Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Under 100: or Undiscovered Diamonds

Ok, so I forgot to contact the lady I want to highlight today, so it will have to wait until later....

Until then, I'm watching a movie with my kid who has another 2 hour delay today, and then I am going ice skating at the local rink.  I used to ice skate All.  The.  Time.  As a kid.  Seriously, dawn to dusk on the creek that ran through our front yard.  But I have not skated since college... so this should be... 'interesting'.

We have a pond across the lane that belongs to the Outlaw, but the surface really is up to the Gods, and they are not consistently kind.  So I get to do a tiny bit of skating on there, and it's truly perfect for teaching my son on, but for me to actually get a workout... not so much.

Skating, even the basic forward and backward crossovers and stroking, truly is excellent exercise, great for the legs, butt, back and core.  So I am heading to the local rink where the surface is more consistent and the size large enough for me to actually get some speed... I'm just hoping it is not too crowded.

Enjoy your morning!

Ok I admit I was looking at Blogs.
And I was reading Sharis [My Cottage of Bliss]  post about cleaning out her parents place... and I figured while I'm sitting here I could share some pictures of the items I found in my fathers barn I had to clean out last spring.  [ok scratching that because apparently my Mac needs another cup of coffee or a swift kick youknowwhere, cause all I get to do is scroll down 2 rows of pics and then sit for 2 minutes watching that spinning colorwheel thingamabob... today is apparently NOT my day]

Anyway... back to cleaning out my Dads barn.... Man it was cold in there, and the emotions of that task made me shiver even more... there was so much stuff and in each box there was junk mixed in with treasures.  Truly you had to look in EVERY box, and go through every item in each box.

I was really 'obsessed' with not losing one thing that was my families- there were items in there from my Great Grandparents and as I wrote in a previous blog, this task and these items really gave me a family connection I was seeking...

And just a note, trying to find these pictures reminds me that the computer and my files are just another 'room' to clean and organize... and I really need to get on it!  I need to sell something so I can buy a computer that can handle the functions I am asking it to do without having to put everything before committee...  *headdesk*

WHAT A DAY!!!  I will not go into details, let's just say not much else went right today...

Anyway, I finally found the pictures of some of my Grandmothers China


This is the cake topper from My Grandmother and Grandfathers wedding cake.


This bowl ended up being white, but this brown crud was on Every Single Piece.
It took soaking the pieces, and then cleaning with a toothbrush and in some cases running them through the dishwasher on the China setting to get them clean.


This was my Grandmothers good set of China, there are several pieces of this pattern












State Fair, 1906


This is my Great Grandmother and Grandfather on my Grandmothers side.
I have several items of theirs, including some poems and cards sent from one to the other before they were married.

Anyway, there were boxes and boxes of this stuff.  China that I unpacked, cleaned, photographed, and then rewrapped and boxed.  Photos- that I am still going through and trying to identify each person in.  A rug my Grandmother was working on, that is partially done.  Many of her crocheted items, including a bedspread I would really like to get repaired so I could use it.  Her cookbook she used at her wood fired iron stove.  The miniature of that stove that we kids played with, and her Punch and Judy metal bank- and I'm still anxious to break it open and see what coins are in there!  About 4 dressers, a miniature roll top desk, and several chairs I would like to get the seats recaned so they could be used.  There was only one of my grandmothers chairs, with the needlepoint seat she made to match her china.  

I think we made 4 or 5 trips there and home with loads of stuff.  Half my garage has been devoted to the items and the real challenge is finding a way to store them so that I can use them and rotate them on display in the Butler Pantry:




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