Day 38 The Re-purpose

Today I am not cleaning out but re-purposing. I try not to do that too often but you will understand when I tell you the story.

First a bit of back story. In 1998 HHBL and I were blessed to be able to take a trip to Israel with my Parental Units. It was fabulous! And I might have brought some things home with me. One of the things that I brought home and put to immediate use was a mug. A mug that I had purchased from the shop of a potter in Bethlehem. Ah Bethlehem, paradise of the locals who would gladly sell me a carved, olive wood camel for $5 or two for $10! Who would follow me on to the bus to try and get that final sale.

But I digress.

I brought the mug home. I loved it. I used it for tea and for coffee. And then one day I decided that I wanted to do a bit of “home remodeling” without having any knowledge of what I was doing. I got it into my brain that I wanted to get rid of the soffits that were above the cabinets in my kitchen. You know what a soffit is? It is the “filler” between the top of a cabinet and the ceiling. I don’t have any here at Chez Knit because I don’t like them. But at the old house I had plenty of them. And they bugged me. So one day I looked at the soffits above my cabinets and thought

I have never liked those.

I am sure they are just decorative.

How hard can it be to take them down.

I will go and get the hammer and the crow bar.

No one ever said that I knew anything about soffits. Or remodeling. The cabinets were fine without the soffits but those soffits were not entirely decorative. But that is neither here nor there. What I need to tell you is that when I started my mini demolition project I didn’t take the time to remove the dishes that were sitting on the counter. It didn’t even occur to me.

And so it was a very big surprise when part of the soffit came off in a less than controlled manner and crashed down onto dishes, breaking 5 cereal bowls AND…..

Chipping my favorite mug in not one but TWO places.

It was not a good day. But that was many a year ago and the mug has been in constant rotation for tea and coffee. The chips never seemed to be a problem. I was happy. Until recently when I took a look at the inside of the mug…..

Ever expanding cracks and hot liquid are not a good mix. The mug hasn’t yet begun to leak but it is only a matter of time until there is an unfortunate coffee incident early in the morning. But I am not ready to totally get rid of the mug. I love it. So I have given it a new life as something else. For the last two months I have had two very small rosemary starts that have been rooting in a little jar on my window sill. They were volunteers that I found in the rosemary plants that I brought inside at the end of summer.

Have I told you that I love rosemary.

And I love my Bethlehem mug.

And now everyone is happy.