Dining Chairs are Handy for Short People

I’m short and I never feel shorter than when I am in my kitchen preparing a meal or putting away dishes. Especially when I’m cooking for company because I need pots and other items I don’t use regularly, I seem to be constantly reaching for things that are out of reach. I do own a step stool, but it’s conveniently tucked away in the walk-in hall closet. My favorite weapon of choice in the Battle of the Less Tall is the dining chair that is closest to the kitchen.

The chair is a wood ladder back with an upholstered seat in some mystery fabric I’d be hard pressed to identify. The dining chair, along with its two other companions, was a hand-me-down from my grandmother. While they are serviceable (and have given me my money’s worth), they don’t match my dining table and I am working on replacing them. In the meantime, however, they, well at least the one closest to the kitchen, is a practical stand-in for the step stool I’m too busy to fetch.

Not just relegated for use in the kitchen, I also utilize the side dining chair to get into my silverware chest, which sits on top of my china cabinet in the dining room. I keep searching for a more convenient place to put it, but there doesn’t seem to be any other spot for it. To access the cutlery I use when I’m expecting guests, I need my trusty dining chair.

My kitchen cabinets don’t go all the way up to the ceiling; while providing a handy storage space for my cookbooks and other sundries, it does need to be cleaned from time to time. The step stool is too short. Even when standing on it, I still am unable to comfortably sit on the counter in order to stand up on it to wipe down the top of the cabinets. My multipurpose brown dining chair is a must-have accomplice in my cleaning adventure.

I’m sure I’m not the only short person on the planet that hijacks a dining chair as a stand-in for a step stool. But if you are looking for new dining chairs to be used in the more conventional manner, you’ll find a wide selection to choose from at More Dining Chairs.

Dining with Hillsdale

With spring on the way, many manufacturers introduce new product lines at this time of year. Hillsdale is no exception. Their winter product lineup includes six exciting new dining sets that offer a little something for everyone. At Hillsdale Furniture Source, you will find a dining furniture that will breathe fresh life into your kitchen or dining room.

The Casa Blanca collection combines classic farmhouse profiles with transitional design elements for a truly warm and inviting appearance. It features a traditional ladder back chair and an oval table. The collection also includes a sideboard. The beautiful two-tone cherry/black finish gives these pieces a modern look and feel.

The Hermosa Heights collection by Hillsdale is definitely contemporary in style. The counter height gathering table is undeniably a space-saving work of art. Its design incorporates some innovative features such as display shelving, special compartments for wine bottles and an oak finish tabletop with a built-in lazy susan. Displaying an elegant transitional look, the Patterson collection also offers a counter height dining furniture with an adaptable style that fits a range of décors.

Transitional in style, Verona dining sets are available with a number of different seating options that allows you to choose the look that best expresses your personal taste. Parsons chairs with a square table? Slat chairs and a bench with a rectangle table? You decide.

If you’re looking for something that mixes it up a little, consider either the Hillsdale Monaco Dining Set or the Pacifico Dining Set. By pairing different materials together, such as wood, leather and marble in the case of the Monaco series, both collections are visually stunning in their own unique ways.

You will find plenty of reasons, not just for the kitchen or dining room, to give all the rooms of your home a fresh look for spring with innovative designs from Hillsdale Furniture.

Those Other Golden Years

It’s commonly understood that post-retirement to the twilight of our lives is the period referred to as the “golden years.” ChildrensFurnitureSelect.com confirms my belief that the dawn of life to pre-school years are just as golden in their own right. Think about it; the freedom to wake and sleep as you please, with little more than eating and playful discovery in between and having your every need catered to in its entirety.

Sounds golden to me.

The truth is every child deserves to have this period of safe, carefree existence before they move on to a twilight in its own sense when they reach those pre-teen years. This marvelous simplicity of life is one we all look back on with fondness and, for most of us, a sense of wistful longing once it has past. The Easter Bunny’s yearly global marathon, the Tooth Fairy’s ceaselessly hectic schedule, and so on and so forth – the innocence of youth has a beauty that is sure to withstand the ages.

Now as much as that famous rabbit has a lot on his plate every March, it’s nothing compared to what Santa Claus accomplishes every December 24^th. All those chocolate eggs don’t even compare to the bulk with which the big man loads his sleigh on that eagerly anticipated evening. That being understood, he does appreciate getting started early and the convenience of online shopping means you can pair your little ones’ formative years with competitively priced children’s products at Children’s Furniture Select.

