Vintage Toy Pianos

Mom thought I showed some promise when I played with the toy piano. She enrolled me in piano lessons and my caucasian teacher came once a week. My first recital piece was "Old MacDonald (had a farm...)".

My teacher though I guess left, so he was replaced by my Ninang's cousin. She was very strict and would hit my fingers if I made a mistake. Of course, I quit.

It took almost a decade to get over my trauma. In met Ate Edith and I progressed really well. My recital pieces were "Joy of a Man's Desiring" and "Canon in D". I even had a trio. Ahh, those were the peak days of my musical era. I eventually got busy and focused on Miggy and my studies.

Now, I leave the piano playing to Sweetie. My big piano is with me, but badly needs tuning. :)

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Oldest Thing in My Kitchen

I chanced upon a post asking "what's the oldest thing in your kitchen?". I immediately thought it was me, haha.

I remembered though I had scoured through my childhood home and found kitchen stuff I grew up with. I got rid of the appliances (including my Mom's long not working turbo broiler). Then I went through the pots, pans dishes, drinkware and utensils.

And I figured that the oldest item are my grandma's party plates. I asked my Mom once why she had so many of those plates and she said it was my Mama Lola's. They are intact and will be used one of these days for a get together.

Everyone who visited my childhood home for a party or get together would have experienced using these plates. They are older than me and probably priceless at this point. It's a great set and was really useful through the years.

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Vintage Massage Devices!

Unearthed these from one of the boxes. Not sure if they still work and one even requires 110 volts 😅

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My Childhood Toys are Now Vintage

My Mom likes to keep things pristine. She always told me to take care of my things so they would last long. Imagine my surprise when I sorted boxes of toys today and found toys from my childhood.

I'm really surprised that my Mom preserved and kept them. She knew these toys were precious for me. I guess she must've kept it in her bedroom or my Mama Lola's since they were not affected by the floods (or stolen by you know who).

It was a delight to find my Fischer Price Music Box. It still works, but I need to find the records that come with it.

My Mickey Mouse Record Player! Probably requires 110 volts plug to play. It still probably works since Mom preserved it in its original box.

Electronic Portable Organ. I had a lot of happy playtime with this keyboard. Unfortunately, I don't think it's working anymore.

I'm a bit surprised I had a lot of music related toys. Tita Pet mentioned to me that Mom bought the upright piano because she really wanted one of us to be good at it. That's probably why I had a myriad of music related toys. 

I did learn how to play the piano and music has always been part of my life. Well, Sweetie is an expert at playing the keyboard, so music will definitely always be a part of my life :)

Thanks Mom and Dad for the great toy choices!

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Mom's Tea Pot and Cups | Vintage

Sorting through my Mom's things continues. I had the decluttering team pack fragile items in separate boxes. Mom had this huge cabinet in the basement with fragile plates, glasses, cups, saucers, serving dishes etc. We brought the boxes with glasses back with us together with the beads (which took me a month to sort!). 

I finally opened the boxes of glassware last Sunday since we spent our day in the living room. I've been eyeing the boxes for awhile now because it's been sitting in the living room. I had a fairly good idea what I'd find in it, Mom's collection of drinking ware for her parties. I was surprised though that the numbers had dwindled. She mentioned the helper had broken most of it (gaaah). Anyway, there's still a lot and they'd be useful since I shamefully don't own that many drinking glasses (sorry to visitors who've had to drink in mugs!).

Mom had been telling me what to keep through the years, so I know more or less which ones have value. I surprisingly found glasses for wine/alcoholic beverages. Some were not familiar to me since I don't drink. I had to take photos to check via Google Lens whether they were for drinking or vases (hahaha). They were all for drinking, so I guess the decluttering team are more familiar than me. This set of glasses I wasn't very familiar with since Mom rarely brought them out (they rarely drank alcoholic beverages). 

