Friday, September 03, 2010

Favourite Things Friday

Welcome to Favourite Things Friday. I can't wait to see and hear about your Favourite Things! (For those of you with google reader, this has probably appeared 6 times already while I tried to make Blogger put this post in the right place instead of under my Slack Tea Thursday post- why must Blogger torture me so? )

The idea is that you write a post about one of your favourite things and then link to this post so everyone who is participating this week can come and have a sticky beak. If you want to take the button from my sidebar and pop it in your post that's cool too because apparently due to the miracle of the Internet and technology, it will link back to all the FTF posts I've written. I don't pretend to understand how that works. It just does. I don't need to understand because Elizabeth is my own personal html coder. Thanks E!

You can share anything you like. A book, a thought, food, a craft project, something in your house, a person , a place...that's the beauty of FTF ...it's about your favourite things.

Let me preface my favourite thing for this week by saying we are not really a family who keeps things and hands them down through the generations. We are more of a "chuck it away it's rubbish" kind of family apparently. Which makes me really sad because I love old things and am quite sentimental about family stuff and really envy reading about people who have their great great grandmother's pincushion, or their grandfather's blunderbuss, or something else wonderfully exciting and steeped in family history. As compensation I buy other people's old things at op shops and make up romantic stories about how they came to be in my possession. This is probably the oldest "family thing" I own.

My favourite thing this week is a piece of jewellery my Nanna gave me years ago. The beauty for me is that it belonged to my great grandmother who was born in 1881 in Ballarat, Victoria. She passed away 55 years ago , so this is old. It's probably one of the few pieces of jewellery she ever owned aside from her wedding ring because they were not well off people. It's rose gold, and has a picture inside of a small child. Since she had 13 children it's difficult to work out who it might be and there's nobody left in my family to tell me. I really wish I had asked my grandmother who it might be before she passed away two years ago. I've never worn it because I'm scared of losing it. Every now and then I take it out and try to imagine the woman it belonged to originally, who I never met and have only heard about.


Family legend says that she and my great grandfather were born three weeks apart in the same place, lived in the same street all their young lives, and then married at the age of 20. When my great grandfather passed away my great grandmother died three weeks later of a "broken heart" according to my Nanna. From my Nanna's accounts I don't think Great Grandma had an easy life, so I hope this necklace was given to her for a special occasion, and that she loved it as much as I do. I love the mystery attached to it. I feel more bound to these two women because something they owned and enjoyed is now mine for safe keeping until it's time to pass it on to someone else in our family.

Thanks for visiting and sharing this with me. Now it's your turn!


19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow you're a techie-congrats QIMP. I don't have any favorite things unless you count people and memories. Since you are talking about Grandmas and you are also a quilter, I will share this one: I had exactly one sleepover once with my great-grandmother, Effie. She made a quilt with me. A whole quilt in one night! It was nothing fancy-just some leftover cloth we cut up into squares and she taught me how to sew it together on her old treadle sewing machine, than we backed it with a piece of muslin, and she "tatted" it? I think that is the word. Somewhere along the line, the edges must have gotten closed, but I don't remember that part. Maybe I was sound asleep under one of her other quilts by that time....If I had that quilt now, it would probably be one of my favorite things. I'm hoping it is in my parent's house somewhere because, all of a sudden, I really want to see it again! Thanks for a great post QIMP, and for bringing back nice memories.

Mistea said...

I love your little locket and am glad you have this special piece to remind you of your ancestors.
Look forward to seeing some other favourites around blogland soon

Elizabeth said...

Hooray! FTF is here! I have my post all set to go and scheduled for first thing in the morning, but I think I'm going to stay up until midnight, post it and then add it to the Linky Queue.

Also, you make me sound like I am Wonder Woman, which, I am not. If I had an invisible jet, I'd be down there for weekend sew-ins. I hope you never ask me to code something really fancy.

Your locket is beautiful! I loved hearing about it and how much you love having it.

xo -E

GaAm said...

I had to post mine a bit early (it's still Thursday here), but Fridays are hectic around here and I didn't want to miss it. I planned to have it post at midnight, but then I wouldn't be able to do the linky thingy.

I love the locket, and the story surrounding it. How absolutely special to have that little piece of family history.

Michelle said...

First off, I love the story about your great grandmothers necklace. It's a pretty piece, but more importantly a slice of family history. Thanks so much for sharing it.

Now, I hope I can whip up one of my favorites for Friday (tomorrow here). Due to last minute company coming in this weekend (my uncle--my dad's brother), I probably won't be able to make the rounds until Sunday, but I'm looking forward to it.

Paulette said...

What a beautiful locket! I really enjoyed hearing a bit about your great-grandmother. I love things like this which connect us to the past.

I'm happy for seeing your post briefly in yesterday in Google Reader, since it had slipped my mind about FTF. Thanks for the heads up!

Baa-Me Kniits said...

That is a gorgeous locket! I wonder what special occasion it was presented for.....having all those children??? So nice that you have some family history to pass on. Can we see the photo inside? How lovely that she and your GGfather grew up together and then shared the rest of their lives.

Thanks for hosting FTF I can't figure out how to do that linky thing yet....its a great idea :-)

seabreezequilts said...

Sorry left it to the last minute, which seems to be my lot in life at the moment. Love the locket story got me thinking about what I can do next week when I am more organised.... fingers crossed

Helsie said...

Sorry I forgot about it and I've already posted so I'll join you next week.
Cheers
Helen

Marg said...

Wow, you even have a linky thing, yay! Love the story of the locket, it's lovely to have something from your family that has been handed down through the generations.

I have just worked out how to use the linky thing so count me in!

Sarcastic Quilter said...

That is great you have that locket. Our family has a few things left but we mostly chuck the stuff also. One day I'll reflect on them but for now, my favorite things are all new. :D

Have a good weekend!

Larri said...

Shay - What a pretty Favorite Thing! I wish I had a piece of my grandmother's jewelry. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Next week, I'll post what she did leave me. It's one of my Favorite Things. In the meantime, I've added my favorite for this Friday. Thanks for hosting the great linky party. Happy Friday/Saturday! :o)

Kirsten's Cooking said...

Oh, my goodness - tear-jerker!
It's going to be mighty hard to top this post, my friend.
What a special, special possession. I love it, it's beautiful, simple, and classic.
Thank you so much for sharing this.

Shay said...

Thanks everyone for visitng, sharing stories or linking up.

I'm having so much fun seeing everyone's favourite things. Such a diverse group of posts too!

Michelle said...

Sorry for the double entry Mrs. P. I screwed up the URL the first time.

AnnieO said...

Oops! I used the alternate spelling in my Favorite Things post. That's an American for ya, I guess. I loved your favourite thing story, so sweet! My grandma died a year ago and I miss her so much. I have her quilts and some of her sewing things and jewelry. Glad you have lots of memories of yours.

Lane said...

That's wonderful! Thanks so much for posting the story. The locket is a real treasure. Lane

Shevvy said...

Thats a lovely locket, I love stories like that. I'm still catching up on blogs and will see if there is anything I have to share next friday.

michelle said...

would you believe me if i told you that i have a locket exactly the same as yours. mine belonged to my great aunt-aunty dolly who died around two years ago at age 93. she gave it to me many years ago. it was the first present her husband ever gave her. he is still alive, lives alone and grows his own fruit and veggies, preserves them and makes jam. not bad at 95. i agree with you it is lovely to own something that meant so much to someone in your family tree. i do wear mine often and it is always noticed and admired