A PERFECT MARRIAGE: ADAPTABILITY

I'd be the first to tell you, there's no such thing as a perfect marriage -- at least, not of the human variety. There is, however, the occasional fortuitous coming together of place and circumstance.

Take this cabinet, for instance. It is what I would call a perfect piece of furniture. I often tell people that the best thing that ever happened to us was not having enough money to go out and buy whatever furniture we wanted when we first got married, for everything we might have chosen would have been a costly mistake. By the time we purchased this little Chinese

medicine chest in Singapore, we had learned so many important lessons -- number one being, never buy a piece of furniture to fit a specific place in a specific room in a specific house. I like my furniture just the way I like my recipes -- versatile...adaptable. This baby has been used in most every room, and has been a nightstand, an end table, and even a jewelry chest. Now it has a new purpose in life.

Perhaps you recall that huge assortment of teas and chocolate bars that my dear sister-in-law gave me for Christmas? I absolutely adore Harney & Sons teas, but there was just one problem - I had nowhere to put any of it. I have the world's smallest pantry - just a 2'x3' cabinet - and since it was already full to overflowing, I had no choice but to leave the two boxes of assorted teas sitting out on my counter. Since I also have little to no counter-space, that was a problem.

When the movers arrived with all of our stuff from the townhouse, the only place we could find for the medicine chest was in the living room, beneath the kitchen pass-through. One day, as I stood staring at that chest, wondering how best to use it this time, I happened to glance through that opening, and my eyes fell upon those boxes full of tea that were stacked upon my kitchen counter. Et, voila! I pulled my Selangor pewter tea set, also from Singapore, out of the cabinet where it has been hidden for years, and the medicine chest has been reborn as a tea cabinet! How convenient that it just happens to be in spittin' distance of the coffee table where the Muses and I like to gather for little tea parties. A perfect marriage, non?