One of my favorite Christmas presents...

My husband gave this big picture to me for Christmas this year... It was the inspiration for the color scheme in my new kitchen -- red cabinets, yellow walls. It was matted with the old wallpaper salvaged by my husband from our old kitchen before the remodel. This is a picture of his great-grandparents -- Pearl's father was the one that built our house in the late 1800s.



So many things that I miss about the old kitchen (but not enough to wish that it was back); the wallpaper being the main thing. Some day my husband will bring that old stove back inside, too. He designed the wall/floor space for it and the chimney is all ready to go; its just that he needs to get people to help him lift it into the truck, take it to the place where he intends to restore it, then lift it back into the truck and bring into the kitchen. It is a heavy old beast. You can't see it in this picture, but to the right of the old stove was an old, antique sink. I loved that sink so much that I chose a big Corian sink (the same size) to replace it in the new kitchen.

I spent years dreaming about and designing my perfect kitchen; lots of magazine clippings. I searched all over the Internet trying to find this old style of wallpaper. It was probably put up in the original kitchen back in the 1920s, 30s, or 40s, and I believe that my husband's grandmother called it "Walltex" (or something to that effect). Other than being faded and dirty, it was absolutely beautiful. So cheerful and welcoming. I felt at home in that kitchen the first time I walked into it. I lived by myself in this house for a few years while my husband got his master's degree in Kansas. (Pearl had passed away about 10 years prior to that time and she was the last one to live here before me.) While here, I always felt a sense of comfort -- as if someone was watching over (to take care of) me. Much better than our previous home in a trailer park...