i love etsy.

etsy never ceases to be a treasure chest of ideas for me. not that i'm trying to rip off other people's ideas, but here's a great example. when my mom died, my grandmother gave me this beautiful, small silver baby spoon that was part of her (my mom's) silverware set, or at least the same pattern. i thought it was beautiful, and loved the sentiment, but wasn't sure what to do with it at the time, so i set it in my kitchen drawer thinking i would use it as a sugar spoon with my coffee at get togethers.

then, lo and behold, i notice this on the front page of etsy one day:
beautiful heirloom spoons, just like my mom's, used as christmas ornaments! what a great idea! so i went for some hanging ribbon, and knew just the one to use- one that was mom's, of course. i remember being with her when she bought it, how it jumped out to her out of the martha stewart collection. she bought it even though it cost more than she usually spent on ribbon, and then hesitated to ever use it because she liked it so much.
so now, a little spoon [obviously in need of some love & a little tarn-x] with a little loop of ribbon has taken up residence on our tree. now rather than lanuishing never to be seen in my drawer, it can be pulled out and remembered every year with all the other memory-full ornaments.
miss you, mom. miss you so.