When my kids were growing up, it was easy to decide what to put into the antique oak curio cabinet. After all, we had very creative children. They were always involved in arts and crafts, from the time they were very little until they graduated high school. We would fill the antique curio cabinet with drawings, sculptures, pinch pots, clay figurines, and all the other beautiful decorations that children make. Once they left the house, however, it seemed a little bit absurd to keep the cabinet filled with their childhood art projects. For a while, it was nice to have it there because it reminded us of how much we missed them, but soon we realized that, as they were moving on with their lives, we had to move on with ours.
It took us a while to decide what to fill that cabinet up with. We had some antique china, but it was only really enough for one shelf. We knew that we needed some more objects, but we were not big collectors of anything. That is how we started to accumulate, one piece at a time, a great bunch of antique curio.
The first item of antique curio that we ever got for that closet was an old pocket watch. My grandfather had an antique watch when I was growing up, and one day he gave it to me. I lost it on a camping trip unfortunately, and to this day it is one of the biggest regrets of my life. Needless to say, when I found an antique pocket watch just like his in a local store, I was overjoyed.
Soon, there were new pieces of antique curio joining the watch. We found a fine, ornamental antique compass. It didn’t work anymore, but it was extremely decorative. It probably was part of a ship at one point, and was large and easy to read, with beautiful gold letters. It fit perfectly in that antique curio cabinet, right beside the pocket watch. My wife had a few antique dolls in storage, and rather than keeping them in a dark cupboard somewhere, we decided to add them to the cabinet. Soon, we added my old class ring, a few wedding photographs of our grandparents, and an antique toy car ? one of those windup models that was popular before batteries. Although I miss my children living with me, it is nice to be able to add new life to that antique cabinet. Life, after all, must continue.
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