What happy memories, Jen! I can see why, as those yellow & white gingham check curtains make me smile just looking at them.

For me, it's English Cottageware. They're ceramic pieces made for kitchens back in the mid-1900's, mainly by Price and Kensington. My grandmother, who I adored and was very close to, kept some pieces in our family's summerhouse. I loved them then and when she passed on, I inherited her small collection . . . and have been adding to it since then. Whenever I see them, it takes me back to my childhood, sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast with Gram and my mom laughing and chatting together nearby. Happy memories!
I keep my collection displayed above the cabs in my laundry room now. This is a few of them:
Lynn

This Pretty little vase (Bristol ware) is half of a set that my mother inherited from her mother.

I can't remember a time when they weren't in our dinng room. I am lucky to be the current caretaker of them.

Just yesterday, my 10 year old granddaughter was visiting and noticed one of the vases in my china cabinet for the first time.

Her gasp and excited; "that's the prettiest thing I have ever seen!" surprised me and warmed my heart. (It pretty much sealed the deal on who the next caretaker will be.)

for me it is glass door knobs. They remind me of my grandparents home and I would pretend they were diamonds when I would visit. I purchased my house I think because it has glass knobs :)

It's amazing how alike we both are. I'm on Pinterest and those who know me know I put a LOT of checks on my page. lol.

Remember the gift wrapping contest? I used checks, of course! And I won. :)

Here is a lady's page I check (good pun!) daily for inspiration.

Here is a link that might be useful: A Chekered Past

Tudor revival cottages always look homey to me. I don't know if that's because they harken back to fairy tale illustrations or what. There is a whole neighborhood of them in my hometown. I would love to own one someday.

Old clocks! My dad collected them -- big ones, little ones, cuckoos, mantle clocks, kitchen clocks. Oak, mahogany, walnut, painted dials, brass faces, on the walls, on the floor, on shelves. The house was full of them.

Each one tocked to its own time, so from about 2 minutes before the hour until 5 after, the house was filled by a succession of chimes, bongs, bells, and cuckoos. We learned to sleep right through it, but guests often had a hard time sleeping through the night.

Dark, glossy, stained wood trim. I grew up in a 100-year-old house and I love that wide wooden trim that you rarely see in new construction.

It just seems like all's right with the world when the floor is black and white tile on the diagonal.

Blue and white Spode plates. My mother was at her happiest when she redecorated her seventies styled home and she loved those plates. They will always make me think of her. She used them in her kitchen- it was so lovely, dark wood floors, white cabinets, a very expensive blue stripe wallpaper, those plates- everything new, pristine and to the trade. It looked like something out of Veranda. I have the plates now in several places in our house.
The Spode flowers are my favorite series, girl at the well my personal fav.

Love, love, love that kitchen breakfast nook, Jen.

Believe it or not, hot pink shag carpet and an MCM turquoise leather sofa.

Dark polished wood floors especially if they smell of floor polish! My beloved grandmother would buff her floors until you could almost see your face in them! As a child I used to help her polish the floors, the silver, and the handmade copper saucepans that had belonged to her mother. She and I would sit on the floor as we polished, telling each other funny stories and laughing until we couldn't see for tears!

White iron beds with feminine bedding and small dark wood dressers.

As a teenager, for one brief moment in time (a year?), I had my own room with a single white iron bed, pretty ice blue bedding, and an antique mahogany wood dresser. So different than the plain bunk beds I always shared with my sisters. I had a love for shabby chic before I even knew what that was :-)

My DD now has an antique white iron bed with girly bedding and I have a small mahogany dresser converted into a vanity in my powder room :-)

Do you remember the recent thread where someone inherited a dining set with ladder-back chairs and she was asking opinions about painting it? A table and chairs like that, in a little corner breakfast area of the kitchen, that is surrounded by double-hung windows with simple tier curtains.

My lamps that belonged to my mother. Hers were accessories to an MCM black sectional sofa backed by mirrored wall (huge single mirror), grey MCM end tables (one was 2-tier square), matching circular cocktail table, turquoise egg chair and turquoise, black, white and gold bark cloth curtains. Tres chic!

Green Glass. My grandparents had a green glass candy dish, the deep kind with a lid, on the dining room buffet.

Let's just say I have that plus a few more pieces now! :)

It's hard to pass up anything in green glass for me.

