Storytelling Sunday 3 - February

This year Storytelling Sunday asks you to "pick your precious".  This is how Sian described it ...

Start looking around, see what you love. Pick Your Precious is for short story tellers and for long. You can take the idea of simply a photo with a few words; or, if you are a can't-stop-yourself storyteller, you can expand as much as you like. The thing to keep in mind is that at the end of the year you'll have a permanent record of the little things you hold dear - and your family will know why you are holding onto them! Doesn't that sound like it might be worth it? No more "Do you really need that?"

Please join us this year.  It only takes a minute and even if you only write a story or two, that will be a few more of your stories written down. 

Pick Your Precious - February

One of my most precious 'things' are stored in two shoe boxes.  I have had them since I was three.  We were living in Montana at the time with my Grandma and Aunt.  For Christmas they gave me a dolls house full of furniture and dolls.  It is one of my earliest memories.  Here I am Christmas morning playing with my house.  I had to take photos of the photos to get them on here and one just wouldn't lay flat!  The house came complete with Santa going down the chimney, a snowman out the front and a Christmas tree in the living room.

Unfortunately when I was five we moved back to Australia and my Grandma said the house couldn't come with us.  I now know that my mom wanted to pack it and argued with my Grandma about it.  She said that it is her one regret about that move as I didn't forgive her for giving it away for a very long time. Somewhere in Orlando a children's church enjoyed it long after I did.  Thankfully she kept the all of the furniture and the family of dolls.  I played with them for many years and would set them up around my room.  When I was done I would pack them away back into boxes to sit safely on my closet shelf.  I was never really a very big Barbie fan.  For my 6th birthday my dad bought me a huge Barbie house with an elevator and all the furniture, but it was never the same.  It was plastic and gaudy. I sold it when I was 10 and bought a bike.  He was not impressed.

The people have bodies bound in thread so that they can bend.  The family consisted of Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister and Baby.  The grandparents have grey hair (didn't you know that all grandparents have grey hair?!?!?!?)  Funny that I came from an extremely dysfunctional family but I had a 'normal' doll family :-)

All of the pieces are looking a little worse for wear after all these years.  My Aunt used some kind of green goop to attach the accessories to things.  I spent ages trying to remove it as a kid as it is sooooooo sticky, but to no avail.

Grandma has her rocking chair while Grandpa has a big comfy chair by the fire.

I always loved the sewing machine and the basket of knitting.

And what home would be complete without copies of all the good magazines?

The bathroom always made me giggle as the toilet seat goes up and down and used to have a chain hanging from the cistern.  I always wanted a big bath like that.

The kitchen was very modern, considering the dolls wore long dresses and they had a treadle sewing machine.  There was a dishwasher, toaster and lots of other bits.  The little cupboard on the left of the photo used to hang on the wall of the house.

The knives fit into slots on the side of the chopping block.  I used to bake pies and cookies with my dolls in this kitchen for hours :-)

The nursery was so cute with pictures on everything.  I loved the little stroller and the rocking horse.

I always wanted a four poster bed just like this one!  I added the Japanese screen when I was older as all dolls need some privacy when getting ready for bed :-)  It is completely the wrong scale but has lived in the box along with the rest for many years.

As a kid it was always the little accessories that excited me.  I loved the clocks and the books.  There were also mirrors, candlesticks, mice, and letters.  When I was about seven I added the basket for the kitten.  It contains the one and only thing I have ever crocheted.  It is a tiny white and pink circle.  For a little while we had an older lady minding us after school.  I remember crocheting this with her.  But after that we didn't go to her house very often so I never crocheted again.

I have enjoyed getting out these boxes.  Even as an adult I would occasionally open the lids and peak in remembering my lovely house and all the fun I had.  It also reminded me how much I was loved.  These things have been packed for so long that I hadn't realised that I had never showed them to my daughter.  My boys had seen them (although they had forgotten) but I was very sad when The Princess wanted to know where I had gotten the dolls from.  Life gets so busy and complicated and I was very sad that I hadn't taken the time to share these with her.  I am glad that STS is making me look at the precious 'things' in our life.  While people are always more important, sometimes the stories behind the 'things' we hold dear that shed some light on who the important people in our lives are.

Please head on over to Sian's and join us for a story.  I promise that they are all good :-)

Chipper