Pretty Things on a Tray

 A few months back I ran across this beautiful tableau of pretty things on a tray. It's from a fairly recent issue of House Beautiful magazine. Something about the pale, luminous colors stuck with me:

I thought I'd round up things in my home to see if I could create a similar look. So on my great-grandmother's Limoges tray, I plopped all sorts of things, some precious, some very humble:

Hmm. I decided the pink papier-mache egg was too colorful, so out it went. What's left looked more cohesive:

The pearly beads are from a 1950s-era necklace that belonged to my mom. They're sharing space in a little junk-shop dish with a pale blue marble:

The gold lipstick tube is mine from the 1980s. The sterling one is my mother's, from the 1940s. The silver heart is a new gift from my biggest sis. Thank you, B! I love it:

I found dozens of these little heart-shaped chunks of coral tumbling in the waves on the beach at Cabo San Lucas. They're sitting in a little Lenox dish:

The small gold compact is an Estee Lauder purchase from the 1990s. The powder is history, but I couldn't bear to toss out the textured compact, with its pocket-watch cuteness:

I think my mother gave me the shell-turned-box years ago. The demitasse spoon was her mother's:

Her initials, EAC, are on the handle. The pattern is "Buttercup," by Gorham. It's my silver pattern. And my other sister's. And it was our mom's. And our Nana's, as well!

Last, just a little smooth rock I found on one of my hikes. It's been tumbled by the ocean. I love the contast between the super-simple rock and the painted, delicate china:

I'm not sure yet if I'll leave the arrangement on the tray. It was fun, plucking things from different parts of my house, and letting them have the afternoon to play together.

They play very nicely, don't they?