Decorating with Mother

Decorating with Mother... No, no, for me it doesn't involve hanging drapes and arranging vignettes with my mom. My mom passed on before she could see my home, Waterhouse-- and anyway, she was much more of a 70s Colonial gal in harvest colors than a Victorian gal in purples, pinks and greens.

Nope, I mean decorating with Mother. I took a look around the house this weekend and I realized just how many vintage decorative items were made with moms in mind. Like the print here...



I got this lovely print about a year ago at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Monroeville. It's from the early 1900s. And in addition to the soft colors, it features a barely-visible poem:

Her Gift

So wee a gift- yet wealth of so many lands
Could never buy it in the richest marts!
So frail a gift, and yet those baby hands
Take mighty hold upon two human hearts
-Burges Johnson

My spare room bears another vintage Mother print, this one by Marygold from around the 30s...


The poem reads:

To Mother: A Toast
Sweet as the song which the robins sing
Pure as the flow of a crystal spring
True as your faith in the God above
So deep are the depths of a Mother's Love

I also spied another Mother poem sitting on the spare room bed! This one in the form of a World War II souvenir pillow cover from Camp Lee, Virginia...

That poem reads:

Mother
There's a dear little house inviting
In a dear little place I know
And a welcome is always waiting
When to that little house I go
For there lives the dearest lady
The sweetest I ever met
And today, if I cannot visit,
Dear Mother, I don't forget

I like that one in particular, it makes me think of those days coming home from college and finding Mom making her amazing pot roast in that orange Crockpot of hers. A great memory!

And you know, with all of these mother poems lurking around every corner, I also have some actual mothers hanging around...

This is my great-grandmother on my mother's side, holding my grandpa on her knee...


Grandpa looks a bit suspicious of the goings on there, doesn't he?

And this is grandpa, all grown up (and with some rather surprising hair; Grandpa hadn't had hair for as long as I knew him!), standing with my grandmother, and holding my mom...


This happens to be just one of many Standing in a Field shots my family tended to take. It just wasn't good photography unless everyone could see your feet in the shot. I bet some of you folks have a few of these sorts of photos, too!

And then this was my mom, in the late 60s, early 70s, looking a bit Audrey Hepburnish...


She's wearing what I always referred to as her "referee shirt." (She hated that-- heh-heh.)

Well, that's the tour of mothers today!

• If you have a moment and care to read a little tale of my Mom and her mad sewing skillz one Halloween ("Nightmare on Sesame Street, Part 1"), click here.

• If you missed Wednesday's Treasure Box post, you'll find that here.

Next Sunday, I'll take you all to Rossi's Pop Up Flea Market with me!

Happy Mother's Day to all you nice moms out there-- and to any Dads, too, 'cause you're pretty spiffy for visiting, too! :)