Things of Value

I'm not one to spend hundreds of dollars on a piece of furniture or accessory for our house just for its name or design style. Ian and I have bought most things cheap, gotten them at garage sales, eBay, WalMart or made them ourselves. When I look around our house I see many "conversation pieces" (as 'they' like to call it in the design world). I feel like our house is a museum of personal things that you have gathered over time to reflect your past, present, and future. When I look at the things in and around our house, I see history and our future. I want to share with you a few of those things:


This is my absolute favourite wedding picture of Ian and I. It's HUGE! When we told our photographer that we wanted this particular photo enlarged he looked at us kind of weird. "But it's all blurry," he told us. Yes, that's what we like about it. It was a spontaneous photo. The first one taken on our way out of the church after saying "I do". It means the world to me to see our genuine happiness reflected in this photo.


You can't really see this picture but it's of Ian and I (again) and it's got a permanent spot in our bedroom. It's taken at a formal Ian and I went to in University with a bunch of friends. We had a really really great time. We looked good, felt good, and think of this pre-kid time often.


I inherited this organ from my grandmother. As a little girl, I always asked to play it. She also had a keyboard which my brother would play. There we'd go: Frere Jacques on 1,2,3! Later on, as a teenager, I'd play it for Oma and it never failed or she'd get tears in her eyes. Then she'd ask me to stop playing. I loved that organ. When Oma passed away, we had a whole bunch of things come in a container from Holland and the organ was one of them. It took a year for us to get someone in who knew this type of organ to fix it, for it was really out of tune. Finally, on my birthday last year, it was fixed. My birthday gift from Oma. I love it.


This picture hangs in our bedroom. I made it for Ian's first father's day. We have a rule that for mother's day and father's day we only exchange homemade gifts (nothing store bought). Every father's day, I try to make something for Ian from the kids, something with photos. I love to play with photos in some sort of photoshop program.


I saw this idea on "Jon and Kate plus 8" (the TLC show). I loved the idea of black & white photos in black frames like this. Each year we take another updated photo and replace it, putting the others behind the new one so that we can keep them all in one spot.


When the kids were just 1 month old, for each of them, we took their hand and footprint and etched their name and the words "1 month" into the clay. Each of their pictures are taken at exactly 1 month of age with the same yellow outfit on. I thought it was pretty cool! (The frames are from Miss Tiggywinkles - or something - the store)


This is prayerbunny. Since Megan was born, we have said prayerbunny's prayer before the kids go to bed. It's part of our bedtime ritual and we (hardly) never forget. :)


Megan started out with bunnybear. She got this wonderful bunnybear for the babyshower that was held for us and she started sleeping with pink bunnybear. Then, she found Pinky (the pink panther one). It used to be my stuffed animal that I slept with when I was litle so she added that one. About over a year ago my mom got the kids each a puppy when we were at a restaurant with a gift shop. That was number 3. The kitten on the end was added just a few months ago, another gift from Oma. All 4 animals sleep with her, all in the EXACT same order, EVERY night.


When my brother, sister, and I were young, this was a gift to my grandfather from the 3 of us. I love it. My Oma got the same one but with a different text. I inherited both tiles from my grandparents when they died. For one mother's day, I gave my mom the "Oma" tile. But the "Opa" one I'm keeping. It's too special to me to give away.


My bridal bouquet. My mom had hers pressed and framed and I loved that idea so I did the same to mine. It's nice to look at and see the flowers I carried.


All of these photos were taken at about 4-5 months old for Mother's Day. Megan is at the top, underneath that is Austen. Then Mason, and at the bottom is me. We've been trying to add Ian's photo too. It was important to me that all photos had meaning. All were taken on their tummies, at roughly the same age, as a gift for the grandmothers for Mother's Day, and each baby was on his favourite blankie, with a meaningful background. Megan's blanket was handmade by my mom. Her background was taken in the house she was born in, next to my mom and dad, my most favourite house we have lived in (and we've lived in a LOT!). Austen's blanket he got from Ian and I when he was born, and his background is the coffeetable made by Ian's uncle for my birthday. For Mason's photo he is laying on his blanket (given to him by Ian and I when he was born) and his background is the organ bench (the organ pictured above).


I always thought this was me. When I was at Oma's house, I'd pass it (as a little 5 year old girl) and I'd ask "Oma, this is me, right?" and Oma would always say yes. Every time I visited her, I'd ask her if I could have it someday. When she passed away, it was in her will that I'd get this. I would run back into my house if it was on fire just to rescue this little girl. Though it's darn heavy!


Windchimes. We got these for our wedding. I can't remember from who (although it's written down somewhere). We hung them on the porch of the first home we lived in as a married couple. Now when I hear the music of the windchimes I think back to that house (the same one mentioned previously).


"Skippy Bal". That's Dutch. My brother and I each got a "skippy bal" when we were younger. They've lasted that long. They are such good quality! We drew on them (in pen) which has, of course, faded by now. They never got a hole in them. Now my kids play with the "skippy balls".


OK. So this is a photo of Megan with her best friend, Kenmore. Yup, it's a vacuum cleaner. Here's the story: When Megan was just a baby she would cry and cry. As new parents, with not a lot of resources to fall back on, we didn't know what to do anymore. One time, she was crying so much, we turned on the vacuum cleaner to clean and she quieted down in an instant. WOW, we thought, what is this? (This was of course, the "white noise" that is well-known now). From that moment on, we used the sound of the vacuum cleaner to quiet her down. It worked like a charm! It got really warm though, especially in a house with no A/C and a vacuum running constantly for an hour or so. We even dragged Kenmore with us once to my brother's wedding when Megan was only 3 months old! Ian walked through the hotel lobby carrying Kenmore. People stared. We didn't care. It helped. Eventually, Kenmore died. I made an RIP sign, stuck some flowers on it, and took a picture to remember her best friend, Kenmore.
PS Megan's wearing my absolute favourite outfit that she owned!

So, as you can see, we have many things of value. But to put a price tag on these things? I couldn't.