{31 Days to Make a House a Home} Day 25 ~ Use Your Heirlooms

Do you have any family heirlooms? 

If you do, may I suggest that you get them out and use them?  If you don't, there are no family memories attached to them, so they won't mean anything to those who will have them next. 

My great aunt told me over and over about the "moss rose tea set" that I was to have.  It had been her mother's (my great-grandmother's) and she treasured it highly.  But when she gave it to me, I put it on a corner cupboard in my dining room...and there it sat for many years.  It received a weekly dusting, some admiration, and that was about it.  

A few years ago, I decided that our own family should have some "history" with the tea set too, so on Kati's sixteenth birthday, we carefully washed each piece, and used it to serve tea to her party guests.  Of course, I did not want anything to be broken, but I was willing to risk it for the sake of the special occasion, the sense of family connection, and the simple pleasure of using the beautiful heirloom. 

I also have a set of silver spoons that belonged to some ancestor on my mother's side.  These spoons were wrapped in a piece of flannel in my sideboard...until the day of a family party when I decided to unwrap them, put them in a little crock, and use them for stirring cream and sugar in the coffee.  These spoons are engraved with mysterious initials..."mysterious" because we cannot decipher them!  At many family gathering since then, we have guessed and figured at those initials, and we still have not come to any consensus.  But that just adds to the fun of using these family pieces. 

I have a couple of treasures from my paternal grandparents.  One is my grandmother's sewing basket, which I use for storing ribbon and trim.

 

The other is this table with bamboo legs (I wonder where it came from) that we have had on our back porch for I don't know how long. 

Your "heirlooms" don't have to be valuable (most of mine aren't!).  They don't have to be family pieces.  For goodness' sake...they don't even have to be old!  They can be new or thrifted pieces that you have deemed to be special.

But do try to use your special pieces from time to time...to appreciate beauty, to create family memories, and to make your house a home. 

Imagine my surprise when I read this post today by Brenda at Coffee Tea Books and Me.  We seem to be thinking along the same lines!  Hop on over and read her wise words about "using the good stuff".