I remember as a kid my grandparents had this long white, deep chest freezer that was in their basement with a single naked light bulb hanging above it. I imagined it would have been a good place to hide anything you never wanted someone to find. Inside the freezer were bags, and bags of tin foiled covered food that was older than I was. Layers and layers of freezer burned meats that had been on sale and vegetables from seasons ago. My grandparents grew up during the depression, so saving every last scrap of food was imperative to their survival even though they now were going grocery shopping every week. There was a an old metal coffee can next to the stove top for them to scrape their bacon fat into. And when it was full, it was placed carefully into that chest freezer in case the end of the world was tomorrow.
In their 'root cellar' were countless Bell jars full of preserves. I'm talking countless. Many shelves high and stacked to the back wall like a grocery aisle. I can vividly remember my grandparents working together like a machine to seal up jars and jars of pickles, beans, tomatoes, corn, everything from their huge garden every summer at their Winnipesaukee lake house. I don't know when they were planning on eating all that food, but it was there "just in case." It must of been done out of habit. I remember thinking that I was never going to waste my time preserving food, or freezing it. It seemed to silly when I could just go to the store and get a fresh rotisserie chicken, and a bag of pre-made salad.
I grew up on a dairy farm but was very uninterested in the business and concepts as a teenager. My mom spent hours in her gardens. She has the greenest thumb. She knows how to sew anything, cook everything and has a mean creative edge. I was never interested in what she was doing but certainly retained most of the information through what must of been osmosis.
I've come drastically far since I used to think those silly thoughts and now am more interested in all the things I didn't like as a younger woman. I don't know if it's part of my dna, or if all that work my family did in their gardens and craft rooms was imprinted onto me.
Because, I am in love with the idea of freezing food for later, canning for gifts, sewing, glue gunning, and stretching myself creatively.

I created this blog for my future and because of my past.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Fa la la la la la la la la

Large ornaments in our kitchen window
Kitchen mirror
 Tis' the season!
I took a few photos of the decorating I did this holiday season to maybe provide a few ideas for your own home!  My favorite thing was my dining room table this year.  I re-used the gold candles and lace from Thanksgiving and added ball ornaments, my love penguins, and some Persian perfume bottles to give it some Christmas flair.  Because we cut our own tree this year, I had the chance to decorate two trees!!  We had to cut the top off the tree that sits in our living room, so the top made the perfect little tree for the dog's out in the business room.  I've always wanted to wrap a tree with ribbon but never wanted to buy the amount of ribbon needed to do that!  so, the smaller dog tree was the perfect size for the ribbon I had left over from last years swags! 
Birdseye view of dining room table

Close up!

Our stockings by the fireplace

Me helping cut our tree down

2011 Christmas Tree

Dog's tree

Extreme close-up of dog's tree
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)