Collecting Sugar Bowls and Creamers

Over thirty years ago when I began going to antique shops and shows, I was on a mission to find some missing pieces to my mother’s silver plate pattern.  However, it wasn’t long before I was hooked.   After I found all the missing silverware, my new hobby was launched. As a beginner, I began collecting cups and saucers and small dessert plates.  These collections were fun because there was always at least one “find” that was affordable.  Later I graduated to creamers … so many beautiful old fashioned ones … and next … sugar bowls. One of the most fun ways to use these collections is when you host ladies for the garden club or book club and serve coffee and cake; mix and match the china on a beautifully set table.

 COLLECTING LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS … STRIKING GOLD!

My Little Golden Book collection is the oldest and most loved of all of my many collections.  Little Golden Books (LGBs) were first introduced in 1942.  Prior to this time, most children’s books were not of a “kid friendly” type.  Since my mother had been an elementary school teacher before I was born and I was a child of the early 1940s, we were the perfect audience for the new easily available books.  Through my childhood years, my sister, brother, and I had a nice collection of Golden Books, but when we outgrew them my mother passed them onto our younger cousin and only a few worn out books remained. 

I still have fond memories of some of the early books … Mother Goose, The Little Red Hen, Three Little Kittens, and Fairy Tales … but my favorites were Noises and Mr. Flibberty Jib,  Fix It Please, Playing House, and The New Baby, all of which were illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.  When I had my own three daughters, I began to buy all the new titles and reprints of the old titles.   Many new titles illustrated by Eloise Wilkin were published during these years, and I bought them all.  They grew up loving  LGBs as much as I had.  Then in 1992, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of LGBs, Golden Press brought out a facsimile boxed set of the first 12 books published.  Of course, I had to have a set even though my own daughters were too old by then for LGBs. 

It was about this time that I first began to go to antique shows and shops looking for a few missing pieces of my mother’s silverware.  On my first trip to the Scott Antique Show in Atlanta, I found a booth of all kinds of collectible children’s books including LGBs.  Browsing through the stash, I found and bought several books that I remembered. I decided that the one book that I really would like to find was The New Baby that had been read to me so many times before the birth of my brother, who was born when I was about six.  I was on a mission, checking out stacks of the older books every time I went antiquing.  Even though I wasn’t lucky enough to find The New Baby right away, I would usually find another old book that I remembered, and my collection started to grow and grow.  It took me about seven years before I was able to find the “piece de resistance.”  That was more than 25 years ago, and now I have a huge wonderful collection of books.  My daughters have enjoyed them as well as my grandchildren. 

Along the way, I discovered there is a lot to know about collecting these books.  Since I decided I only wanted to collect books from the 1940s and 1950s, I started to do research about how to know which ones to collect.  I bought Tomart’s Price Guide to Golden Book Collectibles (it was in this book that I was inspired by the phrase “striking gold”). Later I added the third and fifth editions of Collecting Little Golden Books by Steve Santi.  These books are just filled with the history and development of the books.  They also have complete lists and photos of all of the books in chronological order.  I began to read, learn, and check off the books I had collected and make a list of those that I wanted to collect. In the beginning, I took the reference books with me and left them in the car.  If I found some books that I wasn’t sure about, I could go out and look them up in the guides.  After a while, if you collect a lot of anything you need a list.  For collectibles other than LGBs, I keep a small spiral notebook of lists in my purse.   Now I keep my lists on my Pinterest as well,  including my wish list.   Even though I don’t “need” to add to most of my collections, there are a few things I would still like.  Pinterest wish lists allow my daughters to be able to use their iPhones to check the lists any time‼

The quilts of my collection were made by my maternal grandmother.  She was born in 1883 and by the age of 18 she was listed in the 1900 census as a professional dressmaker.  Married in 1904, she became the wife of a preacher and mother of six.  My mother said that the family was carried through the Depression years by the gardening and canning of her parents and the sewing skills of her mother who made and remade clothing for hire.  The scraps of fabric left over from dressmaking were never wasted but were artfully stitched into beautiful designs and quilted into bedding for the family.  The quilts she made are so reminiscent of the dresses she wore.

