Woo... the kitchen! Not much happens here in the
spring and summer, naturally, unless you count generic fruity pebbles and
grocery store brand skim milk as a notable event. In the fall and
winter, however, I use the kitchen to make tea and bake all sorts of
holiday goodies like coffee cakes and cinnamon muffins...
Most
people would think that I read a lot of science-fiction/fantasy novels,
and they would be right, but what I really read a lot of is vintage
Harlequin Romance novels (pre-1970). That is, in fact, what you can
see stacked on top of my kitchen cabinets, forty books high and two rows
deep. I've had to slow down on these lately, unfortunately, because
the local used book stores don't seem to want to stock them any more (or
else I've just bought all of them in the area), but I hope to find some
online or in other cities when I have more time and a larger book
budget. One of the nicest things, I think, about my kitchen (and
something I've never had in my own apartment before) is the island...
kitchen islands are so cool! My oven actually works, as opposed to
the one in my old apartment, and there's even an adequate amount of
kitchen storage... well, adequate for somebody who only buys groceries
that contain sugar and cholesterol and eats off of paper plates with
plastic utensils. Ichimu loves the new kitchen, too, as you can
see... she can be found in the kitchen sink non-stop whenever I can be
convinced to run the water for her (what a strange cat, eh?).
You
may have seen the vintage Halloween cards and other decorations in some of
my other rooms (such as the bedroom and living room) that came from my
aunt's old
fashioned Halloween website... well, these vintage style Halloween
magnets came from there, too! I was feeling sad the other day
because I was having company over and didn't have any refrigerator magnets
(and everyone knows that only a loser would fail to have refrigerator
magnets) and she suggested these... aren't they darling? Now all I
need is a box of those obscene poetry magnets and I'm set... or maybe
not. As far as what's actually inside my refrigerator,
generally there's nothing and when I'm lucky I have some skim milk, some
cinnamon raisin bagels, and a container of cream cheese that may not be
expired yet.
On the other side of my kitchen is my chinchilla cage,
another one of Rick's masterpieces (this time constructed from a hollowed
out dresser). The chinchillas live on a cheap-o Wal-Mart rug so I
can just dustbuster it whenever they're messy (and also throw it away as
soon as it gets to raggedy), and for the most part they're pretty quiet
(except when they can hear the raisin container being opened).
There's
a really nice (and large) storage closet behind the chinchilla cage, but I
can't get to it with the cage in the way and I've long ago forgotten what
I actually keep in there... this way it will be a nice surprise for me
someday when I move! There's also a crazy little window along that
wall, which I also can't open... this time because the window opens
directly onto the roof and doesn't have a screen, and all of my cats would
love to be roof-crawling, outside-running escape cats at the first
opportunity. The ceiling fixtures in my kitchen are especially nice,
I think, and they would be nicer if I could remember what size light bulb
they take... I believe they take the tiny kind and I think I have a large
collection of the normal-sized kind that just keeps getting bigger every
time I get back from the store... bleargh!
Well, since I can't remember what size light bulb my
ceiling fixtures take, I suppose it's a good thing that my mother keeps me
well-stocked in nice-looking table lamps. You can't see it so well
in the picture, but on top of the chinchilla cage (did I mention
that my fabulous friend Rick made this for me out of the kindness of his
heart?) is a particularly attractive lamp with a black and pale-pink enameled
base (I think it may be an antique...). It could use a new
lampshade, probably, but my
apartment
could use a lot of new, and it's not going to get any until my wallet gets
some first.
The thing I like most of all about the kitchen in my
new apartment? Linoleum! I don't know how many people were
aware, but my old apartment was wall-to-wall carpeting, even in the
kitchen! How mentally challenged is that?! Of course,
since I never had linoleum before, I didn't have a mop when I first moved
in, but eventually (okay... months later) picked up a Swiffer (or rather,
some generic version of a Swiffer, but at least I got the kind that sprays
out - again generic - cleaning solution) and now nobody has to worry about
sticking to the floor any more...
I just don't know how to top linoleum, so that's it for
the kitchen tour... now, if you like, you can move along to the
office
nook or the
bedroom,
and if you haven't already you may want to take a look at the
living
room or
bathroom...
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