Cherishing Old Stuff/Obsessed with Chalk Paint

I’m veering off my usual Southern travel blogging, if y’all don’t mind. This is the time of year that my parents come to mind. Their birthdays were one day apart in February, just before Valentine’s Day.

Three years ago, on leap year, my mother passed away after a battle with Alzheimer’s. This began a season of mourning for our family as my mother-in-law unexpectedly passed away around thirty days later, to be followed by my father the next month. During those sixty days, we lived in a whirlwind of planning three funerals and visitations, wrote thank you notes for the flowers and condolences offered, and sorted through financial paperwork.

And then there was stuff. A lot of stuff. It’s hard to know what to do with all the things people treasured and saved for years. Especially the generations that came up in the times when life was bit tougher financially. They saved one thing to fix another or in case they might need it. Or they saved stuff for no apparent reason at all.

As the survivor, it’s hard to get rid of some of the stupidest things. A candle stick. A picture frame. A junky table that you know must have come from a garage sale.

Around this time, I began my obsession with chalk paint. 
Obsessed.
I admit it.

Supposedly, chalk paint covers over any finish. This claim is mostly true, but some colors are definitely harder to work with than others. That said, I began my experiments with painting old stuff I wanted to keep—if only it looked a bit better.

Nostalgia drove me, I guess. And I’m not even crafty or very nostalgic! So, I thought I'd post pics of refurbished things, as well as old photos of my parents and my mother-in-law. Perhaps the Lord’s made them young and new and even more beautiful in Heaven. That’s how I picture them, anyway.