"Olwyn Mary" wrote in message
.. .
Mary Fisher wrote:

I just don't have that kind of life ... I wore it when we visited them
and then it was forgotten about.

Mea culpa.

Mary

Whaddya mean, you don't have that kind of life? USE your pretties, don't
be like those old folk who considered everything "too nice to use"

Oh it's not that, I'm just usually too busy doing things which don't lend
themselves to pretty clothes :-)

I have a shawl on the back of my favorite tv watching chair,

don't have a tv ...

and if there is a slight draft I just reach back and pull it round my
shoulders.

Don't have draughts (sorry for English spelling), in fact this is such a
warm house because of insulation that we rarely wear anything over our
shirts.

I have a bunch more of which I take one practically everywhere, whether I
am going to church or a restaurant or wherever - so much easier to slip on
and off than fighting my way into a cardigan.

Don't wear cardigans either :-) A pretty shawl doesn't lend itself to
wearing on a scooter pillion when we go out ...

On the same line, I inherited a bunch of embroidered pillowcases from my
mother and grandmother. Guess what? They are all in the linen closet and
get used in rotation.

Oh I'd use those! I bought some fine linen ones with beautiful edgings from
a charity stall and love them, they're very thin in parts now so I'll have
to make the best parts into handkerchiefs. I love linen. The woman who sold
me them was delighted, she said they'd been her auntie's and the old lady
would love to know they were appreciated. Pity the niece didn't want them,
she thought they were too much trouble!

Likewise, when our daughter was 17 and our son 20, I decided we were going
to use the hand-embroidered and/or lace table linens every day, not just
Sundays, and enjoy them.

We do that too, I'm still using linen tablecloths I embroidered as a
teenager for my bottom drawer, recently I finished embroidering one which
last saw the light when I was in labour with our fifth and last child. He
was 38 this year ...

So what if they fall apart eventually?

They're made into hankies!

They were OUR wedding presents, made for us with love by various female
relatives. I know that neither my daughter nor my daughter in law will
ever iron them,

I wonder why that is? I love ironing linen, making it not just crease-free
by so smooth and shiny ...

so I will enjoy them while I have them. We also use the good silver
cutlery everyday, in fact the only thing still saved for Sundays is the
antique bone china and that is because dh, after a lifetime of drawing
plans, has some arthritis in his fingers and does not trust himself not to
drop it. I am running a home here, not curating a museum.

We don't have silver cutlery not antique china - the china we have left is
more than 60 years old. The plates are used daily, the cups and saucers
(only three left) on Sunday mornings.

Our house is like a museum - every time we go to museums I see things which
we not only have but use frequently.

I reiterate. USE your "good stuff".

I do. Just not clothes. When Ann gave me the shawl I wondered what chance
I'd have to wear it. I live in jeans and men's shirts, I'm very
uncomfortable in skirts except the floor length ones I wear for period
occasions, the shawl was unsuitable for those times.

I've been looking at it again today with a view to photographing it to show
folk here but I'm just too ashamed. I can't even pull it out.

So I've begun a vigorous throw-out session, necessitated by someone coming
to stay with us this weekend (an American woman who I've never met). The
spare room does tend to be used as a dump.

But no more! It's squeaky clean now and the rug (a gift from another
American woman who stayed here years ago) is in the bath having a good soak,
then the colours will glow again. It's not a dirty room because it isn't
used but a dull film does seem to engulf anything which isn't used
regularly. And no, the shawl wasn't in that room but in our bedroom :-(

Mary