A dollhouse has a universal appeal for any young girl, and the extent to which these long-time staples of female youth have come of age is quite remarkable. The KidKraft Interactive Dollhouse is like none you’ve ever seen before, as it features a working elevator, on / off lit chandeliers, a playing piano and a kitchen from which drifts the sounds of a meal being prepared. The KidKraft Savannah Dollhouse has all the genteel Southern elegance its name suggests, and they invite you for a tour of the mansion right here!

KidKraft take great pride in producing quality products that will stand up to children’s rambunctious curiosity in the world around them, and they're being recognized with the 2008 Gold Award from National Parenting Publications Awards for its Pink Retro Kitchen and Refrigerator confirms this. This kitchen set is a durable and stylish choice for kids that has been so well received it has been nearly impossible to keep them in stock.

In addition, what little one wouldn’t gush over receiving the KidKraft Firefighter Bedroom Furniture Set, though be forewarned you may be turning down his request for a fire hall pole in your foyer in the near future. Similarly, a KidKraft Deluxe Garage Set will be enthusiastically received by any child, future automotive enthusiast or otherwise.

Cymax Stores is pleased to announce that these products and more will be offered at significant discounts for the holiday season with our sales promotion at Children’s Furniture Select between Nov.28^th and Dec.14^th. Be sure to visit and see what catches your eye as something your precious youngster would be thrilled to find on Christmas morning.

It’s the moments of these golden years that are integral to child and parent alike – make the most of them.

Kitchen Furniture and the Human Heart

E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, once said that “on days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it.”

Kitchens are the hub of the home, the place where families and friends get together not only to eat, but to create meals and memories together. Kitchens are where ingredients are turned into nourishment for the belly, the heart, and the soul. Kitchens are where sense memories start: the smell of rhubarb and strawberries cooking in the pie my mother made on special occasions will always stay with me. I agree with E.B. White: Kitchens really do warm the human heart.

Unfortunately, kitchens can also be expensive to furnish and decorate. It is perhaps one of the most costly rooms in the house, especially for people who live in the kitchen, endlessly cooking and baking and nourishing their loved ones. But it doesn’t have to be that way. At Cymax, our online shopping makes shopping easy and inexpensive. In fact, keeping all the essentials in mind, we have ideas for your kitchen budget.

No matter how big your kitchen is, it always seems as though you need more space. If you are going for a natural, down-to-earth look, Cymax has a deal for you. These following three products are essentials and will make cooking all the more fun and accessible. With so many features, your kitchen will have everything you need… all for $690.97.

• The Home Styles Natural Wood Cart with Stainless Steel Top: $194.99 (save $105.01 from original price)
• The Home Styles Corner Buffet and Hutch with Plexiglass Doors in Natural: $295.99 (save $142.68 from original price)
• The Home Styles Baker’s Rack with Solid Wood Top in Natural: $199.99 (save $118.01 from original price)

With a cumulative saving of $365.70, Cymax offers you the kitchen of your dreams at almost half the cost of what you would pay on the original price – and definitely cheaper than shopping elsewhere! Add free ground shipping to that deal, and you will have a kitchen that is sure to warm your heart... and all of the hearts that you cook for.

Going French With Help From Cymax

I’ve decided to change my identity. My entire heritage, actually. Although I am a perfectly balanced mix of Scottish and English (50/50, I’m told), I’m going French. It’s just that French is sultrier, more seductive. The language elegantly rolls off the tongue… well, more like the back of the throat, but still. I love to eat, and the tastes of France beat the Scottish meat ‘n potatoes or the British fish ‘n chips staple foods. I’ll stay away from escargot, but bring on the cheeses and baguettes, and especially the chocolate fondue, any day. And no more tartan, no more cardigans. I want Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, and Chanel. And who doesn’t want to go to the most romantic country in the world? I certainly do. French: I want to speak it, eat it, wear it, and live it. I want to be French.

In order to “go” French there are some essential things I need to change about my home. Luckily, Cymax makes this incredibly easy with the convenience of online shopping. Cymax has a variety of furniture items, for every room in the house, which will help with my transformation.

Firstly, in order to cook up a French storm, to have all the wonderful aromas and tastes that come with the nationality, I will need a French kitchen cart for all of the extra space I will need to accommodate the varieties of ingredients cluttering my kitchen. Classically styled, this cart will make it easy to cook a genuine gourmet French-inspired meal. I will also need a French baker’s rack for all of the baguettes I plan on making. I don’t know how to make them yet, but those are just minor details.