For the final quilting the pieced top was layered with batting and fabric backing and stretched onto a large wooden frame that could be rolled up to the ceiling when not in use.  Quilting often was a social event with ladies of the church stitching around the sides of a quilt, many times embroidering their name on a square.  These were called friendship quilts.

In the early years of our marriage I bought ornaments for our first Christmas trees; most were the Shiny Brite brand. In 1968 our first daughter was born and I decided to start a collection for her.  On Christmas Eve, I was leafing through a December magazine when I read about one reader’s idea of collecting one ornament a year for her children and then giving each child their collection when they left home.  I thought what a wonderful way to build a memory! On our way to spend Christmas with my husband’s family, I insisted on stopping at the two main department stores to search for that first ornament. Finally, I was able to find a beautiful gold bell and the collection was begun.  Through the years I kept a diary of the collections … grandmothers and friends also added to the collection.  After a few years our tree was filled with these beautiful collections and I made the big mistake of selling all my early Shiny Brite ornaments in a garage sale for $1.00 a box!  When the girls all left home they took their collections and now fifty years later they still hang on their trees.  However, our tree was decidedly bare!

I had been collecting vintage dishes and books for quite a while but I had been very slow to warm up to collecting vintage Christmas ornaments.  Somehow they just looked old and faded but they were reminiscent of the 1950s trees of my childhood. Once I started collecting old ornaments and began to learn about their history, I was hooked. 

In the 1920s and 1930s most glass Christmas ornaments were imported from Germany and Poland.  These were hand blown and hand painted.  In the 1920s German Max Eckardt and his brother immigrated to America and opened sales and import offices in New York.  In the late 1930s the Eckardt brothers began to worry about how the growing threat of war with Germany might impact their ornament business.  They along with representatives from Woolworth’s (large five and dime store owners) decided to approach Corning Glass of New York to develop manufactured glass ornaments.  Corning at the time was the prime maker of light bulbs and it was with this technology that they were able to produce clear glass bulbs for decorating by the Eckhardt group and sale in Woolworth stores.  They were able, at their height, to produce 300,000 a day as compared to 600 a day from Germany and eventually to become the world’s largest producer of glass Christmas ornaments.  However, when war with Germany began, the silver used in ornament decoration became unavailable and the bulbs remained clear with very little decoration.  Even the previously metal caps became paper and were hung with string or yarn.  Today the clear ornaments of the war years are highly prized.  Most of these have had their caps replaced with metal caps but rarely one with a paper cap is found. 

The 1940s and 1950s were the heyday of the Shiny Brites. Many beautiful shapes and sizes were made. There are many ornaments shaped like bells, pine cones, lanterns, icicles, and UFOs.  There are beautiful spire ornaments for the tree top and ornaments with very fragile indents.  Some ornaments were trimmed with mica or wire mesh; some were stenciled or flocked.  There are several types of fluted metal tops marked Shiny Brite, Made in the USA.  The boxes have also evolved over time and are now almost as valuable as the ornaments.  Collections of metal ornament tops and empty ornament boxes are sold as well as ornaments.  Unfortunately, many sellers use the brand name Shiny Brite as if it were a generic name for any glass ornament. When collecting also be aware that Shiny Brite caps may have been placed on ornaments that are not Shiny Brite.

Care for the collection is very important because the ornaments are extremely fragile.  Never use water or liquid to try to clean an ornament because the paints are water based and will rub off … a fact I learned the hard way!  Just a gentle dusting is all that is needed.

In the 1960s Shiny Brites continued to be made, but plastic became popular and the market for glass waned.  Shiny Brite also produced numerous plastic Christmas items.  I bought one of my favorites for my girls … Santa with a sleigh and reindeer. Shiny Brite ceased production in 1970.

