Items in the spice cabinet

The other day I showed you the antique spice cabinet I had from my Mom.   Inside one of the drawers was an assemblage of various items.  The drawer itself is not large, about 4 inches wide by 4 inches deep.

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The shaker

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Salt? Pepper? Something else?  The holes are rather large and there are a lot of them.  One quick shake of any spice would be more than enough.

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It’s about 3 inches tall and less than an inch in diameter.  Heavy for the size.  Not sure what metal.  I do love the floral and leaf texture on this piece. 

The oil lamps

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These little gems used to contain perfume or eau du cologne.  A faint scent still lingers.  One has lost the handle but has a very small dried flower stuck in the shade.

Mary

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When closed, this looks like a small brass pipe with enclosed ends.  But turning the outer layer reveals a small statue of Our Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  Small enough to fit in a pocket of purse, Mary can be with one always.

The brass candlesticks

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Birthday cake candles fit in these less-than-two-inches tall candlesticks.

The trophy candlestick

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Actually I’m not sure what this is.  A birthday cake candle would be too small to fit in it without wobbling.  Perhaps there are missing parts to this piece.

The trio

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A Venetian blind cord pull.  A large picture hook and nail.  A small gear.

The assemblage.

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Excitement

I’ve got a few things to be excited about.  I found a few things in my house that I forgot I had.  Plus I received a newsletter from one of my favorite authors with the release date of her latest book.

Excitement #1

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This is a little antique spice cabinet that belonged to my Mom.  I’m not sure how it came to be hers but I always thought it was so cool.

I just realized in the photo on the left is some embroidery my Mom did when she was a teenager.  She embroidered her initials, RK, on some window pane linen.  I have them on the backs of the chairs in our living room.  There’s also a photo of my parents on the far right in front a cute little Oriental Express brass lamp.

Excitement #2:

And there were still things in the drawers.

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Excitement #3

I also found some yarn I bought a couple of years ago with the hopes of dying for socks.

There are a total of four hanks of fingering weight yarn and a knitted yarn blank.  The yarn blank is knitted with two strands of yarn.  When dyed, the resulting yarn and socks should be the same.

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Excitement #4

Some other items I found were in my daughter’s closet.  Ok, short story long:   We are transforming her old bedroom in to a REAL guest room.  I really want this room to be relaxing and fitting for guests and not the dumping ground for all my yarn, fabric, polymer clay, shrink art, etc.  When our daughter moved out into her own apartment many years ago, she left a lot of her “stuff” at our house.   When our son moved out, he took everything with him except the dust bunnies and curtain rods.   Anyway, her old bedroom at our house has two closets.  I cleaned out one of her closets and used it for the things I have from my Mom when she died.  Like the little spice cabinet.  A few weeks ago I took a car full of my daughter’s said “stuff” to her house.  Since I was on a roll cleaning things out, I started to tackle the “other” closet, the closet with MY stuff in it.   For this redecorating project  I needed a nightstand for one side of the bed in the room and remembered this corner unit she had, which was basically a large 18″ square box about 29 inches tall.  The top lifts off and you can store stuff in it.

Well, I unearthed that corner unit and opened it up.  It was full of more “stuff”!! I found old stuffed animals, a quilt Mr. Aitch’s aunt made, pillows, her old baby blanket and some children’s books.  Books I looked for when our grandchildren came to visit but assumed they were gone.  These are not all the books I found but I selected a few that were loved by both our kids and us.  I never got tired of reading these over and over and over and over (you get the picture) again.

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Socks for Supper by Jack Kent is a knitting story by the way.

Excitement #5

Speaking of books…my last bit of excitement came in a newsletter.  Janet Evanovich has a new installment in her Stephanie Plum series*.  I started reading these about ten years ago.  If you aren’t familiar with this series and want to read it, start with One for the Money.  Each book kind of builds from the previous ones.  Many of the situations are laugh-out-loud hilarious.  Warning: Don’t eat or drink anything while reading or you may find food or drink spewed on your book or e-reader.

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Takedown Twenty will appear in stores later this month and I must confess that I haven’t been keeping up with my reading.  I think I stopped at Eleven on Top.  Why?   Because the local library started charging out-of-state book borrowers an annual fee and I live in another state.  And I rarely purchase books.

Yes, I’m that, ah, cheap, eh, frugal.

*(As usual I don’t get any compensation for plugging Janet’s newest Stephanie Plum book….I just wish I did.)

I know these are very personal things to be excited about but this is who I am.

Anything exciting happen to you lately?