But I can’t just go from a French kitchen to a drab eating area, furnished with a table and chairs from England that have been passed down to me from centuries ago that any person my age should not have anywhere near their house if they want to avoid the nickname “Granny”. In order to genuinely transform my identity, I need to invest in a French bar table set to feed myself and my guests in style. This will provide a perfect perch for wine and cheese, and a good gab. With the contemporary style, combined with a touch of traditional French scrollwork, I can have a modern dining area with a French design. There I will sit, pouring champagne for guests, and will be well on my way to French-hood.

My new French identity needs to infiltrate my every hour though – even when I am not awake. In order to be successful at training my subconscious, I need to start having French dreams. In order for French dreams, I need to be dreaming in a bed complete with a French comforter set. This nine-piece comforter set features a leafy design that I can only imagine mirrors the falling leaves on Paris streets. Here, I will sleep in French, and when I wake up, I will take my fashionable new clothes out of my French floral accent chest to dress myself, and head to my French jewelry armoire to put on my make-up and accessories to start my day on the right foot.

The finishing touches for my newly Frenchized home will probably be the most important part of my transitioning nationality. I will desperately need a place to practice the language. Sure, I will get the chance to test out my French by speaking with friends (or forcing them to listen to me), but I won’t master the language, or the nationality, without studying. With a French floral desk to match my accent chest, and a French table lamp to keep me company through hours and hours of perfecting the language and the accent, I will have everything I need.

On top of this, thanks to the ability to shop online for all of these necessities, I can become French without having to leave the house. That said, once I feel French enough, I am buying a one-way ticket to France (bypassing the United Kingdom), and bringing my furniture with me. C’est final.

The Second Generation of Kitchen Therapy

I remember trying so hard to sit still and calm down in school when I knew that weekend we were having company. Both my parents have a lot of siblings who, much to my never ending joy, produced multiple children per family. As a result, I am one of dozens of cousins within a ten year span. Needless to say, I’ve had built in best friends my entire life. When one of those glorious weekends would roll around and I knew we’d be having guests, it was the happiest I could ever be. For once in my lazy childhood I’d pick up the vacuum hose and haphazardly scoot my toys into one corner of my room in preparation. My mother would be looking haggard, to be quite honest, from the never ending cooking and cleaning, and my dad would be licking his chops over a new bottle or two of scotch to share.

Those weekends would come and go so quickly. There would be harrowing tales of love unrequited or denied and, without a doubt, a squabble or two over whose turn it was in the bathroom. People camped out on sofas and floors on a makeshift bed, yet no one ever complained. And everyone would informally gather around the table in the kitchen. Sometimes in packs, sometimes in pairs - all in search of a snack and some answers. Both were always found.

Saying goodbye on the sidewalk as family after family pulled away filled our entire house with quiet. Dinner that night was leftovers – but no one ever really ate much. By Monday the feeling was completely gone and would only return once the photos were developed; sometimes that didn’t happen for weeks.

Over the years we’ve done a satisfactory job of staying in touch, but the weekends of noise and laughter have never returned like they once were. The kids who once spent hours trying on each other’s clothes have all grown up and undertaken grown up jobs; their own families now taking precedence over aunts, uncles and cousins.

But now, I get to play host. It’s on a much smaller scale – just two of my cousins, but it will be the first time I’ve ever had overnight guests over to my apartment. The food is all prepared and fresh towels are folded nicely in the cupboard, but my home is missing something.

Everyone can agree that the house revolves around the kitchen. It’s where a kitchen chair can magically transform into a therapeutic leather sofa and the never ending grazing manages to whet your appetite even more. There being just two in our home generally means we eat in front of the TV. This scenario isn’t really conducive to company, so a proper dining table must be purchased from Cymax.

It might be a bit touchy-feely of me, but I already anticipate the exchange of news and wine over a comfortable, stylish dining table that will, with any luck, house a new generation of memories. Perhaps next time there will be children of our own . . . or better yet, an extra bottle of wine.

They Mostly Come at Night…Mostly

It was the third time this week that I had left my freshly baked bread on the floor to cool and the third time something tremendously devastating had happened to it. Something shocking; something destructive; something permanent and disturbing. Things that I didn’t know could happen in good bread baking homes like mine. All I wanted was some delicious bread to go with my recently acquired pound of store bought liver pâté, but these terrible happenings were holding me back significantly.