Most of my vintage ornaments are the Shiny Brite brand and they and their boxes are very valuable now.  Some of my boxes that are marked 29 cents now sell for $25.00!  Most of my ornaments have been collected one or two at a time at antique stores.  Occasionally I have collected some in boxes or bought a few just to get the box!   Over 25 years I have collected so many that now I have a special tree just for the vintage ornaments.  Last year I decided to make my ornament of the year to our daughters a pick from the vintage tree!

In the mid-1980s, as I was having a cup of coffee and casually thumbing through a new J.C. Penney’s catalog that had come in the mail, I discovered that my mother’s silver pattern was being re-issued by Oneida.  I called her excitedly to tell her of my discovery.  She was excited too because several pieces of her 1942 set had been lost over time.  I called Oneida to see if we could purchase our desired pieces as open stock.  The extremely helpful Oneida sales person suggested that for an old set I try antique stores and told me about a great place to look in our area!  I followed her advice and soon had replaced all of my mother’s missing pieces.  A new hobby (and later a business) began for me. 

I loved browsing the aisles of antique stores and markets and decided that cups and saucers would be a great first collection … beautiful, inexpensive and no need to be matching … a perfect beginner choice.  I looked for vintage cups and saucers without cracks, chips or crazing or maybe a cup with no saucer.  I never came home empty handed. 

This collection led next to dessert plates and cream and sugar sets.  I have enjoyed these beautiful pieces on display in china cabinets, in baskets, and as beautiful table settings for entertaining. Finally, these collections were limited by places for display.  But moving on to new things has never been hard!

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]]>My Cup and Saucer CollectionAlways a CollectorThu, 15 Jun 2017 14:45:55 +0000https://www.alwaysacollector.com/home/2017/6/15/james-beard-cookbook-collection589ba37ce3df289d7402a439:589d1703d2b85721b382797b:5942854d20099e8bc952b586JAMES BEARD COOKBOOK COLLECTION

Recently I have been watching a series of documentary films about iconic American Chefs presented by Public Television on its series American Masters. The four films include James Beard, Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and Alice Waters.

I have a VERY large cookbook collection and one of the first chefs that I collected was Julia Child (I have all of her books, but that’s another blog post). I watched Julia on her television cooking shows in the 1970s and ordered a pair of her books and like most of my collections that was only the beginning.  I almost always try to learn as much as I can about the person or company at the center of any of my collections.  As I learned about Julia, I also learned about James Beard and Jacques Pepin and also began collecting their books.  I knew about Alice Waters through my daughters’ love of her cookbooks and though I don’t collect her myself, I have added to my daughter Laurie’s collection.  Naturally when I read about the new series on American Masters I watched all four shows.  The shows of the series are a must for every lover of cooking and cookbooks.   All of the shows are wonderful to watch and really tell the story of the American Food Scene.

James Beard is considered the “Father of American Cuisine.” James grew up learning to cook from his mother and together they shopped the farmers’ markets for the freshest local, seasonal ingredients. As an adult James found his calling as a “foodie” and started touting cooking great American dishes using only fresh, seasonal ingredients.  James Beard wrote his first cookbook in 1940 and hosted the first televised cooking series in 1945.  Judith Jones became the editor of many of the more than twenty cookbooks written by James Beard.  When Ms. Jones received the manuscript for the new book by Julia Child that became Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she forwarded a copy to James Beard for his opinion.  He of course thought the book was destined to become a classic and famously said “I wish I had written it.”  James and Julia became lifelong friends and each supported the work of the other. 

After James Beard’s death in 1985 at the age of 81, famous chefs all over America raised money to purchase James Beard’s house in New York and today the James Beard Foundation invites famous and aspiring chefs to cook in the famous James Beard kitchen.  The annual James Beard Awards are the “Oscars” of the food industry. You can learn more about James Beard on line at the James Beard Foundation website.  There you can also find a complete bibliography of books by and about him.

