Question of the Day, Friday, November 13

Good morning!   And Happy Friday the 13th!

Easy question this morning: What's on your kitchen table?

We always have a tablecloth on our table. Always. Right now, it's a pretty fall tablecloth with pumpkins. I don't like vinyl, so we use cloth tablecloths. 

We have a pink fleece blankie on one end of the table because that's where Tabby naps during the day. And this morning, there are a few pieces of mail and an LL Bean catalog on the table.

We don't keep centerpieces on the table or anything like that because the cats have been known to rip through the house while we're gone. We've come home more than once to find the tablecloth and the table protector halfway off the table. A centerpiece would just make it worse....the kids won't leave anything alone. So any holiday centerpiece is only for the holiday dinner and that's it.

A piece of safety glass cut to size to protect the oak, a pewter tray for the salt and pepper shakers, etc., a glass hot plate and two bamboo placemats. We had to give up on tablecloths soon after adopting Mogli. They were too much fun to destroy!

Our kitchen is small - especially for the size of the house. There's no room for a kitchen table

Junk and more junk. Bill stubs. My kindle. An empty Fancy Feast box for recycling. Change. Coupons. A teal colored fox cookie jar (empty).

Seriously it's become a "catch all".  We NEVER eat at the kitchen table.  I only have one because I needed to fill up that corner LOL

Dining table, is filled with Tom's school stuff - laptop, books, etc.  It's where he usually studies because it has the best overhead lighting and I guess the chairs are more comfortable than elsewhere.  

We at in front of the TV at our coffee table unless we have company.  

We don't have a kitchen table but there's a counter peninsula with bar stools. We keep a few wooden bowls on it that hold fruits and vegetables; we keep it pretty clear since that's where we eat our meals. I haven't found a dining room table yet. I'm wondering if we are going to be eating Christmas dinner on the kitchen peninsula...

Right now I have a fall table cloth on my table. It is decorated with pumpkins. I have a marble lazy susan in the center covered with a round dark rust colored placemat. On top of that is a Yankee Candle Scarecrow candle holder. The candle is Autumn Wreath. I have another candle of Pumpkin Spice next to it. 

I do have my bills and a small notebook and pen on one side. I really do my business at the table. 

The table cloth is plastic. Yes, plastic. I used plastic for many years when my dad was alive. I have many different ones. When I took Artie home, he made it a point to constantly be on the table. I was using plastic because he was putting holes in the table cloths when I shooed him down. It was easier to throw away plastic rather than good linen ones. Also I do not iron...Ha Ha...

It is also much easier to wipe down the tablecloth before using. 

Now that Artie has calmed down, I have been using a lot of linen tablecloths. I change them out; however, every once in a while I find litter on the table. Wonder where that came from?????

Before I got a cat, I always had either fresh flowers or a nice flower arrangement or some type of decorations in the center to the table, on the lazy susan. Now I cannot have any. I know someone will be after them. It is not worth me having to worry about them getting broken and picking up the mess because someone knocked them down; or ate them. 

We also have a counter peninsula instead of a table in the kitchen.  It's filled with kitchen stuff--cutting boards, paper towel holder, groceries that didn't get put away.... 

The dining room table is covered in cats.     We rarely eat there and it sits under a skylight so the kitties love to lie on it during the day where it's warm.  I used to buy flowers every week to put on the table when we just had my one old cat--she never got up there.  But once the new cats came along--forget having flowers.  I was always coming home to a table covered in water and flowers.  

Right now, the tray off my son's high chair, the sears wish book, a flyer and a cup. It isn't actually in my kitchen though.

The base of a chocolate mousse cake, cooling. There's also some candles and the mail.

Bunch of papers, a Wedgwood, a teapot, pens, and once in awhile a little white furry creature perching herself on it.

I tend to eat breakfast in the living room in any case   

a yellow fruit bowl that's empty, seated on top of a round orange placemat.

