Old Things Gathered: Yellow For Fall

Hanging on to old things is what I do. For this week's Five on Friday link party at Love Made My Home, I'm sharing five old things around our house connected by the color yellow for Fall.

Many of the old things I have were bestowed on me from older family members. Bestow is the right word...I looked it up. It is an honor to receive beloved family items and I appreciate them very much. 

be·stow

bəˈstō/

verb

past tense: bestowed; past participle: bestowed

1. confer or present (an honor, right, or gift).

One...Vintage Coffee Pot. This pot came from a collectibles store in Albuquerque and has been with me since 2002, but it's way older than that. Cowboys use to hang them over open fires to brew coffee for the guys. That's one of the reasons why the old coffee pots had a metal handle on top. 

Can you imagine taking the time to start a fire and brew up a pot so everyone can gather 'round and warm up before starting the day? 

Think about that the next time you are in the drive-thru line at Starbucks and it takes a few minutes longer than you think it should!

I have to wonder who had the better life? Those who gathered together first thing in the morning with warmth and companionship, or us hurrying off to work by ourselves with an ugly paper cup?

I use the old coffeepot for holding flowers, both real and faux. The real ones, like the sunflowers in the first pictures, require putting a mason jar inside the coffeepot to hold the water just in case it leaks.

Two...Vintage cabinet. It's still yellow, but I'm planning on painting it some shade of white. For now it's holding some Fall decor on top and dishes inside. 

I bought the little cabinet from a consignment shop 2 or 3 years ago. I always planned to paint it, just can't settle on a color.

Three...My great-grandmother's dresser and mirror from when she was a little girl. It has a crazy family history I'll get to some other time.

I know you're thinking "it's not yellow", but look inside the drawer with me. 

When I got the dresser from my father back in 1980, this wallpaper was lining the drawer. I never removed it...I wanted it to remain as part of its legacy. The dresser and mirror had been stored in a barn in Nebraska since the 1930's, and I believe the wallpaper was in there all that time. My father rescued it in 1977, when the barn was torn down, a few years before I could pick it up from him.

 I pulled a small piece out of the back of the drawer to look at it better tonight. I think I'll try to frame it so I can see it more often and try to research the pattern by the numbers at the top of the piece.

Four...An old painting from the 1880's. This painting is one of a pair. There was a tag on the back showing they were framed at a shop in San Francisco in the 1880's. It's in a dark hallway and it was hard to get a good picture.

Here's a close up of the vase and some of the flowers depicted.

The painter used a very soft yellow on one or two of the flowers, but yellow none the less. Can you see it?

My mother gave me one of these paintings 20 years ago, and then gave me the other one about 5 years ago. They stand about 4 foot high. 

Five...Old Family Quilt. My mother-in-law gave me this quilt last year. 

Her mother created this hand-stitched quilt with other family women and friends when my mother-in-law was a young girl. Each person chose their fabric, made a square, then stitched her name across it. 

Opal chose a yellowish-gold embroidery thread to stitch her name boldly across her square. Opal was long gone when I joined the family over 20 years ago, but I think I would've liked her if she was as straight-forward as her signature appears.

It's not yellow, but Mittie's orange square to the left side of the picture below is another bold statement I love. 

Depending on how it's folded, the quilt fits in with lots of seasonal decorating. The oranges and yellows fit right in with fall.

That's my five this week. Hope you'll drop by Amaze Me Monday, Willy Nilly Friday, and Amy's blog where you can add your five too. You can write about anything, but I'd love to see what you have around the house that you cherish -- if you're of a mind to show it.

Thanks for dropping by!

Partying Here:
Amaze Me Monday
Willy Nilly Friday
Five On Friday