A Mouse In The Kitchen

“Now where did I put them,” I said out loud to myself.  After 15 minutes of looking for the two pieces of bird fabric, that I was planning to use to make more bird potholders, I gave up.

The irony is that I just spent more than two days cleaning up my studio, organizing it so I’d be able to find things more easily.

I thought the bird fabric would be the perfect thing to get me back into working after taking more than a week off during the holidays.  Frustrated, I gave up looking for the birds and starting searching for something else to inspire me, half hoping if I stopped looking for them I’d find them.

I resisted the English linen towel  that Carolyn gave me with the mice on it up to this point because, really, who wants a mouse in the kitchen?  They’re cute in stories and as cartoon characters,  but when they’re leaving poop in the fruit bowl it’s time to get the mouse traps out.

But the colors felt right to me for today.

I wanted to work with the quiet neutral blues and grays.  I could easily get anxious coming back to the studio after so much time away, the soothing pallet was comforting. No hurry, it said, take your time, it will all come back to you if you let it. 

So I cut up the towel and pulled lots of blue, gray, soft pink and peach fabric off my shelves.  And as I worked, I began to think fondly of the little ball of fur I saw running across the kitchen floor and under the stove a few days ago.

I started humming “Three Blind Mice” as I pieced the fabric together.

As the potholders took shape, the mice on them became feisty and admirable cartoon characters who may eat, and chew perfectly arched doorways in the baseboard, but never poop.

If you’re going to have a mouse in the kitchen, I thought, these were definitely the mice to have.