I’m not one to be inspired in my kitchen. When we moved to this small house, two-thirds of my cook books went to other kitchens and I seldom look at the remaining ones. In fact, I seldom follow a recipe. That doesn’t mean I’m a creative cook. It means I’m too lazy to go to the store! But somehow we eat well without eating out too often.

I think I got a little away from Ritva’s topic on finding inspiration in the kitchen. While I may not be inspired, I do find joy and that’s because I love my Mickey Mouse treasures. Yes, I’m a Mickey lover. Here are some of my kitchen treasures.

The top three were gifts and the planter was the first thing I brought into this house. It’s only be sheer determination that it has lived. I’ve been known to kill a cactus. The mug is my last Mickey mug and my husband is not allowed to use it since he broke the others. The toaster is not in use because it gets hot, but I love it anyway. The Mickey skeleton was given to me by my grandson and his girlfriend. She loves Halloween. I enjoy seeing it move when the morning sun shine on it.

Outside of my kitchen, I have photographed kitchen related items like these at Ikea.

And then there’s always the hardware stores.

Or farmer’s markets.

I photographed this at a still life class given by the Gold Rush Chapter of PSA.

I’ll end with something you’ll never see in my kitchen. Knowing I am in the paper plate time of my life, I gave my good china and silver to my daughter-in-law while I could see her enjoy it. This was taken in the Sacramento Railroad Museum’s dining car.

I think I’ve expounded enough on my kitchen philosophy. Thank you Ritva for letting me have some fun and showing you my kitchen treasures. By the way there are more Mickeys around the house!

And thanks to Patti for encouraging us to tell stories through our pictures last week. Your responses were varied and great. Next week Philo will be challenging us with simplicity. Be sure to look for his post.

By the way, the WordPress Reader tag for Lens-Artists is not working well. I hope that through all of us posting on Ritva’s challenge, more will find it. Remember to link to her post and use the Lens-Artists tag.