The Gift Of Friendship And A Doily

 When the Texas Troupe came to visit last weekend, my friend Linda brought me the most beautiful gift.  Her son owns a construction company in Dallas and one of the things he does is tear down old houses and buildings for the city.  Recently, he tore down a house and found an old trunk inside that had treasures in it.  Real live bonafide treasures.   At least Linda and I agree that they are treasures.  There were old handmade crocheted doilies in the trunk.  He brought them to Linda.  She saved the ones she could and she brought me one of the  beautiful white doilies as a gift.  

You see, we both crochet and have since we were quite young.  My grandmother lived with us when I was growing up and she would sit down with a ball of cotton string and a tiny little crochet hook and start making her own pattern as she went.  Her nimble hands seemed to fly as they created stitch after stitch.  In no time, she would have a beautiful doily with all kinds of intricate patterns in it.  No book.  No pattern.  Only her hands and her head created these beautiful pieces.  What a gift.

Linda said her mother taught her to crochet when she was about 7.  That is quite an accomplishment for a 7 year old.  I was starting to embroider at that age, not crochet.  But, I did watch grandma working away with her needle and thread creating, always fascinated with her skill.  I wanted to create too!  Always have, always will.

I started to crochet when I was in high school.  I used yarn and made scarves and hats mostly.  Then when I was expecting our first child, I crocheted a rippled afghan and made a white hair pin lace afghan that was so beautiful.  I made things for our children, for gifts, lots of afghans, and on and on through the years.  I truly admire and appreciate the skill it takes to make something as lovely as the doily in the picture above.  That is something I have never made.

I was so excited to receive this beautiful gift and told Linda I knew exactly what I would do with it.  It would be framed under glass and hung in my bedroom where I could admire it often.  That is what I did today.

My daughter Annie had given me an old frame she did not want any longer when they moved recently.  You see, I am kind of like that old commercial with Mikey - the kid who would eat anything.  I take anything and will turn it into something at some point.  I used that frame for my beautiful doily.

The frame was old and brown with kind of goldish highlights and that is not my style, but it is really lovely otherwise.   It has lots of detail and I knew I would paint it white.  Here it's laying on the ground ready to be painted.

Here is a closeup of the detail.  It's very intricate.

All I used was a can of white spray paint and gave it one light coat.  I didn't want it to be too finished or slick.  After it dried, I waxed it with Annie Sloan dark wax.  LOVE how it turned out.

I pressed the doily nice and flat, then cut a piece of acrylic I already had for the backing for the frame.  Using a piece of white burlap, I cut it a bit bigger than the acrylic and folded it over and taped it down to the acrylic.  Then, I laid the doily on the burlap, centered it, and placed it in the frame under the glass.  That's all it took.

I put in on the wall with my "dahlia" book page wreath and an old candelabra Annie had also given me that came from Anthropologie many moons ago.  It is what I have been needing to finish the vignette.  It's perfect and beautiful.

Thank  you  Linda for this wonderful gift.  I will cherish it always.

Life has such a funny way of bringing you full circle sometimes.  Linda and I were friends from high school long ago.  We reconnected when my daughter moved to Dallas where she lives.  She and her friends came to visit over the weekend.  We may have gray hair and grandchildren, but in our hearts we are still those same high school girls laughing and talking and having a great time together.  Thanks so much for coming to visit and introducing your long time friends to me who are now new found friends. Thanks for the beautiful gift.  I will look at it every day and be grateful for your visit and your gift.  Hopefully, we will see each other again soon.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.  Anais Nin