Restored

I had Friday off of work, so I’ve spent the last three days catching up on my sleep, tucked into a little cocoon of rest and relaxation. I stayed off the Internet, and I barely watched TV. I read a lot. I did stuff around the house. I ran errands. And it was exactly what I needed. I’m feeling much less overwhelmed and much more ready to take on the world again.

One of the places I visited on my rounds of errands was the local hippie food co-op, where I finally tracked down a furniture polish made of beeswax and oil instead of a mess of chemicals that aren’t good for older wood. One of the websites I visited for tips on furniture restoration said that sometimes all an older piece of furniture needs is a good polish with some beeswax, and wow, were they right. I wish I had taken before and after photos, because putting that beeswax on made an impressive difference. Another website has suggested using watercolors to touch up scratches, but that didn’t look at that great in my opinion. The polish, on the other hand, worked miracles.

Behold my beautiful cabinet:

And here’s a close-up so you can see the details on the drawer:

I spent a large chunk of my day today unpacking, washing and drying the china and glassware that is now stored in the cabinet. It all belonged to my great-grandmother, which may conjure up images of ancient family heirlooms, but it seems to be a fairly standard issue 20th century set of china and some depression glass. The china is incomplete – eight dinner plates, eight tiny dessert plates, but only three bowls and seven cups, and of course, a gravy boat, along with various other serving pieces – and not really my taste, as my great-grandmother was partial to flowers and gilt. She liked it a lot, in fact. There’s a second set of dishes, 12 in all, that appear to be part of an older set of china, also with flowers and gilt, but a much less sophisticated design. That’s not to say that there aren’t touches that I like, particularly on the main set of china. The dishes all have an interesting fluted edge to them instead of just being boring and round, and there is a little teal detail painted into the back of the floral design that flirts with your eye in a subtle and interesting way. But what I like best is feeling a connection back through the generations to a woman who died before I was even born.