Three on Thursday

Carole is staycationing this week so there may not be an "official" ToT linkup and you can go here to read more Three on Thursday thoughts! I've got three things, so today I'm going to share with you three meaningful objects in my home that I often take for granted but have recently cleaned and now feel a renewed appreciation. (How's that for a long description that I couldn't shorten?)

Back in January of 2002 my mother was quite ill with metastatic breast cancer. Hospice had told us that there wasn't much more time, and I was making the drive to my parents' house every day as soon as I put the kids on the bus. I wanted to do something for my mother, but she wasn't eating, speaking, or responding at all, so I wasn't sure what that "something" might be. I stopped at our local florist, and was lucky enough to find a small pot of daffodils in the depths of winter. I also got this daffodil cache pot, and these graced her bedside for a few days until her death. The pot has had a place on my kitchen windowsill ever since then, and eventually became a place for the wishbones that the boys loved. I think of it a holder for extra luck if we might ever need it, along with some bittersweet but loving memories of my mother. 

Ryan had a digital photography class in high school, and he had to do a final project. Ryan chose to take a discarded book from the library and alter it to present his photographs, bits of text, thoughts, and drawings in a unique way. We were working out the typical teenage son trying to become more of his own person/mother not learning how to let go relationship struggles, and I was truly touched and grateful when he gifted this to me. It has a place of pride on the mantel, and I recently spent a very pleasurable hour looking through it. I wish I could show you every page, and I wish Ryan was here so I could ask him what some of his drawings mean, but it is a very special and loved treasure.

Lastly, here is another very special and loved mantel treasure, this time from Justin. 

When Justin worked in Texas, it was on a very remote ranch, so he had to find creative ways to entertain himself in the evenings. One of these was knife making. He didn't have forging equipment, so he made knives from metal he found around the ranch, like old files. He was looking around in an antique store one day and found this vintage Ford ratchet wrench. It used to look something like this:

and Justin crafted it into this:

John has always had some sort of vintage Ford car or truck in the process of restoration. Sometimes they even get finished, so Justin thought John would appreciate his own custom vintage Ford knife for his birthday, and of course, he did! I love and appreciate Justin's creativity and generosity, along with the sewing and leather-working skills he practiced to also make the sheath. 

I'm not much of a housekeeper, but I am glad I was motivated enough to dust and rediscover these things I love. I hope you have plenty of your own beloved treasures and appreciate them, dusty or not.