After watching the James Beard film, I gathered all my Beard cookbooks and was surprised to discover that I had fourteen of the twenty-two that he wrote. 

If you want to learn more about me and my collections go to my home page.

There is a certain nostalgic, cozy feeling about cookie cutters.  Most of our mothers had a small collection of aluminum cookie cutters in their kitchen drawers.  My mother certainly did have a few.  On holidays, especially Christmas, we would roll out sugar cookie dough into various shapes and then decorate the cookies with icing and sugar sprinkles.  I did the same with my three daughters.  These are fun memories.  Later it became easier to make drop cookies like chocolate chip, peanut butter, and coconut macaroons, but we never let go of our cookie cutters. 

A cookie cutter collection is a great fun beginner collection because there are so many available and usually at a great price.  I love to go antiquing.  Just looking is fun but finding a few little treasures is even more fun.  Over the years I guess I have had a lot of fun because my collection is large and many duplicates have been shared with my daughters who all have collections of their own now.

Most of the cookie cutters I have collected date from the 1930s to the 1960s. The oldest and most collectible have wooden or metal handles painted either red or green.  My mother had a biscuit cutter and a chicken cookie cutter with green handles.  I found three old bottles of cookie sprinkles in the back of my mother’s spice cabinet and these were added to my collection.  Her red handled rolling pin, measuring cups, and measuring spoons are also part of my collection.  One of my girlhood favorite cookie cutters was a Girl Scout Trefoil cutter that was a give-away with Drip-O-Lator coffee makers.  Mother’s few other cutters have just blended into my own collection. 

When my own three daughters were children we had fun rolling, cutting, baking, and decorating Christmas cookies and the tradition has been passed on down to our grandchildren. 

I enjoy having my cookie cutters on display in glass jars as part of my kitchen décor. 

My father graduated in June, 1942, from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in mechanical engineering.  Through the University placement services he obtained a job with Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It had only been six months since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and our country entered into World War II.  Thousands of young men were being drafted into the military. Westinghouse, however, obtained draft deferments for their new engineers, including my father.  Westinghouse obtained huge contracts from the government for war-related defense work. 

My mother and father married on June 12, 1942 and following their wedding in Texas they rode a bus to their new home and job in Pittsburg.  My father studied and worked in several assignments during the war.  In 1945 at war’s end Westinghouse assigned my father to the Atlanta, Georgia office.  He remained in his job at the Atlanta office for 39 years, until his death in 1981. 

During these years you could definitely say we were a Westinghouse family … every electric appliance and device we owned bore the Westinghouse name.  One great advantage to being a Westinghouse family was enjoying a very early TV in 1952. We also had a Westinghouse wringer washing machine that rolled to the kitchen sink and had hoses that attached to the water faucets.  The washer had to be refilled with clean rinse water and then each piece of laundry was fed through the wringers and was finally  hung outside on a clothes line. 

My mother had a Free-Westinghouse electric sewing machine.  I learned to sew first by hand stitching but graduated to machine stitching by second or third grade.  By the fifth grade I made my own Easter dress on that faithful sewing machine.  I modeled that dress in a 4-H fashion show and sewing contest; I won first prize.  The machine had a buttonholer in a blue velvety box; I still remember the feel of that box.  During those years our Christmas tree lights were strings of Westinghouse large flame shaped electric bulbs.

 During their marriage my parents only owned two homes.  Their first house was built in 1955 and had some real innovations of the day including a stacking washer and dryer (formerly clothes had to be hung outside to dry) and a dishwasher, a marvelous invention.  We had a table top radio/phonograph that almost looked like the front of an automobile.  When transistor radios became reality, my father seemed to have one of every type.  Of course, we had a Westinghouse stove and refrigerator.

