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Somethings Old, New, Green, Redo...
A reminiscent post from 2015....yikes time Flies...My mom was the reason I have the 'addiction' we all share,
JUNKING.
In my mom's case, I should say, JUNQUE'ing.
I was an only child and willingly trained and schooled in the appreciation of fine antiques, art, and family heirlooms. I was not prepared at all for my motherhood of two rambunctious boys, and neither was their grandmother. I know gentlemen out there with supreme taste and a collector's eye, but to my boys--Grandmother's Museum (house) was just full of interesting, basically amusing stuff, to rummage through, drive hot-wheels and set battle scenes with her prized possessions as back-drops.
Now, we're living with some of Great-Great-Grandmothers' things, and Great-Grandmothers' collections, and even a few Great Aunties' goodies thrown in.
I'm the Grandmother now, so it's up to me to not let my house be a Museum, but to use and appreciate those things closest to our hearts.
The Great Grandmothers' Dresser
This small oak, antique dresser, now in our bedroom has always held vignettes of family items.
The lamp was my grandmother's with a new shade. The standing mirror is not a reproduction but an original beveled mirror my Mom had since the 1960s.
This lovely, once silver-plated but polished bare brass now, cut glass jar, has a powder puff holder in the lid. Mom had this on her dresser as long as I can remember filled with bobby pins, treasures, buttons, keys, jewelry. I'm not sure if it was inherited or not.
This lovely enameled glass jar, plate and (metal lid not shown), was my great-grandmother's. She had a thing for pansies and violets. Today it holds potpourri with 'special memory' roses added.
Here is my grandmother in a silver frame and a bone dish she had at her bedside at the summer cottage. A hanky of hers, gold-threaded and embellished with tiny white embroidery sits folded on the glass dresser tray.
A porcelain, Rebild, Denmark souvenir vase from the early 1900's from her family stands in the back.
This is One of my prized possessions.
The lovely, enameled/brass dresser set was a gift from my father to his girl, Mom, way back when they were first dating 1939... It was the Depression, and he said, "I unloaded an entire train car of cabbages in the dark before school to pay for the dresser set for your mother."
The ribbon that tied the gift card is still attached from 1939.
The Hardanger embroidered cloth is from one of my great aunts in Denmark. I change the linens, photos, and add other things as the seasons change.
NEW Versus OLD
When our grand-daughter was first walking, she would peer up at the shiny items, smile, gurgle and reach. Instead of scolding--I lifted her up to look at herself in the mirror, and I pointed to the pictures, saying who the smiling faces were, and which items belonged to them.
When she turned two and was doing more than reaching, we put a stool by the dresser. I made some adjustments to the content of the items and also included some of her own special treasures, so she can do her 'toilette' much like four generations of daughters may have done before her.
She is careful with 'great grandmother's' things, and treats everything so special, and plays now with her small dollar store blue satin purse that matches the dresser pieces.
My mom's blue dresser tray has been placed behind the lamp, safe from getting banged.
The blue covered dish is put away and replaced with a leather box of my grandfather's holding barrettes and great-grandma's sparkly hair combs. The cut glass jar is safe on a bookcase and replaced by a resin fairy vase. The fairy's hands hold play jewelry instead of a fragile glass vase.
The pictures change, but my granddaughter knows each face. The antique mirror holds a tiara, headbands, ribbons, and necklaces.
The oval beveled mirror is perfect for tipping towards a two-year old.
As she grows older and learns more about each OLD heirloom, which may be hers someday…I hope she remembers Grandma and Grandpa's house, not as a museum but as a fun home with beautiful things to be used and appreciated each day. Having some of the the heirlooms absent for a few years is worth all of her smiles in the antique mirrors.
My granddaughter making herself beautiful at
Great Grandmothers' Dresser
(my favorite photo of all time)
She's 12 now...time flies!
*My son's home, Note the fish on the wall was caught by her great-grandfather, she is named after. The table and chairs are my mom's 1945 red maple set that my
D-in-Love painted a modern black and they use it everyday...!
I still use all the items in the photos, and today I'm moving that little dresser back into the bedroom for the holiday season and it will have my live Ivy Tree on it...
in the next post!
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