A Tribute to Re-purposing

I fell in love with re-purposing thanks to my parents and grandparents.

My maternal grandma, Lillian Daiber, grew up and lived on a farm in Illinois her whole life, so you know she is used to making due with what is available to her. When my mom was growing up, she made a lot of the family's clothes and cooked everything from scratch. She is the one who taught my mom, who then taught me, to substitute applesauce for oil as a healthy alternative in baking.

Grandma Daiber, this year, celebrating 80 years!

Is she not the most beautiful 80-year-old woman you've ever seen?

My Dad's parents lived during the Great Depression in the 1930's.  (Grandma Daiber was born in 1934, so she lived through several years of the depression too.) My grandma, Juanita Mitchell was born in 1920, and my grandpa, Raymond, was born in '21. I attribute the Great Depression to my grandparents frugality and re-purposing efforts, but I don't know for sure. I just remember my paternal grandparents saving "everything". Grandma Mitchell always had a very neat and tidy home, but she also didn't throw anything away that she thought she could re-purpose. She kept the plastic bags that bread comes in, and reused them for various things. I also specifically remember my Grandma Mitchell cleaning the styrofoam plates that meat is packaged and sold on. She kept a stack of them in her cupboard. She let me use them for painting my artwork in her basement and other crafty things.

One of my Grandma Mitchell's favorite things to re-purpose in her later years of life were pheasant feathers and sea shells. She acquired the feathers from hunters and made beautiful wreaths and Christmas ornaments with them. I still have the pheasant feather ornament she made for me, and it still goes on our family tree year after year. She even sold the ornaments in a boutique in the Topeka mall for a while. Isn't that cool? I love the entrepreneurial spirit!

My Grandparents would often snowbird in Corpus Christi in the years that my Grandpa was retired, and my Grandma still lived. While there, Grandma loved to collect shells, and also made crafts and wreaths out of the shells. I had a huge, beautiful wreath that has unfortunately deteriorated through multiple moves, but what I do have intact, are two small boxes of some of the shells she collected and organized.

One of the Two Boxes

Labeled, Dated and Organized

Just One More

Grandpa and Grandma Mitchell

As you can tell, that last picture is picture within a picture. Grandma passed away 12.5 years ago, and I don't have a lot of digital pictures of her.

Grandpa is all bundled

Here is a picture of my Grandpa from last fall. He's all bundled up, because it was a chilly evening in Topeka. And, also because he is almost 93 years old in this picture. I wish I could jump on a plane and visit him, and my family in Illinois right now. I also wish my Grandma Mitchell would have stuck around on this earth for a few more years. I'm so thankful, though, for the time I've had with them.

--And, Grandma Daiber, hopefully soon, I'll acquire more tips and re-purposing ideas from you! I can't wait!

Thanks for reading. Love, Amber