Warranty for my tires that I need to register one of these days..

and a toaster.

My kids do their school work at the table and I have very limited wall space (open floor plan) so I have a book stand holding a small dry erase board, notebook number chart and some other visual aids for different subjects.  There is also a pencil box, 2 gourds, a box of raisins, some mail, a napkin holder, a lunch pail and a bag with my Hallmark ornaments for the year.  Oh also I see a winter hat and a crayon.  Bsically one corner is cluttered. 

Right now there is a tissue box, water bottle, container of dark chocolate almonds, one paper towel ???, cat dental cleaning set.

no kitchen table here. it's only me and the cats here, so my meals are eaten quickly and standing up.

A vinyl tablecloth. I hate them but the cats ruin tablecloths in no time flat. I tried a cloth one and they destroyed it. I have another one but that one is staying in the package

The Antser. I use this as a platform for the cats' food dishes more than anything else. I bought 2 of them in case the ants decided to go after the girls' dishes when they went after Henry's when he was in his safe room. They do not.

The cats' food dishes. The kitchen table is their feeding station. I eat in the living room. I can't put their dishes on the floor or the dog will eat all their food.

Really nothing else. Sophie doesn't like it when there are other things on the table and she will scratch at something until A) I get sick of hearing the scratching sound and move the offending item or B) She gets sick of waiting for me to move the offending item and she pushes it onto the floor with either her paw or her tush depending on how big it is. She pushes my purse off the table with her tush while things like mail will get pushed off with her paw.

Keeker is wrapped around a wooden bowl of apples and Kricket is playing with a pen he dug out of my purse (which is also on the table).

Other than that, a few cat hairs and some dust!

Well...the table itself is nothing special, just one of those inexpensive round drop-leaf ones...pine top and white legs.  Windsor chars to match.  However, I got a wild hair (prolly one of Hekitty's, they're everywhere) and painted the white in a periwinkle blue...just a hair darker than Wedgwood blue.  On it is the midnight blue tablecloth stenciled with white vines around the border, and a white vine wreath in the center. 

As far as decor, right now it has a pumpkin in the center, surrounded by fall leaves.  Acorn salt and pepper shakers, and a fall leaf butter dish.  I bough those flower picks that every department/discount store in the world sells, you know, the bunches of seasonal flowers on a fairly short stem, with fall leaves and gourds, folded the stem in half, et voila, instant napkin holders...just fold the napkin, and slip the stem over the top. 

The table cloth is year round, the decorations change seasonally.  Most of the time, besides fall and the Christmas season, a white owl with cobalt blue patterns sits in the middle along with my Blue Willow s&p shakers and butter dish.   I'm a little fanatical about Blue Willow.  Currently saving my money up for a Blue Willow stencil designed to do full walls.

I may need professional help.

You had to ask me this today??

OK:

the things that are meant to be there:

•  brass Buddha
• lovely pottery incense burner
• pretty hand embroidered doily

things that have accumulated there:

• handbag
• fish oil
• Sundar's cat food for when he comes in from the enclosure;  Nilah knows she's not allowed on the table and it's the only place she doesn't go!
• a real estate brochure from a house across the road that's for sale
• folder with work, on it's way to my 'office'
• mobile phone
• landline phone
• new pot waiting for a plant
• notepad and pen
• eyedrops
• water bottle

and I have now embarrassed myself into going and tidying up...

I wish I had enough room for a kitchen table.

All I have is the top of the china cabinet that is just the right height to double as a work surface. At the moment it has the kettle and a glass bowl of tomatoes on it. It has a small table cloth on it too, not because I'm a particular fan of table cloths but because I ruined the cabinet top. I tried putting double sided sticky tape on there to stop the cats walking on it. Worked a treat until I took the tape off. It pulled most of the paint that the cabinet is finished in off with it.

So now I have a table cloth covered in muddy paw prints and I try not to worry about it too much.