Treasures From My Grandpa

Well, it is Unraveled Wednesday, but I haven’t done much knitting in the past few days and therefore have nothing to show.  I did finish “Manhattan Beach” by Jennifer Egan and enjoyed it very much.  I’m now almost halfway through “The Immortalists” by Chloe Benjamin and liking it a lot too.

 

Inspiration for this post comes from Kym and Bonny both of whom recently blogged about beautiful wooden items made by their Grandfathers.

 

My paternal grandfather, Ray Lyman, was born in Stratton, VT in 1887.  He was a big man – 6’3” (and my Grandmother was only 4’11” or so!!) and he had the largest hands.  When Colin was born his hands and feet were really big and the first thing I thought was he will be just like my Grandpa (for the record, Colin is not 6’3”, but he has grown into his feet and hands – lol).

 

Here are my grandparents on their wedding day:

 

 

And here they are in later years in front of their house:

 

 

And one of my favorite pictures of my Grandpa – at his workbench in the barn that was attached to their home:

 

 

Grandpa held many different jobs (including a stint in state politics) – he ran the creamery down the street from where they lived and he also worked at a bowl mill.  Much of the furniture in their home was made by him:  bureaus, tables, chairs (caned and woven), stools (caned and woven) as well as bowls and other wooden items.  I’m fortunate to have some of the pieces he made:

 

 

The piece on the right is one of the many offering plates he made for the local church they attended.  The bowl and salt & pepper shakers are like those that were used daily in their home.  The little rattle was carved from a single piece of wood!

 

This bureau is one he made out of birds eye maple (love) and this is where I store my fabric (the drawers are now easy to open since I got rid of so much stuff!!).  This piece weighs a TON. 

 

 

The apothecary style cabinet on top is one Fletch gave me and that holds my specialty embroidery floss – silks, linens, Danish Flower Thread, etc.  The smaller black & white cabinet on top of that is another gift from Fletch and that holds my “special” buttons (some day I’ll do a post showing some of those).  Other buttons are in the jars to the right (and various boxes and tins hidden away – lol).  The Galileo Thermometer was my Dad’s.

I was also gifted the sewing cabinet my Grandpa made for my Grandma.  It is one of my prized possessions and I will show that in a later post.

 

Hope everyone’s week is going well.  My office is closed Friday, so I’m on the downswing of the work week which feels really, really nice!