We are almost to the end of this challenge. My worry of not being able to find enough items for the last few days was quickly abated when I decided to go through the china hutch in Josie's room.
First, let me explain why there is a china hutch in a bedroom. When we lived in PA, I wanted a dining room set. Like a formal dining room set. We purchased a table (with 2 leaves), 8 chairs and a china hutch all made in North Carolina and all made in 100% cherry wood. It was beautiful and I loved it. I proudly displayed my Noritake China in the top of the hutch. The bottom stored my serving pieces to my china along with my linens for the table. When we moved to Arizona, the dining room set was one of the few pieces of furniture we moved with us. Move forward 17 years and all of our children have moved out of the house. I no longer need a 'formal' dining room set but I still love that hutch. The table and chairs have been replaced a couple of times but the hutch still stays with my china being shown in it. Along comes Josie and we decide to dedicate a room in our house for her. (She is the only grand child living near us) We get her a cherry wood futon bed (The mattress was special made with memory foam in it) along with an Ikea children's entertainment center (indestructible) but there is no where to store folding clothes for her. Yup, you guessed it. I put my china in a kitchen cabinet and moved the china hutch into her room. The upper part houses porcelain dolls and the bottom stores all her burp cloths, blankets, towels etc. Now that Josie is 15, I thought it might be time to go through the hutch to see what all we had stored in there.
How many decks of cards do you own? Here are 20 decks of cards along with 8 drink sweaters. The sweaters came in quite handy when we lived in PA and we had a glass of water or some other beverage. The sweater absorbed all the sweat that came off the glass so you wouldn't have water rings on your tables. Oh, and those decks of cards? Ninety percent of them are from Las Vegas. Back in the day, you could ask the pit boss for a deck of cards and they would just hand you a deck that had been taken from the tables. They always had the corners cut off or had a hole drilled in the middle of them so you could not use them at the tables again.
Now, don't go thinking the hutch has not been gone through in the 15 years it has been in Josie's room. She and I have gone through it many times as she grew up. The burp rags are gone as are most of her baby blankets. The only ones left are the handmade ones that people gave her as baby shower gifts. I just can not part with them.............yet.
I woke up this morning to discover it was a bit chilly in our house. I have had the A/C off for 2 days now. Today makes day 3 of no A/C! The temp in the house this morning was 69F. I don't know if I will be able to keep the A/C off come this weekend though. Here is a look at our forecast for the next few days.
About Saturday, I think the A/C may need to come back on for a few days. I was so hoping to see the end of the 90's by now as well as the use of the A/C. Come on, it is almost November! I hope all of you are having a beautiful fall day!
Until next time.......................................................................
what a delightful hutch story! I have one in my dining room and it doesn't match anything. My dad gave it to me (he found it and refinished it for my mother) currently it has china in it but I like the idea of using it for other things...
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you lived in PA. I thought you were from Arizona originally. I learn something new every day from you! I think I have 1 deck of those cards from visiting a casino in Iowa once. I would think you would need those drink sweaters even more in Arizone! LOL! This time of year here is the same up until last week. AC on at night and then heat on come morning. Good job on the de-cluttering!
ReplyDeleteI like your china hutch story, too. It sounds like it was a lovely display - just perfect for a girl's room. It also reminds me, when we were clearing MIL's house they owned a big (kind of gaudy by today's standards) mirrored dresser. While my husband insisted it was a great piece of furniture (and it was structurally), the other two sibs kept repeating sentiments like "no one is going to want it." Until I came to its defense with, "Someone is going to see the possibilities in this - If we had room, I would remove the two out of style mirrors, paint the thing and turn it into a large dining room buffet table." They suddenly looked it with much less disdain. In the end, no one who came through the house wanted it, so it got donated to Habitat for Humanity, were I hope someone will discover it and turn it into some awesome piece of furniture that suits today's sensibilities.
ReplyDeleteComing back to say... looking in my china cabinet drawer today (and finding more paper napkins to use up), I found 10 decks of playing cards in one of the drawers. I knew we kept cards in there for spontaneous games, but I didn't realize we had that many. Then, just because I was curious, I checked the game closet and I found 5 more decks in there. And then I remembered 2 decks in a cute wooden box I brought back from MIL's this summer... Of course, this doesn't even count the various other card games we have...
ReplyDeleteI know this isn't a contest, but sometimes it seems like a race to shame to see who has how more STUFF! We do NOT need this many playing cards, so I'll be decluttering them in my next minimalizing phase. ;^)
Oh my gosh I had this discussion with Alex before we moved...we had eleven decks of cards and we never play lol...we decided to just keep 2 decks that his grandfather gave him and gave the rest to goodwill!
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