Speaking of Heirlooms...

I promised some peeks at some of my family heirlooms so today I took a few photos of two of my favorite pieces. I have lots more to share but while I was taking photos of part of my upcoming "secret" (which I promise to reveal later this week!) I snapped a few to show you!

The first family heirloom I want to show you is an old alarm clock that belonged to my great-grandfather. My paternal grandparents are still alive and live close by but they are not the sort that save things. So I was surprised when my grandmother gave this clock to me a few years ago since it belonged to her father and I wasn't sure that she had saved anything from the past.

And the teacup and saucer is the second family heirloom I want to show you. It's a vintage teacup and saucer that, very appropriately says "Mother" and it belonged to a dear friend's mother.

And speaking of heirlooms, I'm going to do a bit of what some of my bloggy friends call "shameless self-promotion." But besides promoting my creations I also just love to get feedback from you, my bloggy chums, as well!

So I finally finished a project I've had in the works since literally last Fall and I am just thrilled to pieces with how it turned out...and just in time for Mother's Day.

It's an "Heirloom Album" made entirely out of fabric in the "altered art" style I've come to enjoy so much. Each of the 12 pages has at least one pocket in which to tuck special notes, a child's drawings, treasured photos, precious momentos and the like. It is just loaded with vintage images of mothers and children, delicious vintage and new trims and lace, plus HOURS and hours of hand-embroidery. I can hardly bear to part with it but I've promised myself I'm going to make one similar to this but in my curtain fabric so I can leave it out on the table in the living room where the children can page through it, as well. This is the sort of album your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will enjoy poking through for many, many years....

Here's the cover...

And now for the inside pages...And now some detailed shots...

If you are interested in purchasing this book, you can go HERE. You can also see MUCH bigger photos there, too!

I'll be back tomorrow with Monday Yummies so meet me back here for those!

Love and Hugs,
Cheryl

Discovering Tea

My family heirlooms are not what you'd call "typical." At least, they don't seem typical to me. When I think about other people's heirlooms I imagine some of the pieces I've lusted over in the antique store that made me wish someone in my family had saved something like them for me. I don't have many of that sort of heirloom but what I do have is very precious to me, and I hope, will be to my children and grandchildren in the future. Today I want to tell you about one of my dearest family heirlooms and a new family tradition which are related both to one another and, in a round-about way, to TEA.

*Photo above by Whitney Ensom

Let me first explain our new tradition. It all started with Rachel's tea-party-themed birthday party last month. It was fun to plan, the event itself was a blast and it was deemed a grand success by all. My youngest sister, Laura Joy, was here to help with bathing the birthday girl, helping party guests choose what would go on their hat and then washing up the dishes while I said good-bye to each little guest. She loaded the dishwasher but there were still dishes left that wouldn't fit so she hand-washed the tea cups and saucers, turning each one upside down on a towel to dry.


I'm embarassed to say that these tea cups and saucers were STILL THERE the next afternoon, looking so pretty laid out all in a row, just as I imagine the sideboard of a Victorian lady's kitchen might look after a sweet tea party. That's when inspiration struck. I had been casting about for some time for a way to spend time with my girls in a positive way that would be conducive to conversation and that could become normal in a habitual sort of way, hopefully lasting well into the days of later girlhood when open conversation between girls and their mothers can become rather strained. The tea cups and saucers were there, and so was the inspiration...so I dove in.

"Would you girls like to have a tea party?" I asked my daughters. Their eyes lit up.

Since that day we have missed only about 4 days of our now-daily "tea party." That means we have already had a couple dozen of these informal but precious affairs and it has become, really and truly, a habit. I hesitated to tell you about it here on the blog right at first, just in case we fell off and stopped doing it. But it has continued and I don't see it stopping.