My favorite part of the British Museum was all the Green Glass in the Roman display cases!!! I had no idea they had glasses back then. (Always pictured them with metal tumblers) Let alone that they were ALL green. The minerals in the glass apparently. So it seems the very FIRST glass was green.

These are my own photos:

Green Glass. From 150 BC. It's a classic.

I guess my houseplants make me happy...love taking care of them and the freshness it brings to the rooms. But also like my various carved wooden statues/animals I have around the house.

Great post! For me it is the cabinet my grandfather made, which sat in my mom's house for years. My brothers abused it so, after my mom's death, I brought it home and refinished it. It still has the original glassknobs. Love it.
Diane

My parents got a 1940's golden/blond wood dining set from my aunt when she moved to a smaller home. I always loved that set, but after Mom died, one of my nieces took it since she also really loved it. I think my new vintage (LOL) Heywood-Wakefield set is a good homage to Aunt Mary's/my parents' former set.

So many but here's one...

Late 40's my parents built a new house and had barkcloth wall to wall drapes made. The colors were garish - various large plum (aubergine) and green tropical flowers and foliage on a grey background but as a child I thought the new living room was really something. Color scheme was grey and plum predominantly and all new furniture. I'm immensely attracted to vintage barkcloth and occasionally look at sites that have it expecting to see the same pattern altho wouldn't choose it. I may find a print with colors that would work in my home to use as cushion covers.

Interesting thread.

Auntjen, I envy your possession of a Tudor revival cottage. I know older homes have their quirks and issues, but the charm of the architecture outweighs the lack of closet space, at least for me.

You know, I think you might live in my home town. Are you near University and Forest Park?

These golden pheasants. My mom gave a pair to my grandmother and she had them in her living room for over 40 years. I inherited them, and just love them. They're so awful, but I adored them as a child.

Don't have a pic because they're packed away until after we finish the remodel, but the things I love most from my mother's side (father's side lived in a hut in Syria--he didn't exactly bring anything from that) are the long-legged, small-top oak table and ladderback chair my grandfather (whom I never met - a full Colonel in the Army Medical Corps, active in WWI and WWII) made to use as sign-in furniture for his medical practice. They're SO severe (he was a severe Presbyterian) and remind me of the utilitarian needs that furniture in his world needed to fill. They're still as tight as if they had been built yesterday, though, and the finish has gone pretty completely black by now and I have to laugh if I think about what he would think if he saw where they are now, because they actually look great with my 'organic modern' vibe.

Powermuffin, that cabinet sounds wonderful! Just the fact that your grandfather made it makes it something to absolutely treasure. How nice that you've restored it!

Gsciencechick, I love the look of 1940s blonde wood! There's something so very chic about it. Chic, yet still very nostalgic! I like the way you're paying homage to your Aunt Mary!

Luckygal, I adore barkcloth! At one time when I was going with sort of a tropical look in my guest/workout room, I seriously scoped out sources for barkcloth drapes. They were pretty pricey (even on eBay), so I opted for a number of barkcloth pillows on the daybed instead. I can envision the drapes just as you've described them. So very cool!

Fun2BHere, I am indeed living in your home town! Not in the TCU area, but just north of downtown. Are you still living here, or have you moved away? I was born here, moved away, but now I'm back. It is, and will always be, home!

Oh Pesky, they're not awful! They're wonderful! I absolutely love those so pieces - they have tremendous personality! Where have you displayed them?

Flyleft, those pieces sound fabulous! And how wonderful that they were crafted by your grandfather. Even though you never met him, they surely make you feel a connection to him. What history that table and chair must have!

Auntjen, I live in California now, but my parents and every other member of my large extended family live in the DFW area. I was there for two weeks at Christmas time. Sometimes, I think if I could live in one of those gorgeous houses surrounding TCU, I would move back there. I would miss the ocean and the California weather, though.

Ahhh, California! Yes, I can imagine the climate and the ocean have a powerful hold on you now! :-) When I was house-shopping before I bought mine, I looked in the TCU area - Mistletoe Heights, Arlington Heights - all around that area. Unfortunately, the homes I absolutely loved were well out of my price range! I settled on a little place in another historic neighborhood on the other side of downtown though, and we've been happy there for almost 10 years now.

Yes, those homes around the university are surprisingly expensive, especially since some of them haven't been updated in decades. I'm glad you found another wonderful neighborhood to settle into.