A short piece sharing about my home, collection of cast iron cookware, love of candles, our old, wood stove and where we should be storing up our treasures at.
Come on in!
Watch out for the boots and grab a chair.
I’m so glad you stopped by. Things have been kinda quiet recently and it’s comforting to curl up at home and chat with a friend.
We have so many things to be thankful for. Tonight especially, there’s a warm fire crackling in the wood stove over in the dining room. I lit some of the leftover candles from a past church Christmas Eve program to create a soft glow in the kitchen. They’re stuck in random glasses and a bottle around my cookstove, which is dutifully browning a couple pounds of ground beef in a favorite enameled dutch oven.
Speaking of cast iron, if you glance over my shoulder in either direction, there are piles of iron skillets stacked neatly around my house. Some are pitch black and used regularly, while others are still wearing a tag or layer of grim, waiting to be cleaned and loved again.
It’s an obsession really. One that my sweet husband has started feeding with the occasional surprise piece. He walked in the kitchen the other evening with a skillet held behind his work coat. I didn’t have a blessed clue what he was doing until he pulled it from behind and showed me a number nine Griswold!
While Griswold and Wagner are two of the most popular (vintage) cast iron brands, there are many others: Birmingham Stove & Range, Crescent Foundry (Ozark), Martin Stove & Range, Wapak, and so on.
But beyond the candles and cast iron, there’s something more in this cozy, little home we’ve nestled our way into. There’s a promise of happy laughter when friends come to spend an evening. The reminder of joyful music that we listen to together. And the hope of many more warm nights with the old wood stove.
While my to-do list has several things left unchecked, our belly’s are full of hearty food and we have time to spend with each other. After all, what is winter meant to be but a time to re-set and catch up on everything that staggered behind during summer?
During a season of bitter cold and harsh winds, what better to do than relieve the memories of the past while you scrapbook, or look forward to dreams of spring while you pick seeds from a stack of catalogs?
I find a lot of my time during the winter is spent in the kitchen. Usually a large amount of flour is involved in the hopes that something delicious will be the end result. Tonight, we have a chicken sitting in the crockpot. Raised by some friends, it could make either a delicious chicken salad or a creamy chicken Alfredo. Either way, it’ll be helpful to have it already cooked for lunch tomorrow.
As you step into the living room, your toes will be enveloped in a soft, fluffy rug. While not so perfectly-white anymore, it continues to shield our toes from the chilly wood floor underneath. The only patch of carpet in the entire house is in the bottom of our main closet — The rest of the floors are either a warm, weathered hardwood or a typical, old-house linoleum.
As you walk through our house, you’ll notice I have an affection for things that have been well-used in years past. I love conversation pieces, not only because of the interest they perk in people, but also how they look when sitting around our home. There are vintage crocks lined up by the wood stove, as well as two large ones in the kitchen. One of them has a wood cutting board on top of it, acting as a shelf for another stack of cast iron skillets…
Tiny, snow-flecked trees are nestled in with a collection of vintage tins on a shelf in the living room. By the love-seat is a beautiful wood end-table that’s stacked with piles of books. A few tractor magazines for the farm-related interests, some cookbooks, and a variety of Bibles comprise some of the reading options on the table.
While I love to curate a home that people can relax in, it’s not supposed to be about the worldly possessions. I’m one of the biggest collectors or “savers” of many things old. But sometimes I think about how I would feel if I had to give it all up. My home and everything in it. This helps to keep me grounded.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6: 19-21)
Jesus wants me to store up treasures in Heaven, not treasures in my basement. Don’t think for a minute that I’ve mastered this area of my life — far from it. But it’s a work in progress and I want to encourage you to step back and look at your life. Maybe it’ll be something we can work on together?
Instead of focusing on that next cast iron skillet or crock we can find, maybe we should spend some extra time thanking the Lord for the blessings we already have and looking for ways we can bless someone else?
There are things we can do that will make a lasting difference — Giving God priority in our morning Bible time, helping at our church or a local outreach ministry, sharing gospel tracts, giving to your neighbors and those in need or hosting a Bible study… Don’t think I’m not talking to myself here too. I need to work on things right along with you. In the meantime, send me a message. Let’s chat! I want to know about you and your life…
Stay warm!
Ashleigh
Check out some of the other articles on PGC:
Babe says
Such a cozy and friendly post.
🥰