Here's what happens. Miss Emily walks in from school about 2:35. We live across the street from the school and I could very nearly throw her into the schoolyard from my own yard so it is a very nice, safe arrangement. One of us, usually Emily says, "Let's have our tea party!" (which is so much nicer to hear than her former whined, "I'm huuuuuungry....."). I ask for the t.v. to be turned off and the girls to wash their hands while I gather up the tea things. Since I got my Vintage Party Swap package from Natalea we've gotten even a little bit more fancy, but our tea parties always involve a real tea cup and saucer for each person and a plate of snacks for us to share. I didn't intend for this, but it has become a very fun, relaxed way to learn good manners! We talk about "tea party manners" and have fun reminding one another to keep our feet off our chairs, not talk with our mouths open and say "excuse me!" when burping. We all make fun of Andrew, who is 18 months, and MUST attend our tea parties but who does very "un-tea-party-ish" things like throwing food, yelling and putting his feet on the table. The girls of course think this is hysterical and enjoy telling him how "rude" he is, which he of course giggles at. We ask one another how our days have been, hear stories of Emily's school adventures and just spend time talking with one another. I had no idea how wonderful this would be and how much the girls would enjoy it...or how much I would enjoy it. "Tea" is of course just juice or water in a tea cup but one of the girls acted surprised the other day when they saw me putting water in their tea cup. "I thought it was tea!" she said, which shows just how magical this whole thing really is.
And then, just the other day, I found the card. If you were sitting here beside me while I tell you about this, you would notice me getting a little teary at this point in the story.

We are still bringing things in from our garage that we have had in storage from the move, including some boxes we had on high shelves in the old house and just pulled down, loaded up and put in the new garage without looking through them. But now we are bringing these boxes in, going through them to see if we want to save the contents, and finding new homes for things here in the house. We have found all sorts of fun "treasures," as you can imagine, but one of the more special finds was an envelope that said "To My Darling Daughter" in my handwriting.


I opened it up of course and read the card. The date on the card is 1995 and I wrote it as an almost-freshman in college while on a family vacation in Monterey. The "darling daughter" I refer to in this card was of course only in my dreams at that point. But now, in 2008, I tear up when I read it, because now I am the mother to not one but two darling girls. Here's just a snippet, which of course gave me chills when I read it. It was written by a very young 18-year-old who was no doubt idealizing motherhood, having "baby cravings" and feeling emotional about her future. But it's me.

The card makes reference to a miniature teaset I bought that day in 1995, with my then-fictitious daughter in mind. I found that teaset right before Rachel's party in February and though I couldn't remember at the time where I'd gotten it, I remembered that it was significant in some way. It turned out to be perfect for the "doll table" at Rachel's party, which you may remember from in these photos from the party.


So when I found the card, I realized how very special this little tea set is and I've displayed it on our side table in the dining room. And though it's precious to me, it's also fair game for little people to play with, since that is what it was intended for, after all! You can see from this photo, which I SWEAR I didn't stage, that even Andrew understands what a teacup is for! In the middle of playing with trucks he went and got this tea cup (and saucer!), brought it over to the coffee table and promptly began having his own tea party! Needless to say, I grabbed the camera as quickly as I could!! I promised more posts about "family heirlooms" this week and this may be the only one for this week. We've got a house full of sickies here, unfortunately, and blogging may not happen again for a few days. But I promise to get back to this subject next week, since I have lots more to show and tell!

In the meantime, grab a couple tea cups, someone you love and start a tradition...

p.s. Look at this sweet little graphic from Heather of Pretty Petals! LOVE IT!

Yummy Monday!

Let me begin by telling you a story. This story begins (as all good stories do!) with a little girl. This particular little girl was called Polly, short for Pauline, and she was the daughter of a wealthy Southern gentleman and lady in the 1930's. Little Polly was very loved and she knew it. She was the sort of girl who didn't doubt that she was special, smart and pretty because she was made to feel that way every day of her little life. Not only that, she was blessed to have three meals each day and all the best clothes and toys. Her grandchildren would, many years later, exclaim over a photo of ten-year-old Polly standing in front of a miniature, child-sized Southern mansion....Polly's "playhouse." She was petted and pampered in all the right ways until the sad day that her mother died. At the age of 12, Polly's father remarried a horrible woman who was cruel to Polly from the get-go, a real-life version of the storybook "Wicked Stepmother." Not only did this woman not love Polly as her own, she arranged to have her sent to a boarding school and then systematically and completely removed any and all vestiges of Polly's mother's life from the home. Photos of Polly's mother were discarded. When Polly returned from boarding school on holiday, all (I do mean ALL) of her dolls, toys and childhood treasures were GONE. It was simply no longer her home.

