Blue cat coasters

And a soup mug of course

“Use a coaster!” said my grandmother throughout my childhood. And not just to me but to anyone at her table. My grandmother and her best friend, both widows, ran an illicit catering business together in the 1970's - an era when women couldn't rely on banks or get credit cards due to discrimination against women.¹

To make ends meet my grandma and her friend offered that for a quiet word and an envelope of cash a homecooked meal, a pot of soup, a pie or cake could be delivered. A bit more cash along with your complete meal order also rented you some bone china plates, hand polished silverware, cloth napkins and an ironed linen tablecloth. Also included, at no extra charge, were handsewn squares of thick cloth to be used as drink coasters.

Yes, the coasters added color and decoration to an otherwise plain white tablecloth but they were ultimately practical.

Grandma and her friend washed each tablecloth by hand using a manual mangle/wringer-washer and hung them on a clothesline outdoors to partially dry. Then the still semi-damp tablecloth was brought indoors and ironed by hand. (Guess who's job it was to hold up the part of the tablecloth not under the iron? Yes - me at age 6 or 7 years old.)

Stains on a tablecloth were serious business so “Use a coaster” was law like gravity is a law of physics.

Nowadays during holiday seasons when people are planning and gathering for homecooked meals² sometimes I think of Grandma and her coasters.

Here's some blue cat designs I drew for coasters one morning with my fountain pen filled with blue ink.

Then I made some thick sandstone coasters with cork backing using both of these designs.

The design you see in the photo below is here.

And the design in this 👇 photo is here.

I did some paper coasters with these designs too which you can find along with my other coaster designs (21 total… so far!) for both paper and sandstone coasters on my Zazzle shop in a “Mug Mat collection”.

Speaking of mugs… here's a new soup bowl-mug design with four of my blue cats - all four cats are different … you can see all the way around this soup-mug here.

Here's one of my favorite soup recipes to both cook and eat…

… it's available as a recipe postcard here.

Or as a subscriber to my newsletter you can download it and other yummy recipes from a kitchen sketchbook collection of my and my wife's favorites… 👇

If you enjoyed the kitchen sketchbook there are many more ebooks for subscribers here.

Thank you for being here … and remember to use a coaster!! 💚

1. https://www.spiral.us/blog/when-could-women-have-a-bank-account-a-short-history-of-financial-gender-equality-and-the-financial-road-ahead

2. In case you need to I hear it: it is perfectly fine and even wise to be very careful who you share a table with - it's okay to choose not to be around certain people - for self-preservation sake. Take care of yourself!! Here's a good newsletter by

Alicia Norman

on the topic. 👇

I voted for a fascist, and it's all your fault!