Family Artifacts
I've been taking my time incorporating different artifacts from my grandparents house into my own home. It's tough because I feel like my home would become a museum if I put out every little thing that I've inherited when I only have so much space. But I've picked and chosen specific items that mean a lot to me and have tried to find little ways to incorporate them with what I already have. I already feel a sense of relief having bits and pieces of their lives together in mine.
An inventory, below:
Stamped glass sun catchers: these used to hang in my grandparents' lanai and would sway back and forth in the breeze.
Wooden stool: Grandpa Andy made this by hand and put a Smokey Bear sticker on either side. He had several of these, and kept his trusty dictionary and current reads on one of them, right next to his armchair. He carved his name on the bottom.
Pink lamp: Grandma Rose bought these with her own money back in the 50s. There were two and they lit their bedroom their entire marriage. The light that it casts feels incredibly nostalgic for me and reminds me of going to bed in a sleeping bag on their carpeted floor during summer nights, while my parents stayed up reading. My cousin now has one and I have the other.
Miniature glass jar: I don't have much information about this jar, but it's very sweet. I filled it with some shells that I collected at the beach near my brother's house. My aunt found a ledger in which Grandma Rose kept detailed records of all of their antique acquisitions, the condition, price, and date.
Seashell coasters: these really say "Grandma and Grandpa's house" to me. When we arrived at my grandparents' house each summer, we would sit on the couch in a row and discuss the journey and catch up after a year apart. In front of the couch was a low coffee table with a ridge going along the edge so that things wouldn't roll off. In the center of the table was always a small crystal bowl filled with Hershey kisses or Dove chocolates, and this stack of coasters. Grandma and Grandpa were very invested in the use of coasters. Interestingly. I have a collection of disposable coasters that I've been working on since middle school. They even contributed to this over the years, including Smokey Bear coasters, coasters with German beers on them, and one from a local rock radio station. I love having these on my night stand now.
Solo Certificate cup: this is a commemorative cup from Grandpa Andy's first solo flight. The other side of the cup is decorated with little planes. I believe there are several of these and they were separated between the grandchildren.
Carnival glass bowls: my grandparents had a vast collection of carnival and depression glass. They were definitely tightwads, but they found the deals to continue their collection. These are holding a collection of pysanky made my various family members. The three on the right were all made by Grandma Rose (my first of hers in my collection), the orange egg by my mom, turquoise egg by my aunt, and the egg with roses by my mom and gifted to Grandma Rose.
Souvenir spoon: the Misura women were very into collecting souvenir spoons in the 90s. Grandma Rose even bought and sold on eBay for a while! This is one spoon from her collection (along with another gifted to me by my mom).
Crystal punch bowl: while I don't do enough entertaining to have much use for this yet, I figured a nice way to have it out and functional would be as a catch-all bowl on our coffee table. If I lived on my own, I might display pysanky in it, but I worry right now about leaving them exposed and vulnerable all in a group.
Snow shoes: these are also very "Grandma and Grandpa's house" type item. They hung, exposed to the elements for decades, in their lanai. The irony of snow shoes hanging in a tropical outdoor space was never something I had thought much about, likely because they were such a fixture and I associated them with their lanai before I even knew what snow shoes were.
Olympic pin collection: the coin collection is something I inherited mostly from a former patron of my mom's library, but the pin collection and type tray were all Grandpa Andy's doing. He worked in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, and, being a social buttrfly, collected and traded different Olympic pins with people visiting from all over the world. Interestingly, he has a ton representing Poland.
Glass fishing float: This was also a fixture in the lanai, and hung out there for as long as I can remember. I loved the way light filtered through it in the summer sun, making it glow with a watery teal light. It's much heavier than I would have imagined!
Shelf: Grandpa Andy built a few of these, One of them hung in the dining room and held a gingerbread clock and two three-legged pigs that I sent them for good luck after I graduated college.
Stickers: there were dozens of these window stickers decorating the sliding doors that led from the dining room out to the lanai. Every year, Grandma Rose would measure our height with a sticker and move it up the window.
