Managing Collections

Sometimes it is challenging to know what to do with collections. After all, we don't live in museums, but homes instead. Collections sometimes take over and there is no comfortable place left to live. A friend once took me to her mother-in-laws home where I enjoyed a tour that I will never forget! It was a beautiful Queen Anne home, filled to the gills with appropriate period antiques. Elegance, beauty, and style were melded together in such a way that it took a few minutes for me to register that I was in the home of a "hoarder". Everything was neat and tidy, but there were only pathways of open space that led from room to room. I really had a hard time determining where the family actually lived. I remember a space at the breakfast nook where I believe the mister of the home resided. I wonder, did he have a man cave in the garage as well? So, how does one go about collecting and keeping balance in their lives? I can hear a couple of my friends giving a friendly snicker as they read this. I love my collections and how objects connect me to my heritage. Let's just say I work hard at not becoming the hoarder of elegance, beauty, and style that my friend's mother-in-law became.

How do you store or display your collections? Here are a few ideas that can help us figure new ways to store the things we love and enjoy.

~ a small wall display case for thimbles

~ china closets and hutches for china, teacups, and teapots

~ old farm implements hung on exterior walls of a barn or shed

~ antique yardsticks hung on the walls of a workshop

~ T-shirts with logos that feature the growing up years of a son that are made into a quilt

~ a bookmark collection stored in a shoebox

~ old books in a bookcase

~ photos and stamp collections in albums

~ silver teaspoons in a glass pitcher that's displayed on a counter top

~ old postcards in a wooden case

It's easy to get carried away when collecting and gathering. There are times that a collection needs to be sifted through and refined. An object that was valuable to you 10 years ago may now be superseded by a more recent find. It's an opportunity to sell some of the items you no longer cherish, or use them to give to another who is just starting a collection. Occasionally it is difficult to let something go, so finding a technique or tactic that helps you release an object is helpful. Photographing objects and placing pictures of them in an album can be helpful in this case. A picture and a short description can go a long ways in helping you pass along a collectible treasure.

What techniques do you use to help you keep your collections under control?

A Collection

"One teacup is simply...

a teacup. 

Two teacups is service for two. 

But if you take those two teacups, 

arrange them on a glass shelf with a lace scarf, 

and perhaps add a third to keep them company, 

you have something more than the sum of three teacups. 

You have something that can brighten 

your living space and embellish your memories. 

With a teacup or three and an idea for the future, 

you have a collection --- or the beginnings of one. 

And a collection doesn't have 

to be teacups,  of course. 

In fact, if an object exists on this earth 

in quantities more than one, 

the odds are that someone, 

somewhere 

has 

collected 

it."

Emilie Barnes

Heirlooms & Memories

"You can create new heirlooms, and the memories that make them special, just by owning them."

Elaine Markoutsas

Autumnal Equinox, Coats, & Tea

There's a chill in the air. A weather change has taken place with the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox has signaled a change of seasons. Leaves are turning a golden brown and there's morning dew on the lawn each day. A friend nearby reported freezing conditions at her place this morning and is spending today completing harvest of her garden produce, as two more nights of below freezing temperature are forecast. These are the kinds of days when tea is best taken hot and when one starts finding jackets and coats that have been lining the back of closets for the past six months.

Speaking of coats, my mind wanders to coats and fashion. As a child, sis and I had a "good coat" that lasted one season, usually more. Two years out of a "good coat" was considered the norm. It was not a jacket, but a full-length coat that went well over the dresses that we wore to church and school. A jacket was needed for casual wear, but casual meant hiking, working in the garden, or camping wear. It was rare that a jacket was worn around town, to school, or church. On a daily basis, when we needed warmth, it was our dress coat that we wore. Is that how it was for you as well? Sis and I had simple coats, sometimes adorned with double-breasted gold buttons or a zip-on hood. In those days, fur was starting to go out of fashion unless it was fake and fuzzy! 

I used to enjoy looking at pictures of women in coats from days gone by. I still do! Such fashion flair they had! A coat was a very important item in the wardrobe! In the top photo you can see two pictures of Aunt Pansy. She always had such style! Her fox cape and muff were in high style, I'm sure, but would not be politically correct in our day. The second photo is one I rescued from a sale bin at a local thrift store. I have no idea who the people are, but the photo just seemed important to save and treasure. Look at those fashionable coats! I wonder what the occasion was for this photo op? Do you think they went inside for afternoon tea? So much to wonder about.

Think back in time to all the coats you have owned. Which was your favorite? And why? Can you describe it?

The Joy of Family Recipes

Do you have a kitchen collection? There are so many things one could collect. Antique kitchen gadgets, silver spoons, tea strainers, crystal glassware, and more. Some things cost a pretty penny to collect! And other things are free. The free things are the best, because they usually harbor memories or bits of history. These things are priceless. Recipes that are passed down from mother to son, grandmother to granddaughter, or great-uncle to your favorite cousin are not only measurements, words, and instructions. They are also a very tangible piece of family history and lore. Additionally, taste buds can create very strong emotional responses when it comes to family recipes! Therefore, family recipes are really worth the effort it takes to gather and transcribe them.

