Amanda’s Musings

Our kitchen is slowly transforming to what I want it to be…a 1950’s retro kitchen with ‘diner’ tendencies. The other day I had 10 minutes to browse a local op shop (thrift shop) and discovered these three canisters amongst the recycled ‘treasures’ in the kitchen section. I was excited to find them and even more pleased when I turned them over for the price to discover that they were only $3.75 for the set. Wow, what a bargain!

To some this is not a bargain at all. Many would think that they are only worth $3.75 and would still have left them on the shelf but I saw so much more value in them. They fit into my kitchen perfectly next to my ‘diner’ style sugar container and items that I’ve collected which were once well used in my Nanna’s kitchen.

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit like these canisters, undervalued. It’s a tendency of mine to go down that line of thinking and something I have to watch out for. I have to try to remember that God has a use for me no matter how small, I just need to be patient. For now I am completely satisfied with being a stay at home Mum and contributing to my role within SIM where I can. I just have to keep reminding myself that God values me even when I ‘feel’ undervalued. I am also aware that I can pass on this pouty-ness to my daughters (Keziah already makes a grunt noise when she can’t get something to work) and must work on this area for their sakes. I want to be the best example I can and show them they are valued and loved by their parents but also by God.

So, which kitchen item are you like?

For a long time now I’ve observed a lot of stay at home Mums who buy fabric from op (thrift) shops and reinvent it as something else. Finally today I got my chance to do this. This fabric was for sale in a couple of op shops which are around 10 minutes walk from here so Keziah and I took advantage of the sunshine today and went for a wander.

Now, seeing as I’m very new to all this I can’t tell you too much about the fabric except to say that the top and bottom ones are cotton and the middle is fleece. The prices are great in op shops for this sort of thing!! There are around 1-2 metres of each piece of fabric.

I also did a bit of a dig through the pattern box in the op shop and found a couple that I thought I could try. One for babies (probably too small for Kezi but there are plenty of others I can sew for when I get good enough) and one for soft toys:

I really love the idea of upcycling things so I can see this being a new obsession!