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My Crafty Heritage – I Didn’t Throw It Away

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Are you a pack-rat? A minimalist? Somewhere in between? We’ve moved 4 times in the past 5 years for my husband’s job (finally settled for a little longer now, I hope!) and packing/unpacking all of your Earthly belongings is a great excuse to evaluate what is worth saving. I thoroughly enjoy cleaning stuff out and am not prone to sentimentality but I do have one big tote of ‘Memorabilia’.

Agatha Lee of Green Issues by Agy emailed me inviting me to a blog train on “I Didn’t Throw It Away” and I had to think a few minutes. I’m 27, so I don’t have a ton of things that I can say for certainty I’ve kept for 20 years. But when I thought about what I did have, there was a definite theme – handmade! I hope my kid(s) end up saving some of the things I make them.

As a part of the blog train, thinking about: “We have become such a throw-away society, but there are some things in our households that we still keep. Why is that so? Perhaps this blog train can unlock the reasons behind it! Follow the daily posts on this blog train and read about the stories behind the things we have kept for many years and why we didn’t throw them away.”

Teddy Bear Baby QuiltFirst up is my baby quilt, made by my Grandma. Cross-stitched in the middle, hand-sewn binding, it’s full of love. I inherited her sewing machine when she died and used it to get started learning. I wish she could see what I make now! I hope to make baby quilts if I have grandkids some day and love the idea of them looking at my quilt, their parent’s quilt (that my Mom/their Grandma made), and then their own quilt that I made. I’ve held on to it for obvious reasons – it’s something special that my Grandma made for me and I love having a tangible artifact of the creativity that I’ve inherited.

You Rock Valentine's CardAnother crafty artifact! There is no year on this, but I assume it’s from elementary school because my Mom made it and gave it to me. I was pretty much a snot from middle through high school, so I can’t imagine her having given it to me then! I’m not huge into making cards, because they tend to just be recycled/pitched the next day, but it’s clear that love and time was put into this Valentine. It also makes me laugh, because it’s cheesy. I bet she’ll be surprised that I still have it but again, I love having a reminder of my creative roots.

Kids Horse Drawing

 Last, but not least, two relics from my childhood creations. I loved writing stories (spoiler alert, my Dad’s name is Pat and my Mom’s name is Cindy haha!) and was obsessed with horses so these pieces of paper make me happy. So far my son also loves drawing and reading (he just turned 2 so no writing yet!) and I hope he gets a kick out of seeing what I made when I was younger too.
Do you reflect on why you keep what you keep?  Do your sentimental mementos connect your past with your present? Tell me more! You can read more about why I sew and how one of my fondest high school memories revolves around an upcycled dress in this post if you want some more sentimental flashbacks.
Tomorrow, Virginnia of Notes to Ginny is next  so click over to read her story!

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Vicky Myers

Monday 19th of January 2015

Its a great blog hop train:) I suspect my Mum has a few of drawings from my childhood in her loft, after 38 years she is building up to moving...I guess they will come back to me!!

Mira Musank

Saturday 17th of January 2015

Such a cute pig story! So fun :)

Thanks for sharing, Mira

P.S.: I also joined the blog train, and this is my story (published on January 9) - http://www.fafafoom.com/didnt-throw-away-3-things-20-years-later/

Stephanie - Swoodson Says

Sunday 18th of January 2015

Thanks Mira, I need to go back and click through and read everyone else's!

Sarah H

Thursday 15th of January 2015

How fun! I've got a few things from my childhood, and my mom has lots of stuff that I didn't take on my cross-country move. Now that she's moved here, I'm sure some of it will be reappearing!

Stephanie - Swoodson Says

Friday 16th of January 2015

My parents just retired and brought each of us kids a giant box of "stuff" - I bet you might find the same in your future!

Agy

Thursday 15th of January 2015

Gosh, so many moves in 5 years - must be very tiring but then I'm sure it meant living a minimalistic lifestyle. So many memories from the things you've kept - the story about the little pig you printed out reminds me of another technological era we lived in, when we used clunky PCs and dot matrix printers! Thank you for sharing and joining the blog train.

Stephanie - Swoodson Says

Thursday 15th of January 2015

Thanks for inviting me! Now I'm remembering peeling those strips off the side of the old printer paper, ha.

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