My new china cabinet

Today we got a beautiful china cabinet for our house. A couple from our church were getting a new dining room suite and gave us their old one. It's really pretty, and even lights up. Here's a not-so-great picture of it. (Since the patio door is opposite it and it's a really bright day, I had trouble getting the lighting right. It's also just a smidge blurry.)

I wasn't really sure what to put in it at first. I've never owned fine china. I do have eight plates that match for special occasions like Christmas, but they aren't even fancy plates. There really isn't much point in trying to obtain fine china when you have kids, in my opinion.

But I had to put something in it. I do have a little figurine that was my Grandma Haley's. It's a little girl who holds a spool of thread in her hands, wears a pincushion hat, and carries a pair of scissors in her porcelain pocket. I was fascinated with her when I was a little girl. When she was in Grandma's care, she never got dusty, but since I've had her the scissors and thread have both disappeared and she hides dust in the creases of her dress. Still, she reminds me of my Grandma, and I love her even though Grandma would be probably not be happy with the way I've cared for her.

I also added a couple of small buildings fashioned from scrapbooking paper. Joy made these for school. One is a pueblo and the other is St. Basil's Cathedral. She's very talented with her hands and has a great eye for detail.

I also added various pictures of family members--my family singing Handel's Messiah, another of most of my siblings and my parents striking a silly pose in their winter coats, a lovely portrait of Grandpa and Grandma Robertson (Erick's maternal grandparents) and his parents with his younger siblings that still live at home.

On the top shelf I put plates that my kids made for homeschool co-op last year. It was a Pinterest project involving Sharpies on plain dishes, then baked. They aren't as fancy as fine china, but since I know the artists personally, they are a lot more special.

I haven't filled the drawers or bottom cabinets yet, but I think that school books are going to go underneath. I may eventually just turn the whole thing into a display for school projects.