Snapshots from my kitchen -- might as well be pretty!

Bill cut the sheetrock out from between the studs in our kitchen and built little shelves in for more storage space.  We needed it! 

I can't help but use them as frames for little vignettes or to store little collections -- birds, zinc lids . . .

I dearly love antique canning jars and the old kitchen tools. They are practical and a beautiful thing!

Home canned foods and nifty little bottles, which will be used for vanilla or other extracts as needed, provide a little stained glass feel to the shelves. 

Little shelves call out to little things . . .

"Come little birdies and baskets and all

Come you who are tiny and you who are small.

Come home to my kitchen and find a dear nest.

Bring joy to my kitchen; it's what you do best!"



More "stained glass" and little things:  a tiny wrench and oil can, an old rusted ceiling or wall hook.  I'll put it to work someday, maybe.  For now it's busy being decorative.

This little enamel pitcher holds maybe three cups.  When we six Vanderberg kids were growing up back in the 40's through the 70's, our dad would make maple syrup in it for Sunday morning pancakes.  I believe he used brown sugar, water, and maple flavoring and simmered it together.  I know we used it warm and it was delicious.   My oldest sister recently sacrificially passed it down to me.  It's a treasure!

Little miscellaneous vintage silver-plate waiting to be turned into hooks to hang things on.  And a cue ball rescued from a fire. I don't know why, but there it is, and I like it.

Some small bottles with bits of extracts or waiting to have new extracts made in them.   I love the teeny-tiny one with the feather from our yard.  Actually from a bird . . . .

For real, my kitchen is small and usually in use and therefore messy, but these little shelves stay busy and neat and keep their hands to themselves, so I am pleased with them.