Annie B, a frequent commenter on the blog, won last month’s “Love the House You’re In” contest. Her prize: The lovely and talented Mel Kolstad immortalized her house in a collage, above. Mel writes:
I had a great time making this collage for Ann – I always love making them, but the fact that her house is still standing made it even better. Just a week or so before the contest, there was a tropical storm that rolled through North Carolina. Many of Ann’s neighbors suffered major damage to their homes. Thankfully, Ann’s house wasn’t hit as badly. Sort of gives a more poignant meaning to the phrase, “Love the House You’re In”, doesn’t it? 😀
To enter this month’s contest — and to win a custom collage featuring you and your house: Leave a comment on this post answering the question: What is your most prized possession? Please read all the rules here before entering, they all apply. I’ll pick a reader the last day of the month.
Meanwhile — thanks to Mel for another fabulous collage. You can find Mel’s collage works on flickr and her blog, Much Ado About Stuff.
Shannon says
Tough one. I’d have to say one is my house (even though its still really the bank’s). I have a great sense of pride in the house and sometimes still walk around and can’t believe it’s mine (or the bank’s if you want to get technical).
There are many things I have that I love, but most prized are some of the glassware sets my grandmother has given me. Sets she picked them up at the “dime store” when she was first creating her home. One particular set I love and used regularly when I had a glass of wine. Then I saw this particular stemware in an antique store and they were over $30 a stem! I still use them, that’s what they are for, but I wash them by hand now instead of throwing them in the dishwasher.
SarahB says
My prized possessions are a few antique pieces that my grandmother left to me, such as a blue glass faceted paperweight, some iron trivets, and a rocking chair made in 1917. She moved into her house in 1954, and I love that because my house is about the same age and size as hers (1946, and around 800 square feet) her antiques look just as great in my house as they did in hers! I love the iron trivets especially–they look great hanging on the wall and I use them all the time to hold hot dishes off the counter. I love having a house that is so welcoming to her spirit.
Boyd Leake says
I feel particular honored to be the temporary recipient and repository of so many family things and every one has a story and a meaning. I have always shown my two boys around the house and told them the stories behind different things in our house. This is from my grandmother, this came from G-Daddy’s parent’s house, etc. My now 14 year old when small once asked me “Don’t we have anything that’s not from somebody who’s dead?” With all such family things in our house, I have to say my favorite thing is something I just bought: my grandmother’s 1956 white Cadillac Sedan de Ville. She died a few years ago and my uncle offered it to me this summer. It still has the 1959 high school sticker with the football schedule from my mother’s senior year. My wife and I left our wedding in it 17 years ago and I used to drive my grandmother in it when I was 15 and again when she stopped driving a few years ago. I smile everytime I look at it and my boys are driving me crazy to get it back into shape. It will be a fun project for all of us.
Laura says
I am an archaeologist and was on a long offroad trip on BLM land to a site in the middle of the night. Those of us in the truck started talking about our favourite books. I told them mine was Tale of Two Cities. About an hour later we came to a fence and when we stopped to open the gate we noticed something balancing on the fence. It was the Tale of Two Cities…
Barb S. says
My most prized possession is a 1971 convertible Karmann Ghia!
My dad bought it new, and I learned to drive with her (I’m a ’65 model myself!) … when my dad died in 1991 my mom gave me the car and I had it restored, insisting that the workers keep some parts like the cushion on the handbrake and the cover on the steering wheel, because I loved knowing my dad’s hands had used them.
She sits parked at my Atlanta B&B, Stonehurst Place, and sometimes a lucky guest without a car gets to drive her 🙂
I just did the math and realize she’s 39 years old! Wow.
Zoocrewmom says
I have to say my most prized possession is the ceramic elephant side table that my Grandma Martin had next to her easy chair. My dad sent it to her from Thailand when he was on R&R from Vietnam. I have vivid memories of playing with the elephant when I was a kid at family reunions – tracing the patterns, hooking my little arms through the trunk – and having it in my house, watching my kids do the same things, brings her back to me.
Trisha H. says
My most prized possession is an old farmhouse table that’s been used as a family dining table through four generations. My great grandpa built it out in his garage (behind the house my parents now live in) and great grandma had him paint it this amazing shade of turquoise. It has it’s fair share of scratches and dings, and sometimes I think about repainting it, but I know I won’t love it as much without it’s imperfections. It’s the first thing I see when I come home, and that serves as a daily remembrance of all the people who’ve sat at that table, and reminds me of life back on the farm, when people used to eat dinner together every night. Now it mostly collects mail and schoolwork during the week, but we make sure to clear it off on weekends to enjoy our time together.
Josh Loves His House says
Honestly I have so much stuff new-in-box just sitting in my garage. Full rolls of 50 and 60’s wall paper still in the shrink wrap. But my top two are the brand new sodium phosphate out door motion sensor light that was sitting in the box from 68′ in my garage and the chrome wall toothbrush holder that spins flush. The winner being the toothbrush holder because it is why I bought the house. When I found the house on craigslist it had only two pics, one of the outside and one of the bathroom, the toothbrush holder sold me and will always be my favorite!!!!!
The Jenny says
My most prized possession is my little house. It was built in 1953 and is shaped just like the ubiquitous house you used to draw as a kid (as if I’ve known it my entire life). We moved in 10 years ago and in that time have touched, repaired, painted, manipulated, or refurbished every surface inside and out. I love the scale. I love the floor plan. I love our street. And I love having people over so they can enjoy it too. It is as much house as we need. Every home improvement makes the house more ours.
Janice says
I want to say that my most prized possessions are my kids and grandkids, but we all would say that, right? So beyond people and pets, I would say for me it’s the scrapboks that I’ve made of me and my husband traveling the country on our Harleys. Every summer we take a cross country trip and ride as far as we can before it’s time to turn around and come back – usually a 3000 mile round trip. I scrapbook each of these trips to include journeling about all of our wild adventures. These memories and time spent with my hubbie will be ones that I will never forget. I hope that one day my grandkids will look at these books and say, “Our Nina and Papa were some cool people back in the day.”