A few years ago, when my Grandmother passed away, my family found itself faced with the task of dividing her estate. We're not talking like, "I'll take the summer home in the Hampton's and you can have the cabin in the Rockies," but rather, "Do you want the plates with the butterflies or the pink couch?". Our 1200 square foot bungalow didn't have much room for her collection of about 200 angels or a gigantic entertainment center for an old tube television, so we found ourselves seeking out the little things. Angela found a few pieces of vintage jewelry that were just coming back into style, and I happily took Grandpa's old dented green metal toolbox filled with all the basic tools and even a "church key" inside for the really hard jobs.
As we looked through Grandma's things, and memories associated with each item came back to our minds, Angela and I went down to the basement. While down in the depths of the earth, we stumbled upon a giant treasure chest filled with wonders. It was actually the chest that her family used when they immigrated to America from Germany, and she had recently been using it to store all her sewing supplies and fabric scraps. There were tons of great swatches, from years past, that would be quite difficult to find in stores today. Unfortunately, many of the fabric swatches were rather small, but I knew Angela would find something creative to do with them. We loaded them up, happy to have found our treasure.
Fast forward to today. Well, it took a while, but we found a great use for some of those small fabric scraps and we thought the idea fit in great with this months theme of "reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle." See I'm Busting My Stash Up This Month and Going Green for more info. Grandma's leftover fabric scraps are now our nightly dinner napkins.
As we looked through Grandma's things, and memories associated with each item came back to our minds, Angela and I went down to the basement. While down in the depths of the earth, we stumbled upon a giant treasure chest filled with wonders. It was actually the chest that her family used when they immigrated to America from Germany, and she had recently been using it to store all her sewing supplies and fabric scraps. There were tons of great swatches, from years past, that would be quite difficult to find in stores today. Unfortunately, many of the fabric swatches were rather small, but I knew Angela would find something creative to do with them. We loaded them up, happy to have found our treasure.
Fast forward to today. Well, it took a while, but we found a great use for some of those small fabric scraps and we thought the idea fit in great with this months theme of "reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle." See I'm Busting My Stash Up This Month and Going Green for more info. Grandma's leftover fabric scraps are now our nightly dinner napkins.
What a great way for us to remember Grandma at every meal, decorate our home with a little bit of charm, and also to keep a few more items out of the landfill.
- Joshua Flicker
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3 comments:
Great Idea! I might just have to do the same with my "stash" of grandmas old fabrics.
-Kristi
They really do make cute little napkins. I love the vintage, mismatch look they offer to a table.
Those are just beautiful and it must be like having her with you still.
Lovely mix of colors.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful story.
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