We had quite a few smaller Westinghouse products including some that were almost laughable. One electric gadget was called the Dog-A-Matic.  This appliance was a box that opened to a metal grid of nail-like prongs that six hot dogs could be attached to. When plugged in, the prongs heated up and cooked the hot dogs.  Another gadget, the Baconer, had two sides that opened up to expose a metal central section that six slices of bacon could be laid over.  When the sides were closed and the appliance was turned on the bacon cooked perfectly.  We also had a coffee maker, a waffle iron, and a clothes iron … all Westinghouse brand.

In their second home, built in 1973, we had all Westinghouse appliances.  Radios and televisions were very important links to news and current events.  Our models of televisions advanced through the years. 

Probably like every large company, Westinghouse had many items that bore the Westinghouse name and logo that employees received.  Much of my collection is made up of items that belonged to my Dad. After my mother’s death many of my father’s Westinghouse items were passed on down to my brother and his son.  Among those items were numerous service pins representing up to 35 years of employment. There were various tie clips, pen and pencil sets, golf balls, a lighter, a slide rule, and a hard hat.

Because of this Westinghouse history, I have been drawn to any item with the Westinghouse logo, especially the kitchen items and a collection was born.

Easter in my childhood memories meant the excitement of seeing what treats the Easter Bunny left in our baskets. Usually there would be small feathery chicks, jelly beans, a variety of eggs, and a chocolate bunny. Maybe sitting next to our basket would be a stuffed Easter rabbit. Dying eggs the day before Easter meant dipping hard boiled eggs into cups of beautiful colors and lifting them out with a little wire egg holder. In those days Easter was celebrated at school with cupcakes.  Occasionally we might be invited to an Easter egg hunt at a friend’s; I had one particular friend who hosted a hunt every year. 

At the local five and dime large trays of dyed chicks and ducklings would be for sale … my mother never would allow such a purchase. 

There would be a new “Sunday” dress, often with a straw hat and purse trimmed with tiny velvet flowers and new black patent leather shoes.  Going to church would literally be the “Easter Parade.” On that Sunday all of America was celebrating the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

One memorable Easter dress was pale aqua nylon (which was a new fabric).  The dress, which was made by my mother, had a full skirt and a smocked bodice.  The belt was a velvet ribbon tied with a bouquet of velvety flowers.  I felt like a princess in that dress.

In 1957 our family made a trip to visit my maternal grandparents.  My grandmother was very ill and in the hospital.  My mother decided to remain at her bedside and my dad would return home with us three kids.  Before the return trip my mother and I went to the small town dress shop to buy my Easter dress for the year (since she would not be at home by then).  I fell in love with a beautiful mint green shirtwaist dress with ruffles down the front edged with lace … but what a high price … $16.00!  We purchased the dress and it remained one of my favorites for several years … I was fourteen years old.

When we returned home, my dad allowed my brother and sister to get a dyed duckling each … what would Mama say!  My grandmother died in early May and by the time my mother returned home the ducks had met their demise. 

Later as I had children, we continued the traditions of Easter dresses and baskets almost always accompanied by a cute stuffed rabbit.  Every year I went to our local Hallmark shop to pick out three Easter Bunnies … the shop owner told me one year that she always looked forward to seeing which bunnies I picked.

In the late 1970s, we moved close to my parents’ home and were able to be part of the annual egg hunt that my father had begun.  He really enjoyed hiding the eggs and having all his grandchildren have the fun of finding the eggs.  Although he died in late 1981, the hunt continued for a few more years.

Since those times I have collected many interesting Easter items including a basket of bunnies, ducks, and eggs. 

For more about Always a Collector, checkout the About Me page.

I have been collecting cook booklets for many years.  My collection began early in my marriage when I became interested in finding new recipes.  My mother gave me a handful of vintage recipe booklets that she had collected in the 1930s and 1940s.  I was fascinated by the graphic illustrations that were true art works.  In those decades photography was only black and white but real illustrations had vivid color.  The booklets were advertising for various food products or booklets accompanying a kitchen appliance.  The photographs show the looks of the kitchens and homemakers of the eras.  The earliest booklet my mother had collected was from the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition held in Ft. Worth where mother’s family lived at that time.  My mother and her sister worked at the exposition.

