M is for Mom

Back in the summer of 2012 when my daughter and I were preparing to move in with my mom after my divorce and my Dad’s passing in 2011, and the three of us were busy at work remodeling the upstairs bedrooms, we came across tons of old family heirlooms that have been stored here over the years.  I already love antiques, but it was extra cool to see antiques belonging to my own family.           (I wrote about it here:  https://ramblingsfromjewels.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/relocating-redecorating-readjustments-cool-old-stuff/)

While going through them all, I was thinking that it would be really nice if we could find a way to use or display some of them, rather than just pack them all away again somewhere.  Especially as we are combining our family once again, and now adding my daughter to the generations of my family that have lived in this house, it would be nice to do something special to symbolize that using some of these family heirlooms.  But in being so busy just trying to get the house ready for us to move in, that thought would have to be put on hold and revisited at a later time.  So we organized, labeled and boxed them all up, along with a few treasured items of my Dad’s, and stored them all in a special place down in the basement.

Now, two years later, and with Mother’s Day right around the corner, I got to thinking about all of the antique jewelry we had found back then, and remembered an idea I had seen online using vintage jewelry to create a plaque of the letter “M.”

I absolutely love this idea!  Wish I had come up with it myself.  😉

(If you click on the photo it will bring you to the Etsy shop of the person who I got the idea from.)

~

But I did expand a bit on the design concept with the one I created…

I mounted it on handmade paper, and the border you see around the edges is from some very old linoleum (early 1900’s) that we found adhered to my Mom’s bedroom floor when we tore out the carpeting in her room during the remodeling.  I thought it was so cool looking and saved pieces of it.

I wrote about it here:   https://ramblingsfromjewels.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/relocating-remodeling-readjustments-ceilings-and-carpets-and-floors-oh-my/

~

And because this particular vintage jewelry belonged to not only my Mom, but also her Mom, and both of her Grandmas, I wanted it to be protected under glass to keep it from collecting dust and also from deteriorating.  My sister and I went out together and found a great shadow box type of frame that worked perfectly for it!

Unfortunately, the glass is highly reflective, so getting a decent photo of it all finished was a bit of a challenge.  You’ll just have have to take my word for it that it looks gorgeous under there!  To make it even more special for my Mom, I also included one piece of my own jewelry and one piece of my sister’s.  ❤

~

Needless to say, when I gave this to her this morning, she loved it and we all had a good cry.  M is for Mom, but it’s also for Marie, Margaret and Mary ~ my Mom, her Mom, and one of her Grandma’s names, who’s jewelry this is.  So “M” represents them all.

Thanks so much for allowing me to share this with all of you!  Wherever you are, and whatever the day, may it be happy, beautiful and blessed!  🙂

We are heading out to breakfast and then off to garden nurseries for the day, as is our Mother’s Day tradition.  Hopefully the rain holds off…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