These are a few of my favourite things

I've always had an attraction for antiques, vintage finds and pieces that have belonged to someone else.

Most of these items have little monetary value, but to me, they are priceless. It’s as if somehow, by having belonged to someone I love, they take on another form. I love to scatter items from my past and my childhood throughout my home.

I've always been a collector of things and souvenirs. When I got my first job at 17, working for the Ottawa General Hospital, I decided to redo my bedroom and visited a few antique stores and the Stittsville fleamarket where I bought a small antique table (which I still have) and a mirror for my dresser. I remember being excited that these items were so old and had a history.

As a child and after I first got married, I loved going to my grandmother Bigras who lived with my uncles, Edgar and Roger, in the country. They were so welcoming and always seemed so happy to see us, and as a bonus, they had things from the past in their home.  I would ask questions about each item and I remember how they looked upon these items as old things. They gifted me with a door stopper, well, they used it as a door stopper, but it is in fact a small flat iron painted silver. When I look at it, I can picture my grandmother ironing the clothes of her 8 boys and ironing everything from bed sheets to underwear because that's what they did back then. This is no ordinary iron, she had to warm it on the wood stove before using it, because she used it before there was even electricity. Just imagine living without electricity...I would not be writing this blog post on my iPad tablet and sharing this with you on the Internet through Facebook, that's for certain :)

I also have a tablecloth and pillow cases my grandmother embroidered for me which I cherish. They are beautiful just as she was...I miss her very much. I also loved visiting her sister, my aunt Gracia, who lived close by in an old house that she grew up in. I will leave this for another post as my wonderful aunt deserves a blog post of her own to be written in the near future.

Every time I would visit my grandmother Viau (my mom's mother), I would go and get the doll she kept on her bed and play with it. One day, she gave it to me...the doll's smiling face reminds me of her and how she loved to laugh. I have broaches and cuff links I've collected from loved ones (see photo above)...nothing expensive, but beautiful treasures none the less.

I have dishes and candy bowls that gather dust in my cupboards and I only use once in a while. I leave out the ones that are most precious to me so I can see them every day.  Each item is special to me and each holds a memory to be treasured.

Looking at items from my childhood, brings back memories and souvenirs of happy times. A chair that's in my living room brings back souvenirs of my dad and I laughing until we cried trying to get it in the car! A bookcases in my living, that I refer to as "la bibliothèque" reminds me that my mom loved books (some of her books are still in it) and that my dad used to leave loose change on it for me and my sister when we were young.

I love the paint-by-number paintings my parents painted together and the wool blanket my mom crocheted that now decorates our cottage. I love to look at my mom's trophy from her school days and at an old bottle that use to be in our basement in my dad's bar. What fun I had with my friends around that bar when I was a teenager. I'll leave that for another post also or maybe not :)


Over the years, I've accumulated souvenirs of my childhood, my school years, family members that are no longer with us and of my children (cards, drawing, etc.). Some would say that I keep things that are mundane or trivial, and that I'm somewhat of a packrat, but they are part of me, they follow me from home to home and from year to year.


They are part of my life baggage and I love them and the souvenirs that are attached to them. Just like my dad's old family portraits and 8mm movies, my own photos are souvenirs in the making.

Whenever my niece and nephew visit, I take lots of photos and my daughters often tell me to stop already, but my nephew once said that it was ok for me to take all these pictures as I'm making memories for them for the future. Children are so wise.

I don't know that these souvenirs will be important to someone else once I'm gone.

I can picture myself, a little old lady sitting in a retirement home with all my souvenirs and my laptop on my knees looking at my photos.

Until then, I will continue gathering souvenirs, visiting flea markets and taking photos.  

And who knows, perhaps someday, my children or grand-children will also share my love of things old.

If not, maybe someone, somewhere will look at my things in a flea market or garage sale and imagine the lady who lovingly collected them and get a glimpse of who I was.