Wildflower Dishes - Wildflowers in My Home

I am slowly growing my collection of wildflower dishes as I browse garage sales and second hand stores. I just love the top platter with a purple cone flower and a swallowtail butterfly all in one place. Can't you just smell the fresh air that rushed in the door with one look at the lovely painting? Isn't it great that people are growing cone flowers in their gardens now too? I haven't had great success with them here, but I am going to try again this year, and put them in a different location and see if that helps.
This heart shaped dish features flowers that I think must be some kind of blue bell, some asters at the point of the heart, some clover leaves on the right, and maybe buttercups on the left. It is so pretty, it usually stands in the back of my china cupboard, but there have been times I have brought it out to serve some dainty treats at a tea party.
This last plate is almost alive with butterflies and wildflowers. I seems to come straight from the meadow. I don't recognize any of the flowers except the red clover and a daisy relative at the bottom. And I'm not sure if any of the butterflies are really drawn from life, but even if they aren't they are so realistic looking that I can almost taste the sweetness that comes out of each tube in the red clover. I only have one of these plates, but I find myself so happy when I use it, either to eat on or to serve something delicious for my family.

Cleaning the Kitchen

I spent Thursday and Friday cleaning. It is amazing what preparing for a guest will do to me. I found myself dusting the wires that come out of the back of the stereo cabinet. Seriously now, only my husband's engineering students would ever get a tour of the wires at our house, but I dusted some anyway, just in case. I started straighteneing one shelf in the kitchen, and before I knew it I was doing spring cleaning, only I didn't get to the cupboard doors where we have a finger print collection. I moved the baking pans to the top shelf, because I don't make pies or cupcakes very often. I moved the heavy glass salad and mixing bowls from the high shelves to the lower shelf, so even the kids can get them out put them away. And then I can too, with out using as stool, as I'm not very tall myself. I found two boxes worth of kitchen things that I think I'll give away.

Over the last few months I've been decreasing our microwave use, trying to use the stove top when ever I can. So I decided to see if we could live without it completely, so it got moved out to the shop. That microwave wasn't very big, but it was very heavy. To get it out of the kitchen, I set it on my wheeled computer chair. Then I drove it to the front door where I had my son waiting with his wagon so he could pull it out to the shop for storage. I'll leave it there for a little while, just in case we find we really need it afterall. But I know it is so heavy, that I'm not going to be very motivated to move the thing again. I guess if someone really wants to heat up something in the microwave, they can run out to the shop. There are plug-in's out there too.













And just so you can see how deep I was in the mess, my daughter took a photo to prove that I really did it all and survived. The kitchen is tidy once again.