Ikea and I met afresh after a long hiatus last week.
I came home laden with useful things: matching spice jars (I have had a spice jar epiphany*), a collapsible play tunnel, and a new dresser for my daughter who is getting kicked out of hers for the new baby's clothes.
Have you put together an Ikea dresser?
I chose a small three drawer unit with hope that I would be able to put it together snappily and get the dressers switched out quickly.
After somewhat longer than I anticipated (ahem) I have a fully working dresser painted and ready for use. Today I realized that the finishing touch would be lining the three petite drawers with wrapping paper. I chose a pretty floral one at Bi-Mart and as I was cutting out the pieces I remember how my Mom had done this for me many years ago.
The paper was ballet pink with small cornflower blue forget-me-nots. Thirty years later I can still picture it.
I thought it was absolutely beautiful.
It's a small thing out of the many, many large sacrifices a mother makes for her child - but it mattered to me. It spoke of how my Mom knew I loved pretty, small, things. (I still do.)
Thank you Mom. You probably forgot about this. I didn't.
*Spice Jar Epiphany:
Fact: Spices have a shelf life
Fact: I have a few "go-to" spices that I consistently use
Fact: If it's not a spice I use frequently, I need to buy it fresh for the recipe
I used to keep a million spices on hand and it was a pain to find the one I wanted. I used muffin tins to stack them and that kind of helped sort them but the epiphany was realizing I could just keep my basics around. So I have about 12. How about you? I actually feel a thrill when I open the spice cupboard now.
