Friday's Favorites: shelf over desk

I threw a dart at the My Pictures folder to pick a favorite for today. In the folder, I have a sort of inventory of my favorite things, and I closed my eyes and picked whatever my arrow landed on.

It's not the shelf itself that's my favorite, although I'm quite fond of it and it has served me well. It's the things on it and above it. You know, those things that you display for sentimental reasons, or because the color or texture is just right, or the item says something about who you are. You'll notice, also, that if you squished the items on the shelf together, you would have the muted colors of a row of old books on a shelf, which is pretty much my color scheme throughout the house.

Starting above the shelf, there are photos of Melody on the left and me on the right at about the same age. One of my favorite things to do when I had a child was to compare her photos with mine along the way, because at the time I had never had anyone to compare myself with. You do things like that when you're adopted! Whereas most people know they have Uncle Joe's ears or Aunt Sara's nose, Grandpa Martin's temper or Dad's artistic nature, we know nothing and are starting with a blank slate. So anytime I found a photo where my daughter and I looked similar, it was cause for celebration! (She has her dad's coloring and Aunt Alice's long fingers, but most people say they think she takes after me in her general appearance. We have no clue who she got her straight hair from.)

In between the photos is one of the wreaths I made to go around the candles on her wedding reception tables. We wanted them simple and inexpensive, and they really looked quite nice in the glow of candlelight.

On the shelf itself, beginning on the left:

There used to be six appertif glasses that belonged to my adoptive grandparents, and my cousins, who inherited their possessions, let me have these. One got broken accidentally by a friend of Melody's. I love the look and color of them, and they're so delicate, which is why they're up high where the boys can't get to them.

Next is a porcelain bell that belonged to my mother-in-law. I don't think it had any particular sentimental value to her, but I love it because it has two birds sitting on a branch, and butterflies, painted on it ... and, of course, the grandsons always make me ring it for them.

Third is a hummingbird globe that David bought me. It's rare enough that he actually buys me something (he's not a shopper, or at least that's his excuse), but that he bought something related to my love of hummingbirds was nice. It's plastic, made in china, and still has the $7 sticker on the bottom.

The photo of the three of us circa 1974 is the only professional family photo we have in her infancy or childhood, the next being when she was much older. I think it was a 5x7 in an 8x10 frame with a mat. It was on my buffet (see another post about it) until I had a temper tantrum during a fight with Melody and threw somthing (not at her) and knocked it over. Unnoticed by me was that somehow a liquid, probably from a plant cutting in a vase, got on it and seeped into the frame. Then that dried, the mat and photo stuck to the glass, and I had to peel it off and resize it. You might have to click to enlarge this to see poor baby Melody almost lost down there at the bottom. (If you've read my Demented Mawmaw post, you know that I have already documented my history of tantrums.)

The light blue candle lamp is just a dollar store find and I liked the color. But if you light a candle in it, you sure don't want to touch that glass!

Second from the right is a little Aynsley fine bone china bowl called Cottage Garden, with a beautiful rendering of some of my favorite things - flowers and butterflies. It was a gift from my cousin Nancy from a trip she took to England.

And, finally, on the far right, just another dollar store find of a mirror framed with roses and hydrangeas, two of my favorite flowers!

So, what have you learned about me from this small collection? (a) I like birds, hummingbirds, and butterflies; (b) I'm not above displaying dollar store finds with fine bone china and heirlooms; (c) I'm chronically obsessed with being adopted; and (d) I'm prone to temper tantrums when pushed too far by a child.

I don't know what you can or will do with all this information about me and my favorite things, but there you have it.