The beautiful purple (“Eggplant”) placemats (Amazon link), above, are a recent gift from me to me. Purple is my favorite color and, since it makes me deliriously happy, I color as much of my world purple as I can.
I think of adding color to our worlds this way: If our life were a giant live-action coloring book, we would be able to choose many of the colors used on the pages. OUR coloring book… OUR rules! Sure… stores, nature, restaurants, and other people’s homes come pre-colored but we can darn well determine the colors we wear into them!
Our homes… our turf… is most definitely in our control. As you’d expect, purple is a recurring theme in our home and yard. I also love red (What is it with me and loud colors?? Don’t answer that…), so beautiful jewel tones of red an purple accompany one another frequently.
2020 has been a bust, to say the least, and it has all but drained me emotionally. As someone who is INSANELY empathetic, I cry as I see or read stories of sickness and loss. I’ve also been extra, extra worried about my family – 4 of us are in the “high risk” group (health conditions such as asthma) and one is pregnant! My third grandbaby is due any day and worrying about him and his mommy (my oldest daughter) has been a full-time job.
Recently, I ordered the gorgeous placemats, kind of as a mood lifter I suppose and they have brought so much happiness to me. Sounds crazy, I know, but each time I see them, I feel good. In a year like this one, we all need MORE of these kinds of things in our lives.
After I ordered these placemats, I saw the purple and white dish towels pictured below. I pointed them out to my husband and, because I married a sweetheart who just manages to get sweeter each year, he ordered them for me and surprised me with them a few days later.
The dish towels and placemats each come in a wide variety of colors and are very, very reasonably priced. I’m very, very impressed with the quality of each. You can mix and match the beautiful colors or do as I did, and simply go with your favorite color in the world.
Here’s the thing… while these are simple, simple purchases, the effects they have on your psyche are anything but simple. Every now and then it’s absolutely magical to do something out of the ordinary, completely self-serving, and fun. Not only does it make your world more colorful and fun, it lifts your mood and makes your psyche dance.
How are you going to beat that?!
See dish towels on Amazon.
See placemats on Amazon (The things I love the most about these placemats is the perfect size and the fact that they’re round! You can easily fit six on a table, without worrying about the edges touching… I’m just anal enough to be bothered by such things).
EDIT: I just found matching dishcloths on Amazon – and they’re available in even more colors than the beautiful towels are…. the yellow and red ones are just gorgeous!
I have always had a total, complete, and all-consuming love for pigs. If my cats (the one animal I have an even greater affection for) allowed it, I would have one – a female I’d name Patsy Swine. Come on, how could I not?
I was on Amazon earlier (full disclosure, I’m never really officially off Amazon), looking for dinosaur-related plates for my grand-babies. I have three grand babies and they’re all little boys – one is 2 years old, one is almost 6 months old, and the youngest? Well, he isn’t officially here yet, but he IS officially loved!
The 
While there’ll be times you try something that makes you whisper to your cat, “That never happened,” other times you find something that’ll become a kitchen staple – something you’d no sooner allow yourself to run out of than you would salt and pepper. 
(pictured to the left).
This may seem like a deviation from the usual posts on the food blog, but… if you think about it…. it is actually exactly on brand!
