I was quite honored when my dear cousin, Joyce blessed me with the gift of her beautiful heirloom quality, hand-carved Noah’s Ark set.

I placed it on top of an antique bookcase we use as a “china” cabinet that Marty actually found in an old barn, and we had refurbished.

The cabinet is filled with Pfaltzgraff dishes passed down from Joyce and Rob, Aunt Francie’s heirloom cow creamer, Marty’s mom’s favorite sterling silver sugar dish (that she always served butter mints in for “company” dinner parties), and lots of other things we have accumulated and cherished through the years.

It seemed the perfect spot to share space with so many of the other mementos we have of beautiful memories of times spent with some of our favorite people 🙂

Dan Gregan is the amazing artist that handcrafted this set.  His website, Dagwood Carving, shows that he now has over 80 pairs of animals created to accompany his arks!

I love how well it goes in my dining room, which is my most “antique” or “primitive” rooms in the house combining an eclectic mix of Noah’s ark, chickens, antique sewing machines as buffets, and a special dry sink cabinet made by Uncle Carl – Joyce’s dad.

To me, decorating a home is about special, meaningful things that you love or are from people you love – not about a particular style or designer or “look.”  I feel love when I look around my dining room…

Heirlooms…

and sweet memories…

at Life in Between.

Cheers and Hugs,

Jodi

PS – look for a special blog post tomorrow when “Oh Rob” (Joyce’s other half) was in the house cooking this past weekend!  Oh what fun we all had!  And we’re going to teach you how to make BAGNA CAUDA as only Oh Rob can do!   Here’s a sneak peak of Oh Rob in action…