Polly was my maternal grandmother and fortunately all this pain and misfortune only served to make her stronger. She grew up to be a beautiful, smart and loving woman who married a handsome colonel and raised my mother and two other children all over the world while her husband served in the U.S. Army. Though you'd hardly know she had had such a difficult childhood, there were a few clues to her past. One was that she saved EVERYTHING and encouraged her children to do the same. She knew too well what it meant to have her possessions, childhood treasures and even her MEMORIES stolen from her, and she never wanted her children to feel that pain.

Suffice it to say, I am Polly's granddaughter! I save a little bit too much of everything and am afraid to throw away what might be a treasure someday. Perhaps this is what started my love of all things "vintage." We moved a lot in my childhood and as a result I don't have a "childhood home" like my husband has or like my children will have. But there were always certain objects and certain traditions that went with us all over the world when we moved from place to place that served to make our various houses, "Home."

Heirlooms are those objects that remind us of the past and hold not just material value but also emotional value. This is what Polly didn't have as a grown-up but wanted so much for her children and granchildren. When she knew she was dying of cancer she carefully labeled even tiny knick-knacks with her children and grandchildren's names. She wanted no one to be left without something to treasure from her life. Unfortunately that came mostly from fear. She knew what is was like to be without those memories...those heirlooms...and she wanted to save us that pain. I also want to cherish even simple objects that hold meaning and to pass that love of the past on to my children, but my desire is that this will come from a joyful place, rather than a place of fear. I want our family's heirlooms to honor and celebrate the goodness of the past, spark memories and serve to continue the tradition of love in our family.

All week I'm going to blog about Family Heirlooms, showing you piccys of some of my most treasured pieces from my own home and sharing the stories of why they're precious to me.

But TODAY I'm going to take you on a Monday Yummies trip to see some of the sweetest things I've seen lately that have the potential of being an heirloom for your own family or a special friend. They come from all over and don't have any particular "theme," except that something about them touches my heart. Though the thing about an object that makes it an heirloom is never purely aesthetic beauty, there is something closely akin to beauty that I think of as "charm" that sets certain items apart for me. Something about each of these yummy treasures is aesthetically beautiful. Most of them are simple, many echo the beauty we enjoy in nature and most of them are handmade. Even if you don't purchase these yummies, I hope they inspire you, charm you and make your heart warm.

So let's go!

YUMMY THING ONE: Homer Laughlin Soup Bowl from Southern Lady Vintage

This bowl is just lovely. I love this pattern and though I'm not usually a fan of blue in my decorating, I would make an exception if I could find a whole set of this china. Incredible. But even just one piece would be sweet as a "berry bowl" or somesuch. I love the idea of certain pieces of china for certain uses so that children (and mamas!) associate a piece with a host of associated memories.

YUMMY THING TWO: Amelia by Bettsi

I had a doll similar to this one as a child, handmade by a favorite great-aunt. One of my goals this Spring is to get the boxes of dolls and keepsakes out of my parents' attic. My girls are going to DIE when they see my dolls.

YUMMY THING THREE: Mama & Baby by Chickabiddy Baby

Aren't these precious? So perfect for a new baby.

YUMMY THING FOUR: "Little Mother" Bessie Pease Gutman Print from The Velvet Rabbit

This is one of my favorite vintage prints. I have a whole series of prints by Gutman, including this one, all featuring little girls and their dolls. They are so sweet and touching, inspired by Gutman's own daughter. My friend, Pat, is offering this vintage print as a large fabric block and a matching print in this listing, which is perfect for making your own heirlooms...picture this as a pillow on your little girl's bed and the print framed above it!

YUMMY THING FIVE: Incredible Mother & Baby Bust
This speaks for itself, doesn't it? Such a sweet picture of Motherly Love.





YUMMY THING SIX: The Path to Home by Edgar Guest


Though I'm not crazy about the colors, frame, etc., I love this poem and think it deserves to be embroidered in sweet, Cheryl-ish colors, don't you? :)


Here's what the verse says:
The world with myriad paths is lined
But one alone for me--
One little road where I may find
The charms I want to see.
Though thoroughfares majestic call
The multitudes to roam
I would not leave, to know them all
The path that leads to Home.

