All my grandparents died before I was born, and while there was quite a bit of family money on both sides it was all spent up well before any of it got to me, sadly. On my mother's side at least, most of the antiques and jewelry had been sold off in estate sales and the like.
On my father's side, who knows? My dad was very much the black sheep of his family and probably went through more money than I'll ever see. But he had a good time doing it, which is more than you can say for a lot of people, and I don't begrudge either of my parents a dime, though it would have been nice to have been handed down a bar cart or silver punchbowl.
However, there is one thing that made it down to me from my father's parents' house (probably because he entrusted it to my Auntie Ann Burr for safekeeping). It is a gilt, antique, Federal bullseye mirror. As you may remember, the last time you saw it it was hanging it my wallpapered foyer:
Nice, right? (Barf!) So I took it down and stuck it in the attic. I couldn't get rid of it! I mean, my dad is dead! I can't SELL the one piece of family inheritance he left behind (well, not the only one; there's a grandfather clock for my sister).
Anyway, I started seeing pictures of other bullseye mirrors that didn't make me want to vomit, and thought maybe there was somewhere else I could hang it that might be better. But where? For a while I became obsessed with hanging it on one of the bookshelves in the living room:
You know, like this:
But then I realized that A) the mirror itself was HUGE and would take up like the whole fucking bookcase and B) the bookcases themselves are neither fancy nor built-in, but are in fact from Gothic Cabinet Craft and probably not the right vehicle for the mirror and C) I only had one mirror so what the hell was I going to hang on the other bookcase?
Also my mother told me she thought it was a terrible idea.
But I kept my eye out, and collected pictures of bull eye mirrors looking fabulous:
This last one is what gave me the inspiration I needed. The blue wall made me think of my dining room. And so:
Here it is with the not-inherited, silver-plate (Shhhhhh!) punchbowl:
I love it.
XOXOXO
ABC
On my father's side, who knows? My dad was very much the black sheep of his family and probably went through more money than I'll ever see. But he had a good time doing it, which is more than you can say for a lot of people, and I don't begrudge either of my parents a dime, though it would have been nice to have been handed down a bar cart or silver punchbowl.
However, there is one thing that made it down to me from my father's parents' house (probably because he entrusted it to my Auntie Ann Burr for safekeeping). It is a gilt, antique, Federal bullseye mirror. As you may remember, the last time you saw it it was hanging it my wallpapered foyer:
Nice, right? (Barf!) So I took it down and stuck it in the attic. I couldn't get rid of it! I mean, my dad is dead! I can't SELL the one piece of family inheritance he left behind (well, not the only one; there's a grandfather clock for my sister).
Anyway, I started seeing pictures of other bullseye mirrors that didn't make me want to vomit, and thought maybe there was somewhere else I could hang it that might be better. But where? For a while I became obsessed with hanging it on one of the bookshelves in the living room:
You know, like this:
But then I realized that A) the mirror itself was HUGE and would take up like the whole fucking bookcase and B) the bookcases themselves are neither fancy nor built-in, but are in fact from Gothic Cabinet Craft and probably not the right vehicle for the mirror and C) I only had one mirror so what the hell was I going to hang on the other bookcase?
Also my mother told me she thought it was a terrible idea.
But I kept my eye out, and collected pictures of bull eye mirrors looking fabulous:
This last one is what gave me the inspiration I needed. The blue wall made me think of my dining room. And so:
Here it is with the not-inherited, silver-plate (Shhhhhh!) punchbowl:
I love it.
XOXOXO
ABC
