Thursday, May 3, 2012

I Like Pretty Things

A Confession:
My name is Violet, and I like pretty things


 
And this month I am packing up all of our belongings
for a move into a rental while we build...
where we will move again this Fall.




When things are in closets and cupboards and buffets

one forgets how many possessions one has

 
("One" meaning "Me")

Last night I had the doors to our dining buffet open
and my husband gasped at all the dishes we have.
(and this was just one pattern, if he saw all the others at once, it would be way too alarming...
4 of these, 8 of these, cute dessert plates.... T.J.Max is to blame....)
And of my china pattern, Blue Danube
I actually only bought a few.
The rest we inherited from his mother and some were given to me
from a garage sale... let's just say I have enough for a feast.
And yet we rarely (never?) have large groups for dinner

... I seem to collect pretty things ...

Dishes



Decor



Clothes



Hats, oh so many pretty hats

and

Art Supplies

As an artist and designer and creator of all sorts of


PRETTY THINGS

I've got stashes of everything I might need to make this or that
... and I have been! Even though my Etsy shop is empty at the moment ...
{I hope to get some of my new creations listed before I pack it all up}

Although we aren't downsizing by very much, and there will be
places to store all of my 'stuff', I've been considering
that I need to let go of quite a lot.

I've been to enough estate sales to realize that all of these belongings
are not permanent, and some day our family will be
going through all of this stuff I've collected

 

Maybe when one gets older we realize our time on earth,

even if we live to an old age,

is well, closer to an end than before.

Not to be morbid or anything, but it's true and we can't take any of this with us!

The treasures we take with us are those bestowed only by
God's mercy and grace,

Treasures in Heaven
that cannot rust or fade

 
Who knew packing and moving could be a spiritual experience.

 
Now, to decide just which Pretty Things I will keep
and what will be donated

(My last yard sale was years ago)

 
It's been fun procrastinating with you this morning,
but now I really must go put some things in boxes.
________________
-
-
P.S.  After all my good intentions,
I am having a difficult time deciding what to keep.
It seems I like my pretty things too much
to give many of them up yet.
I am weeding out the 'not so inspiring anymore' and
packing up the lovelies, perhaps when I unpack them
a few months down the road I will be able to say
goodbye to more,
but knowing how excited I get opening
the Christmas bins each December at the sight of items
not seen for months, well, you get the picture.
-
-
{ help! }



4 comments:

The Dainty Dolls House said...

I hope you get everything packed ok and move easily!! We do tend to have more than realise, I try and go through items regularly and donate things, but sometimes things accumulate when we aren't watching. I'm sure you'll get through it all! Have a wonderful weekend xx

Castles Crowns and Cottages said...

My darling friend,

Your cleaning experience is the perfect situation for this poem. You start off with an anecdotal recollection of a moment in your life, then expand to a much broader thought. That is a form of poetry!!!! And I just read a stunning post that shared a "poem" so to speak by EMMA BOMBECK (oh, is that her name, or is it Irma? teehee) that she wrote when she found out she was dying from cancer. She realized that she would have "......let her kids kiss her instead of shooing them away and telling them to go wash up and get ready for dinner", and other wonderful ponderings. We all forget, don't we, about the temporal state of all these pretty things!!!! They are to share. And you do that well. You will have a fruitful experience as you make your transition my beautiful friend who loves pretty things.

LOVE! Anita

Martina said...

Oh my Violet, so much moving ahead of you! So good summer will be coming - the time when it's easiest to live simple and easy! Have a fab weekend still - i know you'll manage to pack in style ;)

Castles Crowns and Cottages said...

Good morning beautiful and most esteemed sista!!!

THANK YOU for taking time out of your crazy schedule of packing to come and visit me. It was a small labor of love to write about my momma, and I will never forget her. It is like YESTERDAY that I remember her creating little things for me out of scraps of cloth for my Barbies, or painting or crocheting. Ahhhhh the love.

DID YOU LIKE MY WHITE HORSES??????? OH I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IF "HE" really does have a white horse! I wonder if He will let me ride it...teeheee.....

LOVE TO YOU! Anita