My father was the oldest child in his family and I was the first grandchild.  My paternal grandmother and I started to write letters to each other as soon as I was able to write.  After her death in the 1970s a packet of letters she kept were returned to me … the earliest on Brownie stationery from the early 1950s.  Later we exchanged recipes in letters and on recipe cards.  Those cards in her handwriting are very precious to me now.  She lived in Austin, Texas, but had lived in southeast Texas near the Imperial Sugar Company.  She sent me two Imperial Sugar booklets.  After my mother died in 2008, I found a 1942 letter from Grandmother to my mother in which she tells about a streusel coffee cake recipe that she had made for my Dad … the recipe could be found in the Fleischmann’s recipe booklet that they both owned.  Sure enough this booklet was in the stack my mother had given to me.  Now I have the letter tucked inside of that booklet.

I inherited a 1930s Better Homes and Garden red and white checked cook book that belonged to my maternal grandmother and in handwritten notes inside she makes reference to the Calumet cook booklet sugar cookies.  I was able to collect that very booklet.

A large group of my booklets are about baking and so these are the ones I will be posting this week.  My mother’s family job from the age of about 12 (about 1928) was to bake a cake for the family’s dessert of the week.  In those years if you wanted a cake you had to bake a cake.  Cookies were also homemade.  Sometimes, I think of the availability of baked goods at the store but the true great cookie or cake is still the homemade one. 

Collecting cook booklets is fun because usually they are inexpensive and almost every antiquing jaunt can yield one or two.  I have well over 100 booklets now, most of which I have pinned to my Pinterest boards. 

As a girl I loved playing dolls and truth be told I still like playing with dolls.  My first doll was a red rag doll and I also had a red and white teddy bear.  I still have the bear even though he only has one eye now.  Among my earliest Christmas memories are trips to downtown to look at wonderful displays of dolls in department store windows.  My sister and I would press our noses to the glass and decide which ones were our favorites.  A sure sign Christmas was coming was the hum of my mother’s sewing machine behind her closed bedroom door after we went to bed. Every year she made doll wardrobes for our Christmas dolls. 

In the late 1940s my sister and I both had small baby dolls which were probably Betsy Wetsy or Tiny Tears dolls.  These dolls had rubber bodies that didn’t stand the test of time so only one dress and a bunting made by my mother survive.  When I was about five years old my Christmas doll was a beautiful baby doll with a composition head (which became cracked) and cloth body.  The Christmas before our brother was born, my sister and I each received nearly life-size baby dolls and we played Mommy.  I have a flannel kimono and blanket that belonged to this doll.

In 1949 or 1950 Santa brought me the popular doll of the day.  This doll had dark hair that could be washed, curled … and unfortunately cut.  I must have given her a really bad haircut because she was discarded a few years later.  I still, however, had her complete wardrobe including her original dress.   In this last year I decided I wanted to identify and buy a replacement for my missing doll.  Since I still had two of my last dolls I had an idea about the size of my missing doll. Here were the clues ... she was probably from 1949-1951, the clothes were too large for the 14" doll I still had, I remembered that she had a human hair wig, the original dress had buttons on the front in the shape of bows, and square snaps on the back, and  the dress had attached panties and slip.  I searched several doll reference books to no avail.  I consulted a "doll expert" on eBay and she believed the doll must have been a hard plastic 16" or 18" Effanbee Honey since that was the only company using human hair wigs at that time.  Then I found an ad from a 1949 trade magazine that showed my exact doll.  A perfect Nancy Drew Mystery solved!   I first bought an inexpensive doll and found that the clothes fit her perfectly.   After looking, I was able to buy a dark haired 16” Honey. 

