Since my grandmother passed away, I’ve been sorting through the items I inherited and looking for ways to use them or display them. I have made some progress.

Yesterday I went to the jewelry store with a pile of old clip on earrings, many ivory which my grandmother bought in Africa, as well as some sparkly costume jewelry earrings. They are going to convert the earrings to posts so that my daughter and I can wear them. I also took a little ivory carving of a group of elephants. It had two little holes in the back of it and the jeweler said it must have been a pin. He’s going to attach it to a tie bar for my son, so that he can have a piece of jewelry as well. I’ll post photos once I get it all back. The jeweler did warn me that many of the earrings are made with lead, so they aren’t something you want to wear on a daily basis (yikes!).

I have a big box of doilies and dresser scarves (many of which my grandmother made) which I’ve been pondering. I decided to search Martha’s site for inspiration. I found this project which involves stiffening doilies and hanging them in a window. While that is a great idea for winter, it isn’t a year round display that works for me. I decided instead that I would frame a doily, but that project gave me the idea to stiffen the material first. So off I went to Michael’s where I bought some liquid fabric stiffener (which oddly enough they do not keep in the fabric/sewing area) and painted it on the doily, which I had placed on parchment.  It turned out very stiff. I can’t seem to find a frame though. I need a big square one. I guess I’ll need to do some online searching for that.  I think I’ll put a dark background behind it so that the doily pops.

Since my grandmother passed away, I’ve been sorting through the items I inherited and looking for ways to use them or display them. I have made some progress. Yesterday I went to the jewelry store with a pile of old clip on earrings, many ivory which my grandmother bought in Africa, as well as some … Read more →