The Magic Suitcase

It took my mother-in-law several years to figure me out, but now she gives me the most amazing gifts for Christmas.

This year had to be the best!

This rough, metal clad suitcase is a treasure box.

Christmas afternoon at my in-laws' house I opened it to find not a set of encyclopedias, as I had joked, because it weighed a ton!, but several old Bibles and many old photos.

SWOOOOON!

Two of the Bibles are falling apart so I won't feel bad using their exquisitely detailed illustrations and beautifully aged manuscript pages in collages or swaps.
The one above is German, set in lovely old Germanic script (like Olde English).

The photos are varied.

Young, old and in between.
Last night, while taking pictures for this post, I got down to the very bottom of the suitcase and found old negatives in their original processing envelopes, dated from 1960-67.

Also a paid property tax receipt dated 1930 (two payment installments @ 79 cents for a half acre of property!) And, the most amazing prize-- a very ornate ribboned medal with metallic bullion fringe given to proud members of the National Wood Cutters Association. The name on the tattered envelope, holding the medal, matched the name on the paid tax receipt, so I can only assume it too is from the 1930s, maybe even earlier.

I don't think my mother-in-law realized the magnitude of her gift, since she hadn't fully plumbed its depths.

She just thought it was full of old Bibles.

Happy New Year to you, dear readers!

May it be a year of new discoveries, fresh ideas, exciting art and priceless treasures.

And may you enjoy good health in the pursuit of it all!

Today my husband and I are also celebrating 16 years of marriage.

That is just about a record these days!

A Creative Break While Supposedly Cleaning the House...

While putting away Christmas decor and rearranging my poorly stacked junk in the basement, I ran across this random snapshot of my niece (who was maybe 9 years old in the photo, but is maybe twenty-something now). It fell out of or off of something and looked very sad lying in the basement dirt and dust bunnies. I brushed it off and decided my niece needed to be displayed properly and gifted to her grandmother (my MiL). Never mind that I was abandoning my reorganization project-- like the clutter was going anywhere!

So I cut my niece out, stuck her down on a festive bit of Christmas stationary and sandwiched her into a garage sale frame with a bit of faux mica flakes.
Much better than the over priced, "giftable", shadow frame, whatnot I started with (below).


Back to cleaning and gleaning more junk, er, valuable stuff for repurposing and upcycling.

I have bags and boxes of thrift store and yard sale purchases that are waiting to be rediscovered!

Do you ever buy stuff, bring it home, tuck it into your closet and forget about it?

Please tell me that I am not alone in that habit!

Nursery Tea (It's Tuesday!)

Rebecca has had a sore throat, but thankfully she enjoys (warm) tea. Here we are set up with a small pot of honeyed Celestial Seasonings Blueberry for her and a pot of plain ol' Lipton black tea for me, hiding under a cat cozy (I like my tea piping hot!) An old suitcase not only makes our tea feel like a picnic, but is the perfect elevation for cross legged seating.

Not pictured-- the large stack of books she chose for our reading pleasure. I think I need to brew more tea!

Winter White

Our jockey looked even more flamboyant than usual this morning with frosted highlights on his scarf.

It was foggy last night, which combined with well below freezing temperatures over night, created a wonderful shabby chic landscape.


The view down our street.
Sidewalks are a luxury in this small town.
There is so little traffic anyway that we walk comfortably in the middle of the road.
Although it was terribly cold, it was a beautiful day to stroll and admire the scenery.
How's the weather in your part of the world?

A Merry, Merry Christmas to You!

And may God bless us, every one!

Ornament Anecdote: Day 24

I saved the tree topper for last. It was hard not to share it sooner, because I had it photographed from the very beginning, but I wanted to do things "right". The best for last. This is my most prized ornament on our tree. My mother used it when I was a kid. I'm sure she brought it from Europe. The topper has a small chip in its base, but no crack (amazingly enough). Each year I am concerned about jamming it on top of the tree-- some of our real trees have had pretty thick branches and I have been afraid to have the piece shatter. This is one ornament that could not be easily replaced with a quick search on ebay. This topper has crowned a tree for almost 50 Christmases. No small accomplishment.

Now don't stay up too late wrapping those last minute gifts!

Tomorrow is the big reveal. The Full Monty, as Patty so aptly put it.

Christmas Day!

Ornament Anecdote: Day 23

This pretty tart pan treasure is Linda's "junk-le bell" contribution. A clever combination of materials. It would have never occured to me to use paper shred and yet, the glass pebble looks more precious because it is nestled in the stuff. I told her that what "made" this ornament for me was the blown glass silver bead strung on the ribbon. I recognized it immediately as having come from a vintage garland.

Linda's ornament was presented in this lovely bag. You know I am going to store the ornament away in its bag when not on display. As if I will ever want to put it away!