I started learning to sew when I started school and learned to make my own doll clothes.  I began with hand stitched outfits which I entered in the Lions’ Club hobby fair winning two silver dollars and a red second place ribbon when I was in the second grade. I still remember the thrill … too bad I spent the silver dollars!  Soon I learned to sew on Mama’s sewing machine. 

I had a best girlfriend that lived two doors down and we played dolls almost every day.  If the weather was nice we built houses in our small apartment back yard.  We had several old broom and mop handles that we laid out like a house plan complete with a tea set equipped kitchen and beds made of doll blankets and pillows. It always seemed like just about the time we got everything ready it was time to go in for dinner.  On rainy or bad weather days we played at my house or hers.  In 1952 one of the first events of importance that we watched on television was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in England.  We played “Queen” with our dolls using doll blankets for trains and crowns made out of the foil-lined boxes that brown and serve rolls came in. 

Indoors we loved to build doll houses and furniture for our tiny dolls with blocks.  I had a few doll house pieces of furniture that I bought with my allowance at the dime store.  Twenty five cents could buy a nice doll house treasure; I still have a Renwal toy sewing machine, a card table and two chairs, and two tiny dolls.

I am lucky to still have my last two dolls … a 1952 14” Effanbee Honey walker doll complete with her original outfit, wardrobe and accessories; my last childhood doll was an 8” Madame Alexander-Kin Wendy doll with original clothing from 1953.  In 1953 I was ten years old and I remember thinking I was too old to play dolls any longer.

Finally, these are the photos of all my remaining doll clothing and accessories. Our family moved to a new house in 1955 and my mother gave me a small antique family steamer trunk to store my dolls, scrapbooks and other keepsakes.  The trunk went up into the attic and I never looked into it again for more than twenty years. When I did open it, all my treasures were just as I had left them so many years before and all those memories rushed back.

I have always been a collector of pins and brooches from my preteen-years right up to the present.  Looking back through old photographs and yearbooks I see many of the pins I still have and love to wear.  One of the best things about this collection is the wearing but they also are fun to display as art.  Along with my own pins I have many that belonged to my grandmother and my mother.

When Madeline Albright was Secretary of State she became famous for her pin collection; writing a book about her collection and its meaning.  Her book is entitled Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box.  When the collection went on a national tour, I was able to attend.  I thought “great minds think alike!”

I have always been a collector and a saver of things.  Lucky for me my mother and grandmother were savers as well. Now I have a wonderful vintage Valentine collection entirely of family cards. In my mother’s baby book was saved a treasure trove of 1920s Valentines, and in an old shoe box I discovered a wonderful stash of very vintage greeting cards dating from the 1920s to the 1950s and many of these were Valentines.

When I was in grade school, Valentine’s Day was a favorite holiday.  We girls spent hours of time decorating a fancy Valentine box for our school desk.  These were decorated with red, pink, and white crepe paper and white lacy doilies and hearts cut from construction paper.  The boys usually just had a plain shoe box.  There was a rule that each student who gave Valentines had to give one to everyone.  After the cards were passed out decorated cupcakes were served.  With much anticipation the cards were opened at home.  Many of those cards are now a part of my collection.

Later baking Valentine cookies or cakes was fun.  I remember so well on one of the first Valentine’s Day after I married, I decided to bake a heart shaped chocolate cake and I laid the layers out to cool on racks and rushed to the store to buy an ingredient for the frosting.  When I returned I was shocked to see the point of each layer had been cut off … love was being tested!  When I called my husband he had to admit that he had come home for a break and couldn’t resist the aroma of fresh baked cake … and of course he had to make the layers match.

Last year my husband made this cake for me using the same heart-shaped pans.

A sweet Mikasa china dish I gave to my mother and a little Susan Branch Valentine book.

Two handmade tooth fairy pillows my mother made for two of my daughters. 

Family Valentine mugs.