Well that's it for this week's Monday Yummies! I hope you enjoyed these as much I do. Come back later this week and chat with me about heirlooms and what they mean to us. And I'd love to see any of your family heirlooms, if you'd like to share them! So post them on your blog and I'll link to them this week, if you like.

Hugs,

Cheryl :)

Freshly-Baked!

Good Morning, Sweets! Hope you are having a lovely weekend. There is major construction going on outside but my girls are gone with Grandma to visit their cousin and my son is down for his nap, so I have stolen a few moments to spend some time with YOU!
Part of my "hiatus" from blogging involved a break from custom orders while I worked hard on the "surprises" I've been hinting about. I'm not ready to reveal those yet, but I AM ready to begin taking some custom orders again. With Spring knocking at the door and Summer close behind, I've been planning my little "dolls'" wardrobe and I know you have been doing the same. I have a few of my "classic" styles available, plus a couple newer styles I'm offering for the first time this season! You can see those in my etsy shoppe. Keep in mind that though you see these on mostly baby onesies and listed in my etsy shoppe as 0-24 months, I can and DO embroider these sweet vintage motifs on ANY size garment and in many styles and hues. I order my knits from a fabulous company that has LOADS of sweet knit tops, pants, dresses, etc. in all sizes, including grown-up sizes. So truly anything can be made for your little DOLL in the style and motif of your choice. Just contact me and we will chat about what your "tastes"!

I love flickr and really enjoy playing with flickr "toys" as well. I played around with some of my favorite embroidery motifs I've done and made a fun mosaic with some of the photos. Click on it to view it larger or go here to see it larger.
1. Rose Bower Romper, 2. Tweet Tweet!, 3. Mabel & Abel, 4. Gilbert & Grace, 5. Amos & Aggie, 6. Sweetest Kitty Dress, 7. Buttercream Bebe, 8. Cabbage Rose, 9. Embroidered Smock Top, 10. Just Mabel, 11. Just Amos, 12. Flower Fairy

I've also got some sweet cotton skirts in the works in some yummy fabrics so stay tuned for those, as well. My "big girls" love to wear them in Summer with a simple tee and I have to say it's one of my favorite looks on little girls, as well!

And I'm curious....what are YOU working on? I'm hopping around to as many blogs as I can, trying to catch up on what's going on with you and yours! But if I haven't made it by your spot, I promise I will try to be there SOON.

Hugs to you!

Cheryl :)

I'm BAAAAAAAAACK!

Well Hello, Sweets! It's so good to SEE you! I'm throwing my cyber-arms around your cyber-neck and giving you a big SQUEEZE because I've missed you so much! What a long time it's been since I've been here last! I have been on a "Bloggy Break" for about 3 weeks and it has been really great. I finished up not one but TWO swaps, worked on not one but TWO big surprises that I'm going to unveil in just a couple more weeks and spent some lovely time with my own little family. It's going to take a few posts to "catch up" but I'm going to do a little bit of that today and then go from there!

FIRST, I want to thank you SO VERY MUCH for the precious responses you left on my last post about my friend, Marianna and her son, Andrew. I forwarded them to Marianna and she thanks you, as well. She updated me the other day and it seems an elderly lady passed away and her children are selling Marianna's family the exact same model of wheelchair lift that was stolen for a fraction of the $8,000 a new one could cost. It's still very pricey but doable because of the generous contributions being recieved by the person in charge of the new "Andrew Teller Fund" established in Andrew's name. The Tellers are floored by the outpouring of generosity, goodwill and kind sentiments from you and lots of people locally in the South Bend, Indiana area. So for those of you who left a comment, said a prayer or donated funds in Andrew's name, THANK YOU. Marianna, her family and I are all very grateful to each one of you.

Next, I want to show you the incredibly yummy swap gifts I got from the sweet Natalea Kandefer of (here's her shoppe: Kandeland). We were paired up for Artsy Mama's "Vintage Party Swap" and had such fun creating party pretties for one another! I asked for "tea-party"-themed items and oh boy did Natalea deliver!!! Wowzers! Look at what this sweetie sent me....

Here's how it arrived. Soooooo yummy and pretty, right? And when I pulled back the pretty papers, look what I found!

