Old Family Photos

For my grandpa's birthday in February, my mom bought him a device that converts his old slides into digital photos.  My mom was working on getting all the slides converted for him today and in the process she emailed me a few of them from when she was a kid.

There were a bunch of pictures from a family vacation they took to Florida in the 1960s.  The vacation was to the same city in Florida where I live now.  The city has really changed, but the ocean looks just the same.

Look how close that tree line is to the ocean, and look how few buildings there are!  Now the coast line is dominated with big hotels and resorts.  But this sure hasn't changed:

The ocean is still as big, blue and awe-inspiring today as it was back in the '60s.

Of course, some things have changed.  This is an actual cloth diaper with safety pins.  I didn't realize what a recent development disposable diapers were!

I spent a lot of time looking over the photos my mom sent me, especially the ones of my grandmother.  My grandmother died when I was very young, so I never got to know her that well.  But I've always felt very fond of her, despite only knowing her in the advanced stages of her Alzheimer's disease.  My mother and grandpa talk about her so lovingly, and I get told often that I remind people of her.

I really liked this picture of her because it looks almost identical to one my mom has of her with my brother when he was a baby.  It would make a statement to have them framed side by side.

And I absolutely adore this photo of my grandma and my great aunt.

They're so deep in conversation they didn't even notice the camera.  It really makes me wonder what they're saying.  And look at those dresses!  Very Anthropologie-esque.  Can we say inspiration?  I think I feel a sewing project coming on...

Mixed in with all these family photos were a lot of pictures of outfits my grandmother had sewn for my mom.  Like this one:

Or this one:

I just love the funny hat on that one.

Seeing the things my grandmother made with her hands made me feel connected to her...and to my own mother.  My mother sewed for me, my grandmother sewed for her and it's a sure bet that you can keep going on down the line like that.  And it made me realize...sewing ties all the women in my family together.

But, before you call me a sexist, it's not the act itself that matters.  For me, sewing is like using your hands to craft a tangible piece of love for someone else.  I don't have my own family yet, but my favorite things to sew are for other people.  It gives me great joy and pleasure to take care of other people with the things that I make.  I am so excited when I'm sewing something for my niece because I know it will make her feel special and it allows me to provide for her, in a way.

Sewing something for someone else is a way to say "I love you"...

I'd been thinking about doing a sewing event for charity since I saw a post on MADE recently.  This realization about what sewing means to me makes me want to do it even more.  Any takers?

And, before I go, my apologies for the lengthy post and the nostalgia.  But maybe it means something to someone else out there, too?  We'll see. :)

P.S. I'm thinking about getting some socks like these...

Just kidding!  See you next time. :)