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Sometimes we get inspiration from the most unlikely sources. Last Friday when I got dressed for the day, I subtly felt a pull towards wearing my late paternal grandmother's antique locket. I don't usually wear it because it's this big heavy oval object and the chain is broken and amateurishly mended, but the locket still holds the original photographs my grandmother crudely cut out and placed inside. On one side is a picture of me, about 9 years old, wearing a dress she made for me, and on the other side is a picture of her, me and my late brother taken that same day. VERY sentimental. So maybe I chose to wear it for that very reason, or maybe it's because I've got this nagging feeling that started little over a year ago and occasionally pops up, that she's somehow here, with me.
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There's one thing that you have to understand about my grandmother. She was creative and fearless. About the creative part I'm very sure. She was a participant and judge in various cooking competitions and even got published in a local magazine for hosting awesome parties. And she dabbled in various arts and crafts including pottery, sewing, painting, flower arranging and everything and anything creative grabbing her attention. The fearless part is something I just felt in her spirit every time we were together. She was a brave woman who took on pig farming, lived half her life with half a stomach, permanently wore tightly curled wigs and smoked long skinny cigarettes that looked particularly glamorous to me at 9 years old. She was something of a regal entity during my growing up years. And then she got smaller and frailer and moved into a retirement home and before I could really appreciate her as an adult, she was gone. A life lived on her terms. (I'll dig up a photo and post it later.)
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So Friday, I went to the craft store to fill up on supplies and inspiration hit me from several directions. I found this beautiful apothecary jar (i'm in love with apothecary jars now) that I filled with old family pictures, found the perfect frame and background for the antique cutlery I had no clue what to do with (watch this space...), got yards of beautiful trim to finish the old traveling trunk we're restoring, and fell in love with a yarn so creamy and dreamy it makes you want to cuddle all day long. (I'll post some pics of the finished projects soon.)
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I'm convinced that part of this inspiration came from my grandmother. I've come to believe that her spirit is lingering near me for some reason. Usually something like that would freak me out, but this time, it makes me feel safe and happy. Last year a psychic friend told me that she feels a female spirit lingering around me and said something that I could only link to her and a few months later she said she was buying some antique jewelry for her shop and felt like she had to get something for me. She gave me this locket so similar to my grandmother's that it awed me.
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Okay, enough about that. Up top are some pictures of the apothecary jar filled with some of my favorite family pictures. That's my mom sitting in front of a mirror when she was about my age, my mom and dad kissing, and my maternal grandparents with my late brother. The one of my mother in front of the mirror has tiny cracks all over the surface that makes it look like a work of art. I love this jar with these photographs. It makes me smile every time I pass it.
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(C) Posted photographs, MJ Calitz, 2011
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There's one thing that you have to understand about my grandmother. She was creative and fearless. About the creative part I'm very sure. She was a participant and judge in various cooking competitions and even got published in a local magazine for hosting awesome parties. And she dabbled in various arts and crafts including pottery, sewing, painting, flower arranging and everything and anything creative grabbing her attention. The fearless part is something I just felt in her spirit every time we were together. She was a brave woman who took on pig farming, lived half her life with half a stomach, permanently wore tightly curled wigs and smoked long skinny cigarettes that looked particularly glamorous to me at 9 years old. She was something of a regal entity during my growing up years. And then she got smaller and frailer and moved into a retirement home and before I could really appreciate her as an adult, she was gone. A life lived on her terms. (I'll dig up a photo and post it later.)
*
So Friday, I went to the craft store to fill up on supplies and inspiration hit me from several directions. I found this beautiful apothecary jar (i'm in love with apothecary jars now) that I filled with old family pictures, found the perfect frame and background for the antique cutlery I had no clue what to do with (watch this space...), got yards of beautiful trim to finish the old traveling trunk we're restoring, and fell in love with a yarn so creamy and dreamy it makes you want to cuddle all day long. (I'll post some pics of the finished projects soon.)
*
I'm convinced that part of this inspiration came from my grandmother. I've come to believe that her spirit is lingering near me for some reason. Usually something like that would freak me out, but this time, it makes me feel safe and happy. Last year a psychic friend told me that she feels a female spirit lingering around me and said something that I could only link to her and a few months later she said she was buying some antique jewelry for her shop and felt like she had to get something for me. She gave me this locket so similar to my grandmother's that it awed me.
*
Okay, enough about that. Up top are some pictures of the apothecary jar filled with some of my favorite family pictures. That's my mom sitting in front of a mirror when she was about my age, my mom and dad kissing, and my maternal grandparents with my late brother. The one of my mother in front of the mirror has tiny cracks all over the surface that makes it look like a work of art. I love this jar with these photographs. It makes me smile every time I pass it.
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(C) Posted photographs, MJ Calitz, 2011
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