a book on tiling a kitchen floor. Apparently I'm not super great at that, but what I lack in experience and skill, I make up for in gross determination.
Needless to say, the floor is done. Through brute force. Driven by the will of a woman who dreamt of this kitchen for years.
The parlor chairs that overlook the rest of the kitchen.
The end result, in my humble opinion, is sheer perfection. For me. Countless times during this renovation I caught myself tumbling over my ideas because of what I thought someone would think of it. Shame on you, Shaye. Have you learned nothing over the three decades? Go for it!
So I did. I went with what made my heart sing. Blue wallpaper and all.
A vintage Jotul stove (soon to be hooked up) to warm the chilly kitchen during the winter.
A full-kitchen tour will be coming in the next few weeks, after the bits and bobs are finished up, but in the meanwhile, I thought you'd enjoy seeing my cozy Christmas kitchen as it is right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaKTbW0CpVA
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I'm pooped. Good and well worn out. I thought I was really heroic for finishing this kitchen in the last week and enduring the hardships of no stove, seven mouths to feed (Elliotts + Uncle Jeremy), and the mess of renovation. Then I sat down at night to read "Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey" - a book given by my Mom to her Mom almost thirty years ago - and I realized that my greatest triumphs are but a small drop in the bucket of strength, grit, and determination.
Why don't you cross some raging rivers, beat cholera and dysentery, birth a child or two out on the open plains with no midwives, clean rags, or water, keep the family safe from snakes, weather, and buffalo. Then we'll talk.
Still. Here is my feeble attempt at achievement. Finishing a kitchen I started three and a half years ago.
Bits and bobs. That's all that's left. We're in the home stretch!
From my cozy Christmas kitchen to yours! And Amen.