dining in the kitchen

Dining space in the kitchen always looks relaxed and friendly, but I sometimes wonder how practical it can be when you're really entertaining?

 You know what I mean .... the table is laid beautifully, your guests arrive, everyone moves staight into the kitchen to enjoy an aperiitif and watch the finishing touches be added to the meal; wine is poured, the first course enjoyed ... then cleared for the main course and so what do you do with the dishes?!

If you are all sitting in the kitchen, you don't want dirty dishes spoiling the decor, and neither to do you want to start piling plates into the dishwasher... or the sink...

So I wondered, with the fashion for big open kitchen and family rooms, how do you work it?  Where do you like to eat?  I mean for big family meals, or if you invite friends over for dinner or lunch.

Here in the summer(if it ever arrives!) we enjoy nearly all our meals outside, but the rest of the year it's mostly in the kitchen for breakfast and quick family lunches, then in the dining room for 'proper' meals and when we have guests or friends with us.  

As we finish with plates they are taken out of the dining room and into the kitchen to wait.

The kitchen looks like a riot broke out by the end of the meal, but I don't mind because it is all out of sight, and I just clear away once every one has gone.

So how do you work it?  Do you think that dirty dishes just adds to the fun, or do you hate the thought of your guests seeing your kitchen in a muddle?

Do tell, I'd love to know  :)

hope you have a happy weekend, thank you for reading me

all pictures from Pinterest

featured in Landleben magazine!

I am happy to announce that MFCH has been featured this month in the German lifestyle magazine Landleben.

A big thank you to journalist Jacky Hobbs, and photographer Michelle Garrett for being such fun to work with when they came here for the photo shoot.

Landleben is available on news stands in Germany, 

and on certain sites by pdf download.

the may bouquet

After the long winter it feels positively luxurious to be able to compose bouquets from the garden and surrounding fields.

As the lilac starts to fade here it is the turn of the Hawthorn tree (or May, as the British aptly name it) to come into flower.

Tight small buds of white, crimson or pink, it is a lovely tree with an easily recognised perfume.

 

I grabbed some from a field as I walked down from the forest this morning, then added some purple tinged grasses, a few blades of barley and some splashes of purple from the garden, in the form of lilac, irises and wisteria.

 The result is a very relaxed looking 'basket of flowers, whose beauty will be short lived, but appreciated even the more for it.

Carolyn Quartermaine at the musée fragonard

 If you are in the south of France this summer, here is an exhibit worth visiting.

The charming Musée Fragonard has invited Carolyn Quartermaine to create a show called Conversation Piece.  Using the private collections of Jean Francois and Helene Costa, who founded Fragonard in 1926, Carolyn has put together a series of collages from photos, mementos, drawings and various paperwork.

 The project began when the museum acquired an untouched 19th century photographic atelier in Grasse.   It is this studio, with its faded murals, and orginal furniture that inspired Quartermaine to assemble her collages.

 Drawing on the museum's wealth of Provençal costumes, the Costa photos, personal documents and other scent related memorabilia, Quartermaine's collages are truly charming.

Let me know what you think, if you check it out!

Photos by Martin Morrell for Elle Decoration