Here's a list of what I found inside this incredible package:

-"Tea Room" sign

-Vintage tea cup and saucer

-Vintage milk glass (hobnail) sugar and creamer

-5 tiny tea spoons

-Bag of raw sugar sticks (so cute!)

-Honey sticks
-Treat "pedastal" dish

-Two gorgeous tea-cup cards (blank)

-A book about the history of tea

-A magazine about tea

-Tea-cup-shaped cookie cutter

-TEA!

Isn't that all so beautiful and perfect for me??? I am particularly fond of tea parties and even more so lately, but that's for another blog! ;)

And now here's what I sent Miss Natalea. She has a two-year-old daughter who will turn 3 in the Fall so she asked for party items for the upcoming festivities. Here's most of what I sent her:

-Favor bags

-Party supplies (plates, cups, streamers)

-Vintage pink rose-shaped napkins

-Altered pink satin hanger (for the bday girl's party frock!)

-Altered candle holder

-10 tiny "ladies" in pink

-Vintage Holly Hobbie honeycomb tabletopper

-Vintage girl's straw hat

-One of my "signature" ;) birthday cake tags

What a fun swap! Thank you , Kari, for hosting this one!

And just last week I was sweetly surprised by this incredible gift package from the dear Joni of Vintage 1955. I featured a darling vintage spindle of lace a few weeks ago and she sent me this gift to say "thank you." Isn't that so kind of her? Just LOOK at the detailed (sewn!) tag that topped the package... And vintage goodness inside!

In addition to swaps I've been working on not one but TWO big surprises that I am going to reveal in just a little while. These are not little surprises! THEY'RE HUGE! Here is just a HINT....

There is also some construction going on over here. I have mentioned before that we built our house next to my inlaws last year. The plan has always been that my father-in-law would have a HUGE garage/shop built on part of "our" property and that we would all share it. He has always wanted a bass boat and this garage will be home for the new boat! So this last week the foundation was poured and the wood was delivered. James and his dad will work on building this monstrosity over the next few months and James will learn a thing or two about wood-working. Andrew was quite excited about the digging, tractoring and dumping of cement that went on here. Here's a really bad photo of him looking on while the cement was poured....

Oh and here's a couple piccys of the day trip James and the kids (read: NOT ME! I HAD A BREAK!) took to Yosemite. We live in Central California where we are literally 2 hours from the gorgeous California coast and less than an hour from the mountains. It's only about 2 hours to Yosemite National Park which is just GORGEOUS and a must-see if you're ever visiting here. People come from all over the world to see it. James and I used to go up there for hikes and day trips when we were dating and even got engaged up there! But on this day it was just James and the kids...

Just look at that sky.

Pretending to fish???
Those little dots by the water are the girls and you can see the waterfall (one of them!) waaaay up there on the mid-right...
Beautiful.
I claim no responsibility for Emily's hat. It seems it was in the bag with the hats and mittens??? Kinda Little Miss Muffet-ish, dontcha think?? :) Emily took this shot of James and Andrew. James sometimes wears a beanie at night in the winter so when he put this on at Yosemite, Rachel asked, "Daddy, why are you wearing your jammie hat??"
In the piccy below you can of course see Andrew in the backpack and the girls in the stroller but in the BACKGROUND is Half Dome WHICH I HIKED WHEN WE WERE DATING! Holy...um cow...that was hard! All in the name of love, I tell you...I was VERY MUCH in love at the time and it was seriously 12 hours of the hardest hiking I have ever done in my life. What a feeling to be on top of that peak, though! And here's Andrew in the late afternoon....all tuckered out!
I wish I had a shot of Happy Mama, cleaning and crafting away at home while the rest of the family played in the mountains but I don't! But wow...what a great thing to have a husband who WANTS to take the kids for the day and give me a break. All you mamas know how necessary this is and what an extra treat it is to not have to "take" the breaks or insist upon them. I just love that guy!

I'm going to stop there for today! Phew! That was a lot for one post! Back to work I go. Hope you are each having a lovely Thursday. Tonight is Open House at the school and Emily will be participating in the May Pole dance. She is quite insistent that I bring the camera along tonight but not to take pics of her winding the May Pole. Oh no! She wants me to take pictures of the INSECTS in her classroom. Ewwwwwww.....