These are a few things that belonged to my sweet mother-in-law. They have been stored away at her place since her passing a few years ago. Since she was a smoker, and her other son living in her home now is also, they needed a LOT of cleaning, but I'm getting there slowly, now that these things are at my home.
First up, this lovely lamp. It's really a night light, because it can only handle a very small watt bulb. I had to use a Q-tip to clean in all the tiny places but now it's shiny nice and I think it's lovely.
Next up another lamp. This one is even sweeter, and larger. The figures are playing musical instruments. I have not cleaned this one yet, and you can see it isn't bright and shiny, but it will be soon.
A lovely Madonna painting. Unfortunately the flash from the camera dulls it here, but it really is pretty. It is not an original painting, but rather printed on cardboard; I suppose a predecessor of the modern Giclee, but I still think it's nice, and my husband says he remembers it hanging in their home when he was a child. It seems to be a detail of a larger painting, but I don't know from where. Do you?
A cloth sampler. The picture and words are all hand-stitched. It's framed, so the camera flash interfered, but you can still see what it's like. I don't know for sure but I'm betting my mother-in-law stitched it when she was a young girl, because she lived mostly in a boarding school since her importer/exporter parents traveled out of the country a lot. I want to take it out of the frame and clean it. Has anyone ever cleaned a sampler like this? Can I just hand wash it in gentle soap?
And...a small original landscape oil painting that also needs to be cleaned. I'll have to research that to find out what to use. The camera flash also made a glare on this. It's a little country road going around a bend and behind the trees. The signature is J.P. Gruet, dated 1933. I have no clue who this is, and it really needs a better frame.
Oh, and last but definitely not least,
I believe I have inherited a dove. Not from my mother-in-law, but I think it's the same one I posted about in the "glitter room" a couple of months ago. She and her hunny have been working very hard today to rebuild that nest on the porch light, so I guess we will be having more babies! I love the way doves build their nests. So haphazard and artzy looking, and it looks like it will just fall apart, but it doesn't. I'll give progress reports on her!
Be peaceful.
