Back during January , I was part of a school holiday programme that my church ran for a week.....the theme was treasure (pirates)
We were gathering props when I suddenly remembered in the back of my walk in wardrobe I had my "glory box", "hope chest" or whatever you may know it as.......
It was the perfect pirates treasure chest ...and so it got hauled out....emptied and used for the week.
So now because I really need to repack it and tuck it back away I thought I might show you some of the treasure that I have buried inside of it....
My paternal grandparents gave me the chest when I was a young teen, for the purpose of storing and collecting all things that would set me up for living as a married woman one day or maybe even a single one at that....
My grand mother took great delight in gifting me for birthdays and Christmas' all manner of goodies.....towels, linen, crockery.....the idea caught on and soon I had other family members feeling that these were appropriate gifts too.....and so my hope chest filled.
By the time I married at 20 1/2 years old all the contributions, along with the things I had saved and bought myself were the little bits of treasure that helped to begin our humble first home.
Over time I have used alot of the treasures and have replaced them with other sentimental items from this journey of life....
when we moved into this home 14 years ago ..we never quite found the right spot to have the chest out on display...it takes up quite a bit of space....
Over time it has found it's home in the back of the wardrobe.....very rarely opened... in fact probably never in the 14 years......
Until now...I didn't have the time a few weeks ago to be too sentimental but....now I really need to rehouse it and thought I would take some time to carefully see what I had tucked away and any stories attached to the treasures....
so firstly this pile of brand new, pure Irish linen tea towels....
They are crisp and new...smelling of camphor....collected by family...mostly nan and some from my parents of places they traveled....
They are true Australiana... vintage???
Maybe...... to me they seem old ....they would be at least 25 years old.....
Sorry for the unironed appearance....I can't bring myself to iron them just yet and take away that stiff new linen feel.....
What to do with them and the other twelve just like them from iconic places around our country...not sure...maybe they need to be out being used rather than stuck away in the treasure box.....
Any suggestions?
You are so your mothers daughters. Mxx
ReplyDeletelove it! The problem with these tea towels is that they don't dry dishes well I find. I am sure you will be creative & come up with something useful to turn them into.
ReplyDeleteI think you should use them Bron. Shame to have them just tucked away out of sight. Even if you use them for something different like table mats or as part of a table centrepiece or something xx
ReplyDeleteyep they are vintage! You could sew them together and use it is a table cloth, or sell them on ebay! you never know how much they could go for;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great chest Bron and all those tea towels wow.....if I came across them in the op shop, I would think all my birthdays had come at once.......
ReplyDeleteWhat to do with them?
The brightly coloured once could be used to make cushion covers. Can see the Nullabor one as a cushion a little bit of Australiana.
Sell them on ebay....good idea or just use them for their intended purpose......decisions, decisions, have fun.
Claire x
Awesome t.ts. Bron. I know what you mean about the lovely feel of stiff linen, you would lose it completely if you washed them, unless you used old fashioned starch (which I've been told, is hard to find these days and hard work to boot!)
ReplyDeleteBags, cushions, a t.t.patchwork quilt, aprons, upholstery - the list of things you can do with them is endless - IF you can bear to cut into them ie. x