Sometimes these recipes come with stories. In our family, some recipes immediately remind us of aunties or a grandmother who specialized in making a specific dish. And sometimes they come sprinkled with a but of humor. One of my dear aunts always baked the most delicious "crumb buns". They were a white and delicious yeast roll that was dipped in milk and then a crumb mixture of flour, vanilla, sugar, and milk before being set to rise and bake. Oh, they were so good! Dear aunt would always pack a lunch for us after a trip to visit her. She packed our lunch in colorfully painted tins, and one tin always contained a good supply of her "crumb buns". When I became a teen, I decided that I should learn to bake "crumb buns" myself. Mostly dear aunt cooked from memory, never really following a recipe in a book or card. But she was willing to assist in helping new cooks to learn, so she would carefully measure ingredients the next time she made a requested dish in order to know amounts she used. Upon my request, she mailed me a neatly typed card which contained the measurements, ingredients, and instructions for baking her famous rolls. I trusted dear aunt implicitly, not once questioning her choice of ingredients. But my "crumb buns" simply fell flat! Upon further analysis, I discovered that dear aunt and I had both left out the yeast! She on the written card, and me in the bowl! Oh dear! They were a total flop! Later, dear aunt and I would laugh over this adventure many times. She thought anyone would know to add yeast, even if she had left it out. And she was correct. I'd spent many Sunday afternoons since 4th or 5th grade, baking bread for the family's food needs for the upcoming week. I should have been experienced enough to know.

Recipes can go in notebooks, recipe boxes, computers, cookbooks, scrapbooks, and more. My recipe gathering habit has me take advantage of many methods of storage. No matter how organized and efficient one is, I suggest that at least one box be available on the kitchen counter where recipes can be "stuffed" as they are discovered or received. My box is a recipe storage container that is from the Martha Stewart line. It's a beautiful faded green and holds quite a bundle of recipe papers and cards. Someday the recipes here will go into a notebook in order to make room for the next batch of recipes collected. How do you store your recipes?

Remembering and Grandmother's Kitchen

I've recently been looking for a copy of a book that shares short stories from the life of my great-great grandfather and my grandmother.  Great-grandfather is a man whom I have read about online, and of whom I have heard stories from my father, my aunt's, and my grandmother's sisters.  He must have been an amazing man because stories about him share of strength of character and fortitude.  He was a farmer by trade, but at sometime in his life, he converted from his Mennonite religion to a different evangelical one.  His focus became his strong belief in sharing God's word and the prophecy's that spoke of the nearness of end times, so in addition to farming, he became a traveling evangelist.  Life was hard in those days, and women often found life's events ones that caused illness and death.  As a result, great-grandfather ended up having three wives in his lifetime, and with each wife he had a separate group of children.  My grandmother, Katie, was one of four daughters born to the first wife.  I don't remember Grandma sharing too many stories about her youth, as I was young in her later years and we sometimes found communication between her German and my English difficult.  She was the type who never complained, so might not have shared of all her experiences anyway.  Her sisters, on the other hand, were women who didn't have any such scruples and in later years shared many stories of life as daughter's of the first wife.  I'm pretty sure these stories were shadowed by a little bit of bias, but I don't mean to discount them either.  I'm sure they are true, although slightly embellished with the perspective of their youth.  They tell stories of their step-mothers that are reminiscent of Cinderella.  The second wive's children were many and, according to Grandmother's sisters, very coddled.  The four older girls of the first wife were expected to work hard in areas that their younger half-siblings were not asked to partake.  Which brings me to the reason why there is a picture of my kitchen at the beginning of this post.  I cannot help but compare the modern luxuries of this day to the kitchen my grandmother and her sisters had to work in.  Their stove was heated with wood, and during the summer and autumn months the days were hot.  To keep the house as cool as possible, a summer kitchen was constructed a distance from the house.  It was the job of grandmother and her sisters to cook all the meals for harvesters and farm help.  The farmers in their Manitoba community would share the job of harvesting their crops by assisting one another.  It appears that great-grandfather's oldest daughters did all the cooking for the crews as the neighbor's harvested the crops of one another.  How interesting it was to hear, in later years, of women in their 70's and 80's sharing about the sweltering hot kitchen and of all the delicious foods they prepared there, and all completely from scratch.  These were not soup and sandwich meals, but rather the German dishes that were quite expected of them, as the farmers worked hard and must be fed accordingly.  Water had to be drawn, heated on the stove, and dishes washed by hand.  Baking and cooking on a wood stove during hot summer days must have been agonizing to them.  No wonder their perspective might be slightly biased!  I'd like to say that my dear grandmother ended up with a house that contained every modern convenience.  But it was not to be.  All of my memories of visiting Grandma include visits to a sweet little cottage that had electricity, but no running water, nor indoor bathroom.  And in the kitchen was huge wood cookstove!  Neat as a pin, Grandma was one to never complain.  Her house was always neat and clean and you'd never know that she lived without the conveniences of her neighbors.  She was a dear.  I am happy to say that in her adult years she embraced her half-siblings without prejudice and I grew up knowing all of them as great-aunt and great-uncle.  She was much loved by them all.