A Special Keepsake Made With Wedding Gown Lace

Earlier this year, while I was purging stuff in preparation for our move to the house in Hooterville, I mentioned in this post how I had made the decision to part with the wedding gown I wore when I married my hubby in 1972. 

 Before I let the dress go though, I cut off a small piece of lace and asked  Joy of Cupid’s Charm to incorporate it into a special keepsake.  Joy turns vintage jewelry, broken china, old silver spoons, vintage photos, papers, lace, crystals, pearls and sterling beads into the most beautiful and romantic pieces of jewelry you have ever seen.

When Joy was done working her creative magic, the charm bracelet below was the result.   

 

In addition to Swarovski crystals, pearls and sterling beads, she combined 3 heart-shaped charms made with broken china pieces and 4 charms containing lace from my wedding dress.

Let me tell you, the bracelet  is absolutely exquisite in person!  I am sure this gorgeous bracelet is destined to become a family heirloom.

Originally, I had planned to gift my daughter with this special bracelet on her 30th birthday next June.  However, I decided to give  it to her early so she could wear it to the special premiere event she attended last week in California.

If you pop over to Joy’s on-line shop to browse, don’t blame me if you want one of everything!  :)

Linking up to:

Metamorphosis Monday #132 @ Between Naps on the Porch

Wow Us Wednesdays #25 @ Savvy Southern Style

Show & Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

A Little Purging…A Little Packing…A Little Playing

October 30th was one year  since we bought the house in Hooterville.   It’s hard for me to believe it has been a year already. 

The renovations to the new house are far from done but we’ve made enough progress that the formal move is imminent and it’s now time to start the dreaded chore of packing. 

 

I’m quite sad about leaving My Cottage of Bliss.   Hubby and I have  lived here more than 35 years and  lots of memories have been made in this little house.   My childhood years were also spent  in this neighborhood…just 4 streets away. 

I’m attempting to lessen the  emotionality of it all  by taking baby steps and packing a little at a time but it’s still a challenge.

The first room to be significantly taken apart was my tiny, but cozy,  family room.   I have to tell you…

when it went from this…

to this…

the reality of the move hit me…hard. 

I am also completely overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we have accumulated in the 35 years we’ve lived here.     Sheeeesh!  It’s unbelievable.  Some days I feel like  it’s going to take another year to empty out this house. 

Knowing I already have way too much stuff I have to either purge or pack has  been  good motivation for me to drastically cut back on  my thrifting trips to  Goodwill,  since that’s where I seem to find things I really don’t need. 

One thing I almost always find impossible to pass up at Goodwill are random china pieces with pink roses.

For example…

               this  round, domed butter dish I found recently. 

Five dollars.

  

TOTALLY unnecessary but I ask you…

              for $5.00, how could I leave this beauty behind?

 

I’ve also developed a weakness for silver flatware, especially spoons.  I found these 7 Wm. Rogers & Son silver soup spoons at Goodwill for just $1.00. 

The pattern is very simple but they are bigger than my everyday flatware soup spoons and have a deeper bowl on them, which I like.   For some reason,  cereal, oatmeal and soup seems to taste a lot better when eaten with one of these spoons.  :)

 

 It was really dreary and rainy here today, which means cooler temperatures are finally on the way for us Floridians.  I had plans to start emptying  my china cabinet  today but I got a little side-tracked and did more playing than packing.   Just for fun, I plopped a few pretties (some of which were previous Goodwill finds) in my old childhood Easter basket and was so pleased with the results, now I don’t want to pack it up! 

Next week, some major changes will be taking place at the farm on the Craigslist barn.

Also, the tile I ordered for the bathroom renovation has come  in and I finally made a decision on a vanity so that project should be getting underway soon. 

Meanwhile, I’m still trying to get the house in Hooterville kitchen  painted and the backsplash done! 

Living Lighter Without So Much…STUFF

With the new year, I know many of you have been working on organizing the different areas of your home.

Several years ago, I made a vow to get rid of  the unnecessary STUFF and get organized in my own home.   After my parents had both passed away,  it took my sister,  my husband and me  SEVEN  full weekends to clean out the home where my parents had lived for more than 40 years.   The amount of STUFF they had accumulated through the years was overwhelming.  I decided right then and there that I never wanted my daughter to have to  deal with cleaning out an over-abundance of  STUFF her dad and I have saved through the years.

Well, much like the pain of childbirth, the time-consuming and overwhelming task of cleaning out my parents’ home was soon forgotten and the STUFF in my own home, garage and the backyard storage sheds     I/we  no longer used  or wanted  continued to sit untouched…

until…

a couple of months ago when I started packing for the move to the house in Hooterville.

I have been determined  to go through every closet, every drawer, every piece of paper, every storage box in the garage and sheds, every inch of this house and decide what to keep, toss, donate and sell BEFORE  it gets moved.   I refuse to take STUFF to the new house that we don’t want or use. 

Not surprising, after  38 years of marriage and 35 years in the same house,  this task has been equally as overwhelming as going through my parents’ home was.  Our garage has looked like a bomb went off in it ever since I started the sorting process.  Yikes!

However, this is the perfect opportunity to pare down and   move only  the STUFF that is most important to us.

In this process of purging, I have realized I’ve kept a lot of STUFF for sentimental reasons.  I still have my daughter’s crib.  (She’s 28 for pity sakes!)  I still have her childhood rocking chair and her little wooden table and chair set.  I also saved  her Teddy Ruxpin bear, her Cabbage Patch and American Girl dolls  and some of the other popular toys from her early years.  I feel a sentimental  attachment to them but I also thought perhaps someday, if my daughter had children of her own, they might like to have them.  I have come to realize these things have more meaning to me than they do to my daughter.  So…it’s time to let them go.

Teddy and some toys ready for the garage sale

I also still have my wedding gown from our wedding 38 years ago.   

If/when my daughter gets married, I’m sure she will want to pick out a wedding gown that is reflective of her taste and the current styles rather than  wear mine that is out of fashion, yellowed, stained and has a weird smell  after being packed away for so many years.  So why am I saving it?  It’s a HUGE dress with tier after tier of lace.  It weighs a ton and takes up a lot of space to store it.   It’s time to let the wedding gown go too. 

But, before I get rid of it, I do plan to cut a piece of the lace off  to be made into a special (smaller) keepsake…to appease the sentimental part of me.

It also occurred to me that I have kept a lot of STUFF because I’m afraid I might need it again someday.   Things I bought years ago and used for years have served their purpose but I continue to hold onto them…JUST IN CASE.  Heaven forbid…what if I might want it or need it again?!   In reality though, I’m finding I didn’t even remember I had most of this STUFF until I started going through the storage bins so, in all likelihood,  I’m sure I won’t even miss it after it’s gone.

As I continue to go through the process of deciding what to keep, toss, donate and sell, I still have a tendency to want to keep more than I should but I have weeded out an unbelievable amount of STUFF.  This is only about 1/3  of the STUFF that will be sold at our garage sale.  (Doesn’t look like much in the photo but in some places STUFF is piled up 3 feet high!)

We’ll be living a lot lighter and more organized in the house in Hooterville and I think it’s going to feel really good!

What about you?  Do you hold on to things because you are attached to STUFF, like me?  Or do you find it easy to let go of things you no longer want or need?