Shabby Chic Decorating with Your Family Heirlooms

The last few years, we have had a handful of deaths. Sad as it is, it leaves some of us lucky recipients to heirlooms that often mean so much to us. Something as simple as a spool of string all the way to pearls. There are things that are passed down thru families that mean a lot. I thankfully, come from a family of crafty and fashionable women that have left me treasures that most men would laugh about. But I know as I use those leftover beads on a pillow or other project, I'm using beads that were leftover from making my Great Aunt's wedding dress.

After my great grandmother moved in with my grandma, I helped my grandmother go thru most of my grandmothers things. She told me I could have much of what I wanted, I just had to ask. I proudly carried several boxes of laces, fabrics, trims, beads, you know name it, to my van and wasn't sure exactly what I'd do with it all, but I felt inspired. I also got most of my great grandma's costume jewelry, some that I wear, some that I put in with my craft stuff.

My grandma always gives me thing too. I hold onto it all. As I hold those scraps of ribbons and such in my hands, I can see those childhood moments of sewing with the woman of my life. I can feel my grandma hoovered over me, helping me sew together my first Barbie outfit when I was 4 years old. I don't want to pack it away, left in some box unseen. So, I've learned to start using some of my heirlooms to create items that I can display in my home...glimpses of my heritage throughout my house.

My latest heirloom combination is a pillow I made for my bed...just a pretty. No one is allowed to lay on it! But I used some yellow gingham that I bought on clearance for pennies, a doilies that my great-great grandmother made, and then the rose pin that has a ladybug on it. This belonged to my great grandmother. She had a thing about ladybugs and now I can't see one without thinking of her. I think this may be my most valued treasure that I received from her and I love that I see it several times a day and can think of her fondly.

When it came time to sew my pillow together, I reached for the turquoise spool of thread that I received when my grandpa's Aunt died. It sounds odd but, all I was really allowed claims to were pictures and some of the old spools of thread, trims, and tassels that were from her lampshade business. I only saw this woman once a year, when my grandparents flew in so I knew her personally very little. But I knew that she lived in a grande mansion that was built in the mid-late 1800 era and although I never got to see the four levels upstairs until after she died, I was always in awe of the finery of the downstairs. She appeared to have it all and then some. Gigantic chandeliers, the great room in pristine white and hints of sheer blue. It was classy. But that woman comes with one heck of an interesting history, including basically running a harem house during the depression when her lamp shade business couldn't sustain her lifestyle. She was a firecracker til the end. Spunky.

So I stitched my maternal great-great grandmothers dollie onto the gingham with thread (which amazingly matched perfectly) from my fraternal great-great Aunt. After I stitched my pillow together, I embellished it will baubles from my maternal great grandmother and can see pieces of people daily that I can see so much of myself in at times. It's comforting.

Now I'm hooked and planning out all sorts of projects to bring my heritage and beloved items out into the decor of my home so that I can enjoy it daily, as it should be. So, watch this space!