What surprised me was the collection of tea pot and cups (haven't found the saucers yet). I vaguely remember seeing the tea pot when I was a child. They soon disappeared and was kept in a cupboard. I checked with Tito Louie if the tea pot and cups were Mom's, my Mama Lola's, or Titay's. He said it was my Mom's. I told him I never saw my Mom drink tea! Haha. He said she probably collected them. 

I spent some time doing research on the tea pot and cups. All were made in England. The sets were incomplete, so I guess some broke already. I couldn't pinpoint the manufacturing date since info on the pot and cups were all over the place. They were all tagged vintage already, so it's not safe us to use. I suspect Mom got the tea pot and cups from an estate sale. She and Titay loved going to those whenever she was in the US. 

I'll keep the tea pot and cups. They look really nice anyway and would remind me of my Mom (even though I never really saw her drink tea), haha. I'm thinking I might put some succulents in the cups as a salute to my Mama Lola. She loved growing succulents and cacti. Mom would probably grudgingly agree. I need to check if I have more pups I can re-pot. 

Stories from Old Treasures

We finally started to clear my childhood home. It took me months before I could start working on it. To be honest, it did not feel right to open Mom's cabinets and drawers. She had kept the things in our home organized and she always told me not to touch things that aren't yours. I knew though I had to get things going since the items stored in my childhood home are better re-homed. I'd rather give stuff away so it would be useful. 

The process is hard, even more since I can't really do the sorting in person. I got help from Ally Canita. She's the decluttering coach who helped us last year go through and organize our home. I couldn't bring myself to open the cabinets and drawers I know Mom organized. Ally and her team went through each of the rooms for several weeks. I'm now doing the painful process of going through each and every item. 

It's quite therapeutic TBH. I've been coming across toys and items I used to cherish when I still lived in my childhood home. Miggy also found some of his favorite childhood toys. I realized Mom kept our things she thought was important for us. I had thought most of those items are long gone. I even found giveaways from my previous jobs, lol. 

So I thought on Thursdays, I would write stories about my old toys and things. It's been interesting to read up on some of my old toys (now vintage!) and Miggy's toys. Sweetie said some of them have value. Quick look on eBay confirms there's a lot of vintage stuff being sold online. It's just fun for me though to go through the items and reminisce. 

I started this last month on Mom's birthday. I sorted through some of her craft supplies and found 26 pairs of scissors! I'm not surprised she has so many because I'm the same. She believes it's important to have several pairs of scissors in each room of the house since you'll always need one. It's true! In our kitchen we probably have at least 2 used for food and a couple more for opening packages. 

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Mickey Mouse Ruler from the 80s and a 20-year old McDonald's Pencil Box

I'm slowly regaining my strength, so decluttering continues. I found a few vintage stuff from one of the boxes I sorted on my Mom's birthday. Never knew I'd see a souvenir from the first time when we went to Disneyland in 1980. 

I was only 4 years old back then, but I remember a few things from that trip. I remember I didn't like walking and I preferred to be in the stroller. That or Kuya would carry me, hahaha. I also always felt cold. The most fun moment for me was when we went through the "It's a Small World" ride. 

Mom bought this super cute ruler. I remember playing with it when I was a child. Never really used it as a ruler. It's just been used for display and eventually was kept in a cabinet. It has some damage now, but it's still cute. I cleaned it up and just put it in my ruler drawer for now since everything's messy in my craft room. I probably need to spend a day organizing it.

Also found two McDonald's pencil cases. I couldn't find the exact date it was released. Probably from the 90s since Hamburglar disappeared from commercials in 2002/2003. I'm also not sure when "Love ko to" was introduced by McDonald's Philippines. The slogan though was used in the 2000s, so the pencil box may have been from 2000-2005 before Hamburglar was phased out. Found a few posts selling the pencil box and Sweetie said he wanted to collate all "vintage" stuff, so I turned it over to him. 

It's interesting to read up on old stuff, so I might do more of this for Throwback Thursdays :)

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