Share Your Cup - This Week

This is a plain ordinary office file sorter but the color is what made it come home with me. 

I am using it to hold the cookbooks I use all the time which live on top of the fridge. 

I was challenged by a video on Youtube the other day where a lady living a minimalism life style suggested getting rid of cook books and looking up recipes on line.   I think I will look at the books on the bookshelf and evaluate whether I really need them.

These are my regular cookbooks.  The Purity Cookbook I received as a high school graduation present. It's cover has gotten separated from the book which I don't remember how that happened.  I am usually very careful with books.
I use a couple church/community cookbooks I have collected over the years because they contain the great old recipes. 
The fat one on the right is a "Fill with your favorite recipes" kind of book.  It is very interesting what recipes I used to use and now I have new ones that are favorites.  I should have written down the year they were written into the book. The information is lost. 
Are you asking yourself ? "Does she have paper stuck to the center of the kitchen cupboard doors?"  Yes, I do.  I am looking to update the kitchen a bit and after a discussion during my sister's visit it crossed my mind that I could just paint the center of the doors.  Late at night I decided to put white paper in the center to see what it would look like.  It brightens up the kitchen which has no windows a lot.  I'm not ready to paint just yet but I am leaving the paper up because it makes such a difference.  Updates will come in later posts.

The book this week is Evening Class by Maeve Binchy. 

A teacher at a school is having a life crisis, he got passed over for a promotion, his wife doesn't seem to know he is alive, and his 2 grown daughters have their own lives.  He gets the opportunity to offer evening classes at the school where he works.  He has always wanted to return to Italy where he spent his honeymoon.  Fortunately, in the community a lady who spent nearly 25 years abroad in that country returns to her roots in Ireland.  She is willing to teach a class in conversational Italian, as well adding a dash of culture and food from the area.

The class is a huge success and we get to know several of the students who are studying Italian with Signora.  Most of their lives cross paths at certain points.  It's been a bit hard to remember all the connections but I have enjoyed the book a lot.

I found these napkins a while back and they contained the colors I wanted to use with my true blue dishes.  In the end, I could not use them as napkins because being 100% cotton a crease had been formed into the center which I found unsightly.  I went on a search for fabric to match and yesterday I found some.  I cut the back in the yellow and placed a strip of the yellow across the crease mark.  It provide an accent for the place mat and gives me a place mat that I can use with my blue dishes. I have 3 napkins so I will make another and maybe some teacup coasters.

This was tea today with Bengal Spice in the cup. 

I'm really happy with how well the colors match. 

Sharing with Jann at Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson who hosts Share Your Cup #243.