MY ROSEWOOD BOOKCASE

Today I took photos in my my sewing room to post on the NING group I belong to and after I looked at those photos, I started to think about the things I have in this room and where they came from and how much they mean to me. Most particularly, my rosewood bookcase.

The rosewood bookcase where (funnily enough) my needle-related books are was one of the first pieces of furniture Frank and I bought when we moved to North Vancouver after living in Prince Rupert for five months when we were first married. It's about 34 years old. I still think it is a lovely piece of furniture.

Stored in the bookcase are:

Recipes collected and and saved in a 2lb chocolate box by my mother-in-law, Cora Abeling. A lot are written in Dutch or cut, very carefully, from the newspaper. Aunty Mary Richmond's recipes are in a plastic file card box. Most of hers are low-calorie and low fat or are for Colonel Blimp Chutney. One day I will make a collage for each of them. Just because.

A little book called "Little Sally Mandy and the Shiny Penny" which was given to me in 1956 by Mrs. Dorthea Fountain - a friend of my grandmother Ada Georgina Shoemaker Richmond. Mrs. Fountain was one of the first female doctors to graduate from the University of Toronto. Sadly, both of her sons were killed during WWII. Mrs. Fountain used to send us scratchy socks and Barley Sugar Sticks for Christmas and a $2 bill for our birthdays until we turned 16.

A small pink cup and saucer that Donna and Rob Laydon (Leighton?) gave me when I was born - way back in 1951. My father Charles Herbert Battison and my cousin Sydney Carol Dean broke it when they were throwing a rolled up sock around the house many years ago. It is held together by imbedded Scotch Tape residue and is one of the very few things I own that came from my life with my father and mother. Another item from my life with my father and mother is my father's camera which he left with my mother (Ada Margaret Richmond Battison Smith) so she could take pictures. She didn't bother very often, so there is very little documented evidence of my existence between the ages of 7 and 25 and even then, its spotty!

A handcrafted pottery bunny that my sister Ann Margaret Battison gave me. A cat pushed it off a shelf and broke its ears which have been Crazy-Glued back in place. I know Ann won't mind that a cat broke it, because she likes cats too!

A little Grecian villa, two stuffed desk ornaments, rock bookends, an 'earthquake indicator' and three Russian figurines that were actually purchased in Russia by a Steele & Co. client and which remind me of some of the finest men a girl could work for!

A plaster of paris carving that I made for Aunty Mary when she was Director of Nursing at Vancouver General and I was in Grade 10 at Royal Oak Junior High. A piece of driftwood that either Ann or I cleaned and varnished for Aunty Mary for Christmas back when our mother was feeling 'artsy crafty'. Ann says she made it; I say I made it. Doesn't really matter. I have it.

Framed petit-pointed pansies made for me by my friend Kass who also made the framed cross-stitched butterfly and my own silk-on-silk embroidered flower kit that Frank gave me for Christmas the same year he gave me a calligraphy pen and some Henkel knives - which was the same year his sister got gold-plated faucets for a house they don't live in any more. I still have the knives and I can do calligraphy.

Pieces of decorative china and magical, wondrous sewing things that belonged to Dorothy Peacock and her half-sister (my father's cousin) Kay Peacock Little. Decorative bone china sent to my mother by her uncle George Richmond (Nr. Swindon, Wilts., England) for Christmas over the years.

My precious collection of thimbles - gifted to me by my husband, a former employer, friends, family and Aunty Mary (Helen) Battison Dean who gave me some of Dorothy's and Kay's sewing treasures.

Not one, but TWO cases containing the feet and some other (but not all - by a long shot!) attachments for my Bernina Artista 200 sewing machine that I bought just for me in memory of my mother who taught me to sew and my Aunty Mary who encouraged us in everything we did. (My old Bernina 830 is stored behind my sewing table and my new Pfaff is under the stool that Aunty Mary bargello-ed.)

My rosewood bookcase is a very special piece of furniture.

And look - I have a project underway on the ironing board! It's a scrappy log-cabinish type of quilt and I have actually used some of my stash, including one spool of thread!

And another look!! I have another project in waiting - the floor needs to be vacuumed!

I'll do that sometime.

Stay tuned for things mentioned, but not elaborated on, in this blog! May be tomorrow - may be next week!

UPDATE: Because of this post, I was contacted by relatives of Mrs. Dorthea Fountain's! It's a small cyber-world! Thanks Leslie!