Saturday, June 26, 2010

Memories in a handkerchief....

Did your grandmother have a huge collection of handkerchiefs? Mine did. She had them in all her pockets whether it was the apron she put on when she came home from work, her bathrobe or her house dress. She had plain ones for home and fancy ones for going out on the town or to church.She bought handkerchiefs as souvenirs of places she had visited. She didn't really travel much so some of her souvenir hankies are sort of funny....like from the next town over. She was always buying sets of hankies for my mother and for us kids. I don't think my mother ever used hers but she made us carry ours in our little patent leather pocketbooks. My mother much preferred the modern throw away tissues....but she thought we needed to learn how to be little ladies so we got the handkerchief treatment.
Does anyone use hankies any more? I occasionally see old men with them but I have to admit, thinking about what goes into one is enough to make one understand how the throw away version came about....;-)
Will hankies make a come back as we begin to think in greener terms? If you're looking for some fun ones to start your own collection, I have some listed here.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Dolls and Doll Houses

My family loved dolls and doll houses and over the years many wonderful additions were made to the old family doll house. I believe my niece has the actual doll house now but she put more modern furniture in it than what I had that was handed down by my mother.These little dolls were not ours, neither was the blue table set. They belonged to the older woman whose house we just cleared out for the estate sale. I believe the dolls on top are from the early 1980s and the ones below were made in the 1970s since the books that were with them were dated from then.
Most of the clothes are handmade and sewn right onto the little dolls.
This wooden doll house furniture was my mom's in the 1940s, then mine, then my kids. No one wants it any more and every time I see it stored away I think someone should be enjoying it...

I have lots more to list over the next few weeks. It is a bittersweet process to be sure....

Thursday, June 17, 2010

More stickers....

Going through my grandmother's old sticker box is sort of like an archeological dig through my childhood...for example, these stickers take me back, way back, to elementary school....We used stickers all the time on our envelopes, gifts, etc. but especially so at holiday times. Halloween wasn't a big commercial day like it seems to be now so these stickers were a very special treat. My grandmother bought little books of stickers whenever she found them so she had Thanksgiving stickers, Valentine's Day, even Mother's Day stickers...
I thought these were especially cute....

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Do you remember these?

One of my favorite things about opening my vintage shop on Etsy is getting to look at old things and remember some of the funny and sweet things about my grandmother, my mother and other members of my family that are no longer with us.

These staplers not only reminded me of my grandmother today but of sitting in my third grade classroom hoping I would not be called upon to staple something. Did you have trouble with staplers as a kid? I sure did....they jammed, the staple came out crooked or the paper corner got all messed up. Sometimes the stapler fell on the floor making a huge racket. I just hated them. Today they are among my favorite things but seriously, they needed to give lessons on these things.
Did your family have a set of these little monks? I remember seeing them in lots of houses when I grew up. I lived in a pretty Catholic neighborhood and my own grandmother was raised Catholic although we were not. The Irish Catholics in particular used to have a great time poking a little fun at the priests and the brothers, as they called them and these little salt and pepper shakers were a subtle or maybe not so subtle a way to do that. It seemed every Irish family had a priest or a monk in the mix so the joshing was pretty harmless. These were popular around the same time as Toby jugs....
Are there funny little things that make you smile about your family when you see them?