Love What You Have; Keep What You Need

Photo by Trisha

There are 2 items in my house that, if you didn't know better, you might think were slightly out of place. Yet, these 2 items are beyond valuable to me.

Though I don't consider myself the Simon Cowell or Donald Trump of home goods, I do have fairly specific taste. (Think books and pottery and red.) So you can imagine my surprise when I opened a gift last Christmas and found these 2 ceramic cats amongst the tissue paper.

It took .02 second to realize the gifts were second-hand.

A quick glance inside the shallow porcelein figures (these dearies hold plants--catnip, perhaps?) and I saw that there was a bit of dirt still left behind by the previous owner. Yet, in the same .02 second, I loved these little critters and would have kept them over a block of gold if I had been given the choice.

Let me explain.

Seven years ago this past Friday, I lost a dear friend to cancer. She was someone I wanted to emulate. Her home, her marriage, her personality--for years, I've tried in vain to be like Kathy Ehresman. I miss her more than words can tell.

Make no mistake. I hate clutter. In general, I don't collect figurines. But when her husband gave me these 2 little cats--straight from the home of this lady I miss every day--it took me no time at all to realize that some things really don't have a price tag.

It takes the discerning home manager to distinguish between what clutters the home and what warms it. Stick these babies on a bookshelf--between the pottery and something red--and you realize very quickly that they fit in pretty well.