"A house is made of bricks and stone...

...but a home is made from love alone."

This phrase was on my mind today as I looked around my home at my many home accessories.  I often wonder if the little trinkets and gifts that I have collected along the way are the very things that make my house a home, or if it is o.k. to trash them now and then and start over. 

Each year, we have Pizza and Pajamas at Christmas.

If these are the memories my children have, the "love" that makes our home, then can I unload some of my accessories such as this:

See the spiral candle holder in the background.  Am I wrong in thinking that it was on an episode of Friends about 10 (15, 20) years ago? And I HAD to have one, so I stalked Pottery Barn until I found one on sale.  I am so sick of that thing.  Can I get rid of it?  Or is it going to be something that my grand kids think is really cool one day.  That Gramma's house has the hippest old stuff.  My grandparents really do have the coolest stuff.

This reflective owl has greeted us as we arrived at the Poling Ranch for as long as I can remember.  The home behind it, where my mom grew up, has since burned, but the owl has held his own.  It would not be the same without the owl.

Here's the difference:  I purchased a massed-produced item that you can now find at any Target or discount store.  My grandparents bought unique items at craft shows or from crafty friends, or they made things themselves. 

So I'm thinking that I really am a part of the "throw away generation."  But I can't help it.  The spiral, the horrible-mass-produced-so-over-it-candle-holder-that-you-can't-light-the-candles-without-ruining-the-wall spiral,  has put me into its last trance.  Free to a loving home (or I'll bring it to the family reunion Crap Swap.)