The first night that I left my piping hot loaf of bread to cool on the kitchen floor, (I didn’t really have very much available counter space you see), I woke up the next morning to discover it completely vanished! Not a single crumb, nor a tiny morsel – it was as though I hadn’t baked it at all. Its trace was so completely undetectable that I began to actually suspect that I hadn’t made the bread; that maybe my intense craving for fresh bread, coupled with my overactive imagination caused me to create a whole delusion in which I had baked bread and left it to cool on my kitchen floor. That must be it, I thought to myself, not entirely convinced. So I proceeded to make another loaf of bread and leave it to cool in the place which I had thought I had left my previous loaf.

The next morning I suffered a similar ordeal. Not a scrap in sight, nor a speck in view. No hint whatsoever of my laborious loaf, nor any clue as to what had happened to it. I was devastated. I wasn’t sure if I could stomach another disappointment like this. And on top of it all, I was running low on flour, my liver pâté was about to turn and I hadn’t eaten in two days.

I weakly prepared another warm, delicious loaf of bread and left it to cool in the same place as before and ambled to bed with a strange combination of gloom and hope growling in my empty belly.

I woke up the next morning to what I had been dreading…an empty floor with nothing on it but the wet oval of condensation from what had once been a delicious loaf of bread. But wait…there was something there! A clue; a hint! Some friendly evidence from which I could begin my intense investigation. I was starving and someone would have to pay…

Large, critter-like footprints peppered the big, wet mark left by the bread and moist claw prints had been scattered around the kitchen…big splayed feet with tiny, sharp little toes. And what was this?! A note! A tiny little note! I scooped up the note and read it greedily. It was written in sharp red scrawl and it said,

“Thanks for the grub, sucker.

Love,

The Tenants”

I was horrified. Simply horrified. Those scoundrels! Those rascally villains! Those free-loading, no good doing rogues!

I felt used, exploited…abused…

I was furious with myself for allowing this to happen…again. I began to recall a high instance of food thievery taking place in my home, oftentimes followed by similar notes, such as,

“Thanks for the cookies, chump” or “Thanks for the cinnamon buns, sucker”

Now…I am no detective. Nor do I have any logical skills to speak of (unless you consider a proficiency my own made-up style of Kung-Fu a skill), but I definitely detected some similarities between the notes I had received over the years and the note I was reading now. I couldn’t be 100% sure of course without a handwriting expert to consult with, but my inkling was strong and I was determined to end these insults.

I devised a very careful plan. I would bake another delicious loaf of bread and leave it to scroll its thick, delicious vapor throughout the house…in the hopes that it would coax my enemies once again.

Oh freshly baked bread…you mouthwatering temptress…work your aromatic magic…

I hid in my pantry, carefully concealed by an assortment of aprons and cooking smocks and patiently waited for something to happen.

I was starting to doze off when all of a sudden I heard the pitter patter of claw like feet on my black and white tiled floor. I was shaken so suddenly that my heart immediately began beating at a tremendous speed and my eyes were as wide as urinal cakes.

I spied them through the crack I had left in my pantry door.

I spied their small black eyes and their wretched, graceful claws.

I spied their furiously quick feet and strong, skeletal tails.

I spied the family of giant rats that had come to feast on my bread; come to greedily consume every last bit of starch that I had slaved over the evening before.

I didn’t know what to do!

Should I confront them?

Should I continue to hide and then, once they have finished, subsequently move out of the house? The country?

How did they get in? Where are they hiding?

I couldn’t be bullied any longer.

I emerged from the pantry, laden with various colors and styles of aprons and howled a terrible howl! Then I stomped a terrible stomp and the rats were frightened away, leaving half a loaf of nibbled, ransacked bread still steaming on the floor. I couldn’t believe it! I had to do something about this right away. I immediately got on the internet in search of something that might protect my bread from these massive, disgusting rodents.

I stumbled across bakersrackscollection.com and discovered a whole world of strategies to protect my bread! Bakers racks of all sorts designed especially for cooling bread and buns and cookies! Never again would my baked goods fall prey to the wall dwellers…those night walking, baked good stalking crooks!

Not only would I be able to protect my delicious food with these marvelous bakers racks but they also offered superior storage options.

Bakersrackscollection.com was about to save my life!

Unfortunately before I could take advantage of their massive selection and zero shipping costs I passed out from hunger and exhaustion.