I Like Thursdays # 65 Dishing it up!

Welcome to this week's list of likes

 It's officially the start of the Christmas Season, according to these salt and pepper shakers given to me by my friend Nancy at pugmom. 

Although it's been in the 70's here near Annapolis... we walked past the marina in our neighborhood Sunday and this lovely view caught my eye

There are reasons we're leaving this neighborhood, but also things we'll miss that we've come to take for granted. We can walk past one of the three rivers off the Chesapeake Bay every day, and feel the breeze in our hair...

 This row of rocking chairs facing the water was inviting but we have a lot to do. We have to let go of the Annapolis area and reach out to the Colorado West!

We've been going through our belongings especially in the basement, or as I like to call it, the
 "archeological dig" 

 another gift from Nancy who gave me a box of her collected cows for Christmas last year! She'll remind me of the ocean! 

I have found some cool stuff! My sister gave me a number of boxes from the house we grew up in, and I never really looked through them until now. I found this set of dishes from my Granny's house. 

There is an almost intact set of china made by 

Brock of California Pottery. They only made these dishes between 1947 and 1955. I love their logo! I like most things from the 40's and 50's but these whimsical western dishes are so whimsical I love them. 

 I was adopted as a baby, my granny's daughter met my birth mother at granny's boarding house. I stayed at my granny's house many times, watching her hand piece quilts in her lap on the porch, learning to handle a sewing machine as soon as my pudgy little legs could reach the treadle. I loved the smell of the machine, the power I felt using it, the fabric going together like magic. 

My granny and I knew each other as adult and child. She might have been surprised to know how much I loved these kitschy  dishes with their whimsical shapes like tiny frying pans, and cute little tea cups. I know my family gave them to me because they didn't know what else to do with them, but they are a precious connection to a grandmother who harbored a young woman during her pregnancy in the 50's.

The very idea of a mover possibly breaking these or losing them in a move is part of my panic. I am sentimental and gather things for my nest like a magpie.

I love all the things left after the great purge of 2017.
These have never been handled by a mover, they went from Granny's house, to mother's, to Patti's, to mine handed off generation to generation.

They may look old to you, and they are, but so am I and it's okay to be old.
They are more than dishes, they are a connection to the past, like Granny's mother's treadle I learned to sew on, and still have. Like the top she pieced for me and left to me.

 All being entrusted to strangers.

Among the dishes, (and some mouse poop) were some little toys I played with as a child. Little fingers moving household furniture around my doll house. They looked bigger to me back then...

These came from the archeological dig, again in boxes brought to me by my sister but not gone through at the time. Too much emotion back then, but with the tincture of time I'm able now to see them more clearly. 

To remember how I felt as a child, to know that little girl with hopes and imagination and excitement at life is me. I remember the fun of finding that doll house in our old garage, and playing with the tiny furniture for hours. It's not as much fun to move big furniture around a house now. These days I want to write and create my artwork in a nest , not to constantly redo a nest. 

The movers say we have insurance but how could I replace these things? I don't know if I can take any more loss at this point.But... 

from my curly girl calendar

 And this page from my calendar this year reminds me...

I am a nest maker, not a mover. This is so difficult. The not knowing if it will be better there. The letting go. The trust of strangers with the collections I have spent years collecting. 

We took some time yesterday to do some of the things here we've put off for years. Like changing this cool switch cover to a plain one for whoever takes over this nest.

like putting back up the blinds in our bay window so the new owners will have some privacy... we always meant to do it after we got new windows...

it's interesting to see the house returning to a neutral palette with none of the personality I've given it.

Pictures of my labradaughter Chelsea in Newport RI

personal effects boxed up in preparation for life's changes.

Milo had a lot to like this week. He's pretty much out of that hobble brace, and has taken up position on the landing. Cole used to lie there too, in order to survey his domain.

This house has seen three dogs... Chelsea was with us here for a few months, then Cole spent his 14 years here, and now our baby Milo is here. Remember when these stairs were a challenge to tiny puppy legs? He was so proud to climb them to greet me in the mornings... unable to contain his glee that we all survived the night, unable to wait for me to come down, he climbed Mt Everest each morning.

Now he's a big tall boy who feels responsible to guard the house. When he disappears, it's to his new perch.

able to nap lightly in case a leaf blows outside, requiring barking alerts.

Milo: I love this nook! What a great place! I can see into the place food comes from, I can watch the front door, and Mama can't escape upstairs or to the bathroom without me knowing!
 Finally I'm in charge!
Believe me y'all, I keep my peeps informed! 

Whew, that's exhausting... better take a little nap. Go see the other people on Mama's list! Thanks for coming!

1. craftscaviescontras

2.. https://barrels-of-monkeys.blogspot.com/
3.. http://sandysnowden.blogspot.co.uk/
4.. http://whataboutrheema.blogspot.com/
5.https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/ 
6...http://homesewnbyus
7..http://littlepenguinquilts
8.http://imworkingonaproject
9..http://3poodlesandanana
10..maryinpeoriahandmade.blogspot.com
 
 

linking to some of these
Our World Tuesday
Travel_Tuesday 

http://sky watch Fridays
http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com
http://asoutherndaydreamer
Thankful Thursdays pet parade
http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com
http://itsasmalltownlife.blogspot.com/
http://shabbyartboutique.com
willy nilly Friday (random images)
habbyartboutique fridays