Easter Hats

I know I just posted about getting rid of stuff. But I have a confession. I am truly a pack rat. Mostly with stuff from my past and family items. But especially family stuff from the past.

Like these Easter Hats. Technically they are Styrofoam cups that 27(+) years ago my mother and I melted down in the oven and then decorated. We hung them from branches in a vase each Easter and I continued the tradition even after she died. But then my dad and I moved to St Louis and I went away to school....

When I got married I brought the hats with me to my new home. I never put them up but still I saved them. It was one of the only memories I had about my mother from when I was very little. She got sick when I was 8 and died when I was 12. These hats were a symbol of my childhood. My loving mother and that happiness I can still remember. When someone dies, ANYTHING that they had, used, touched or made becomes VERY important. Stuff that the person themselves would probably consider junk becomes a priceless family heirloom in the eye of the surviving family member. I have a huge storage bin in my dad's basement of stuff that belong to my mother.

But, in reality the hats were a junk kids craft that was hanging around in a brown paper bag.

What do you do? Keep them, moving them from house to house? Pitch them in the trash? Nah... you blog about them and then take lots of photos for your scrapbook. then quietly and with reverence gently lay them in your "toss pile".

I love these hats. Silly I am sure... but I look on these with such fondness and wonderful memories. And now they have a place of honor. No longer are they couped up inside a dusty paper bag. They are on display here... forever.