Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-sixth day of the month is "Moment."
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Furniture week continues! My husband's grandmother's curio cabinet has been installed in a cozy nook in our front room.
I took this photo and sent it to my husband's aunt and the following exchange took place:
Aunt T: I love that you guys have this! It was the one thing we were NEVER allowed to touch! It looks beautiful in your home! (heart face emoji)
NGS: Dr. BB won't let me touch it, either! Good to know where he got it from!
Aunt T: (laughing emoji)
Suzanne asked if we could see what was inside and I determined that since I write a post here Every Single Day, I would devote a post to just that topic. Also, I just realized that I've written a million times about all these topics and it's probably boring to long-time readers. Sorry, my friends. Feel free to skip this! Before you read this, just know that I am not and have never been a Catholic. It will become apparent that someone in this house was raised Catholic, though.
The top: Three LED candles that automatically light up from 5-10pm. They add a lot of ambience to the room which is typically dark by 4:00pm in the winter. My mom bought me a set of five a couple of years ago. They are fabulous and I highly recommend them. The key to the cabinet is up there, too, but we all know that's off limits to me!
First shelf:
Item #1 - My husband's First Communion photo (Catholics, amirite?) - Baby Dr. BB!!! He looks just like one of my nephews.
Item #2 - A teapot that was in his parents' house growing up that was the origin of "frog in a teapot/Oscar the Grouch"
Item #3 - A photo frame where we keep a (mostly) updated photo of our Godchild (Catholics, amirite?)
Second shelf:
Item #1 - All of the saucers and cups that came with the teapot from the first shelf
Item #2 - A pewter cup from my husband's baptism (Catholics, AMIRITE?)
Item #3: A creepy pewter cup that has a rabbit on it and I hate rabbits and I hate this cup (my FIL gave my husband this cup and Dr. BB has no idea why, but we have it and so into the curio cabinet it goes; I'm half convinced my FIL purposefully gave it to us to needle me because he knows about my rabbit antipathy)
Third shelf:
Item #1 - A teapot and two saucers and cups. These were in the curio cabinet at Dr. BB's grandmother's house. His grandmother had a social club that consisted of between three to six ladies who graduated from their college together. This club met weekly for decades and I think it only stopped when Dr. BB's grandmother was the only lady left standing. Each member of the club had their own saucer and teacup.
Item #2 - Chunky clay teapot that Dr. BB's friend made for him in college
Fourth shelf:
Item #1 - Mice chess pieces that my parents had in their house that I took with me when my mom downsized.
Item #2: A tiny glass pumpkin that was in the curio cabinet at Dr. BB's grandmother's house. It has a note with it that says "Marg Happy Thanksgiving Bernadette" and a) we've never known ANYONE to give his grandmother whose name is Margaret a nickname; b) we like to think that the saucers we were given with the teapot on the third shelf are his grandmother's and Bernadette's; and c) the pumpkin is just adorable.
Fifth shelf:
Item #1: Two bowls my MIL gave to me.
Item #2: A bowl and plate with Paddington Bear on them that my husband used when he was a child.
There's also a built-in in our dining room that has a lot of decorative serving bowls in it because I'm a bit of a basic bitch who likes bowls and can't resist when someone asks if I want them. Maybe I'll show you those bowls on a different day.
Do you have a curio cabinet? What do you have in yours? Does it include a lot of religious artifacts even though you are not religious?!
I do not have a curio cabinet, but I LOVED seeing inside of yours. I'm not Catholic and other than many bibles and related books, I don't think I have any religious artifacts in our house?
ReplyDeleteI was a little surprised that we had enough decorative, special items to go in the curio cabinet. If you had asked me a month ago if we needed or I even wanted one, I would have said no. Ha!
DeleteI like the curio cabinet. It's a style of furniture I don't see often anymore but as a child all the older relatives had one. I am impressed with your ability to explain all the curios. I especially like the "Marg Happy Thanksgiving Bernadette" bit. What a wonderfully enigmatic note.
ReplyDeleteDo you think "Marg" has a hard "g" at the end or is more like "Marge"? My husband and I have been debating the pronunciation of this nickname.
DeleteA) Thank you for showing us the contents! Everything is lovely and I love the backstories. B) RABBIT ANTIPATHY? I have no feelings toward rabbits, positive or negative, but I would like more information about your rabbit feelings. It is hilarious that your FIL may have been punking you by giving your husband that cup. C) Serving bowls! Yes, please do a serving bowl post! I love a serving bowl. My irresistible dishware is serving platters, so I get it.
ReplyDeleteI am still unsure whether The Piece is technically a curio cabinet or more of a sideboard with hutch. Maybe it's somewhere in between. And then we also have a hand-me-down piece of furniture that is maybe a secretary with a hutch? I don't know. Your furniture posts are making me want to write about my own inherited furniture. I do not think we own any religious artifacts. Seems like I should know, one way or the other, but alas.
