Is your kitchen table EVER completely cleared off except for those few minutes during dinner when you’re sitting around it? Some days, I’m so organized I actually get the table set a few hours before we sit down, but it never fails that some child will come in, some project in hand, stack up the plates, move the silverware aside, shove the table cloth back and get to work. I decided to photograph it this weekend. To embrace it. And really, this picture isn’t too bad. If I panned back you’d see a very ripe pumpkin waiting to give up its seeds, a large stack of unread newspapers and probably groceries I haven’t put away yet. Maybe even the toaster from breakfast or a box of cereal even though it is pushing 4pm.
I think I can usually judge the kind of day I’m having by the state of my kitchen table. Some days it’s all very industrious looking–laundry piles neatly laid out to be put away or lists and clipped coupons. Other days very studious–school books and notepaper, pencils and unifix cubes. Or creative–art supplies and jars full of purplish black water with seven, different sized paint brushes propped inside. Or chaotic–like today, when I’m cleaning away the breakfast dishes to make room for the lunch plates and scraping bits of last night’s rice and beans from the tablecloth (and shooing the flies–anyone else having a fly outbreak in their house?! One is buzzing around my head right now. I’m not lying. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared this detail about my house….yikes.)
Either way, I love my kitchen table. It’s tiny and we smoosh around it, banging knees and practically needing to share milk glasses. But it’s intimate and fun, and sometimes a crazy wild mess. But it’s the place where we come together. The place where I try, for just a few minutes, to bring a little beauty and order–real dishes, a candle or some fresh flowers. It’s a meeting place, a working place, a creating place. A special place.
See a few more pictures that didn’t make it into the posts they were meant to be, here. Oh and I finally did something slightly crafty. A little embellishment…
And am I so behind the times that I’ve never heard of these? I saw it Amy’s blog. How cool are they?!
My kitchen table has rarely been cleared off since I got married. Can not get my hubby to even go through his mail half the time. I don’t even have kids (or pets!) and I find this a huge challenge! With only two of us we don’t need to clear it all off to eat dinner, either. But you have inspired me to get out a vintage tablecloth and actually set the table tonight for that pot roast and veggies in the crock pot!
did I mentioned I’ve been married over 10 years? 😉 Seems my fate is pretty much sealed on this matter!
did I mentioned I’ve been married over 10 years? 😉 Seems my fate is pretty much sealed on this matter!
Flies? Yes! Plus a banana in hiding has spawned a cloud of fruit flies.
Hung a fly strip from the ceiling… not a fly on it. They prefer to land on me. Hoping this doesn’t mean I’m just a big pile of… you know lol!
Flys? Serious problem this year. I’ve never seen (or killed) so many. Fruitflies too, but I think they are from over-ripe apples we picked from Grandma and Grandpa’s tree. I couldn’t have said it any better about the kitchen table. I have resigned myself to the fact that horizontal surfaces are meant to be covered with the clutter of our life. We are lucky to get it cleared once a week to sit down and eat; usually we eat around the kitchen island. The kids get the barstools and my husband and I stand up to eat. I keep thinking maybe we need a project table in addition to the kitchen table, but I know I’m fooling myself. They would both be covered in no time flat.
As a kid I could never understand why my grandma complained about her table so much, until now. Mine must have a curse on it. It can never stay clean, never. I could clear it off right now and in minutes it would be full of crap again.
Alright, I have to ask. What are unifix cubes? Sounds so intriguing…
oh yes, the kitchen table is like that here, too. and the dining room table, too. sometimes, when i clear off the dining room table (of the sewing machine and other various craft projects) my kids ask if it’s a holiday (as though we’d be having a holiday dinner in the dining room…). signs of happy family life, right!?
My table still has the breakfast crumbs on it, and I think I need to find a more decorative vessel for the loads of crayons and markers that live on it. yes, the fruit flies are just terrible this year! I am finding them everywhere! Food or no food.
OH my god I can relate. My table is always covered….stacks of papers I don’t know where to put, breakfast dishes, cups, toys, cell phone, coats you name it it’s there. I think our fruit flies have died off since the frost but I was seriously beginning to question the cleanliness of our house. I really liked this post…it made me feel normal and human. thanks for that. =)
I have a little table in the back where I’m “supposed” to do my crafting (and keep the mess off the main table), but it feels so isolated. Every once in a while I consider taking a stab at minimalism, only to quickly realize that there’s no way I can keep it up. Sigh.
I am always quite suspicious of people with empty kitchen tables.
When we do our addition next year and build our kitch, I am seriously thinking of having a kitchen table and a family table! Two tables! Whatcha think? I would perhaps just crap them both up?Love yr new work at BC- I was not really into that site- but I am now.
Oh, I SO know what you mean. We live in a rather small apartment, so the kitchen/dining room table is really the only place I have to create! My husband is so patient with the constant layers of fabric, the cutting mat and ruler, the sewing machine, the scissors and pins, the patterns, etc. that seem to constantly dominate our LARGE dining room table.