I would LOVE for you to write a post about The Piece, which I suspect is a sideboard. My FIL ALSO tried to give us one of those, but we didn't have space. Is your secretary a desk or something else? I'd love to learn more about these!
DeleteLove love love! I am bad at curating things on shelves in general, so I adore this behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteHa. I'm not sure we curated anything, but just shoved everything in there!
DeleteThis is quite a collection! For some reason this post gave me a nostalgic feeling for the Midwest. Maybe it's because you called the room "the front room." Is that a term people use everywhere? I remember my dad calling our living room "the front room" and I'm wondering if that's a common term, an old fashioned term, or a Midwestern thing.
ReplyDeleteI like this eclectic collection! My husband's parents were Catholic so I'm pretty sure there are some religious artifacts scattered somewhere in our house, but we don't have a curio cabinet. Yours is nice!
Interesting. It's not our living room is the reason I called it the front room. If you come in the front door of our house, there's one big room that probably originally was two rooms. The left is our living room and the right is an empty space where I sometimes work out and is just empty. It's nice when guests come because they congregate in there and there's plenty of room. Since I'm a Midwestern gal from beginning to end, I don't know if it's regional or more ubiquitous. Any friends from other regions want to chime in?
DeleteHow can anyone NOT LIKE BUNNIES!? I'm amazed and astonished by this admission from you.
ReplyDeleteI was raised Catholic, so I smiled about the First Communion picture. I am a Recovering Catholic now, and there's no way I'd have any relics of that life on display, if I still had any.
Your cabinet is lovely and reflects a nice collection of both family history and the warmth of your own lives together.
My husband is no longer Catholic, but we have a lot of relics hanging around from the candle from his baptism to a wooden cross that matches one that was placed on his mother's casket. I think it's a fine line for my husband because religion was such a big part of his life and I think he wants to honor the part of it that had a hand in shaping who he is, but also acknowledge some of the issues with the Church. Anyway. I try to stay out of it because I'm a heathen.
DeleteI have the story behind why I don't like rabbits. Basically, they're kind of mean and I'm allergic to them!
I was interested in the chess pieces, just out of curiosity. I don't think I would like to play with that set. We do have a curio cabinet that was my mother's. There a lot of teacups in there, and Sue knows the story of all of them. I imagine that only a few of them will get passed on.
ReplyDeleteThe chess pieces are a bit weird. I really liked them as a child. They're an Asian-influenced design and the rooks and the bishops look very similar and I do think they'd be kind of hard to play with, to be honest. They just remind me of home.
DeleteYes to seeing your bowl collection!!
ReplyDeleteI don't have a curio cabinet. We don't have many curio type objects. We do have my FIL's baby cup and spoon wrapped in tissue paper in a box somewhere, and a couple figurines on the mantel. My grandmother collected dolls and kept them in a curio cabinet - even the handmade clay one that I made in third grade had a place among the fancy delicate ladies in ballgowns.
I have to be honest, part of the reason we don't have many curio type thing is that every time I am tempted to acquire some, I think, "And then I'll have to dust it." And I decide it's not worth my effort.
I didn't think we really had a lot of knickknacks until we started putting stuff in there. Generally speaking my husband doesn't let anything purely decorative come into the house - everything has to be useful. I agree with you, though - I don't really want to dust all this stuff, but now we have it!
DeleteThanks for the tour! I'm not religious BUT I value things that were important to people that I loved. It's a special feeling to open up my great-grandmother's bible and prayer book, even if I'm doing it to see her handwritten family tree rather than to read the text.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think it's mostly just a memory thing for my husband and I like to think about the history of the items. I mean, how many times did my late MIL dust that teapot or did my husband's grandmother use the teacups? It's history right there!
DeleteWe do not have a curio cabinet, but this post brought back memories of my grandparent's beautifully curated curios cabinet!
ReplyDeleteI was raised Catholic but I do not have any keepsakes from the various sacraments like your husband does! I think I have a Precious Moments bible with my name engraved in it somewhere but that's all I can think of!
My MIL kept all the stuff from her kids, so we have all their religious keepsakes and all their schoolwork! It's kind of wonderful to go through and see what my husband thought was important when he was eight!
DeleteThat is a beautiful cabinet and what I perfect spot for it.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Japanese tea casbinet that has a mix of drawers, cupboards and glassed shelves. In tnhe glass shelves I've put the assorted tea cups, saucers and cake plates from my MIL. Decorative wedgewood pieces, waterford crystal figurines and a clock that I got for my 21st. As well as a cople of those tiny Chinese bottles with the scenes painted inside. Most of the decorative items we have bought ourselves are from places we've travelled.
I think it's a lovely thing to do to remember your trips and travels with something decorative. It sounds like a lovely tradition.
DeleteWell, I most certainly do not have a curio cabinet (although I like the ring of it) and I have no idea what I put into it... but yours looks like a museum piece. So, were all these thing in the cabinet when you got it? It's so funny that there is a first communion picture of Dr.BB (I grew up catholic but I don't remember anyone ever displaying a picture of our communion, haha).
ReplyDelete