We all have them. Someone you know escapes on an amazing vacation destination and "all you got is this tacky fill-in-the-blank". What to do? Do you hide them? Sneak them to the nearest Goodwill store? Or do you find a way to display them with grace in your home? Here are some ideas to help with the latter:
Sea Shells: Lining shelves can be a bit too much (to look at and to dust). Try them under glass as in this example from Bob Timberlake.
Plates: Display them in a dish rack, like this one in Better Homes and Gardens. Or organize them on the wall like this.
Figurines: Go serial. Lots of similar objects displayed together can take on a transformative, pop-art appearance. We love these Eiffel Tower figurines on a tray stand via Antiques Diva.
The Dreaded Oversized Souvenir T-Shirt: Try this DIY T-Shirt Quilt by Michelle Kempner.
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Comments (8)
I give those things away away to the first person I see who may like them. I have too many books around this place to allow any extra visual clutter.
If you think seashells are tacky I will happily relieve you of your burden. I also accept sea glass, raunchy postcards, novelty prophylactics and miniatures under 1 inch. Consider it a public service.
I have a dozen or so kitschy things I refuse to part with, but have yet to come up with a clever display solution. Mostly they are items from both sets of grandparents...very midwestern, old farmer cheap style...some I know came from Big Lots... They don't match, some are chipped, but they are heavy on sentiment and the only things I have as memories from these people. Any clever ideas?? :P
Except none of these gifts are tacky.
Come back when you can tell me how to deal with the refrigerator magnet from Oklahoma and the shot glass from Cancun.
I agree with HouseBee. A bunch of Marimekko plates as seen in the second plates link would be an awesome souvenir. Heck, any kind of plate at all would be a lot better than the usual keychain or coffee mug. Those usually get stuffed away discretely until the next goodwill haul...
And Nevanna, if the style of your home is compatible I would suggest some kind of vignette setup that highlights your objects for what they are: memories of people. Doesn't have to be a tacky shrine or anything, but just keep the set together (a dozen or so isn't too much) so that they are not mistaken for objects that you chose to buy and use.
My own personal shrine to tacky is my fridge, which I got third hand and covered in dirty lesbian love poems from a magnetic poetry kit. Did you know that if you leave a magnet in place to long, it bonds to the surface of your fridge and sticks? Faced with either paying for a new fridge or disguising the poems somehow, I convinced all my friends to give me tacky magnets, postcards, stickers, and other junk they picked up on their travels. Artfully arranged over ever inch of my used fridge, they've become an expanding art display. I have everything from commemorative magnets from a trip to London (doesn't everybody have Richard III's portrait lying around somewhere?) to a South Korean political sign (which roughly translated compares the current president to a torn prophylactic) and stickers with Japanese animation characters on them. If I displayed *any* of this on its own, it would look cheap and tacky. Collectively in an organized display, it looks merely kooky and unique. Yes, the poems are still there for anyone who can find them between the 7-11 "flowers of the world" magnets and the 1970's Wonder Woman postcard reproduction.
I know from tacky, and these aren't tacky.
Gee, I wish I had been given such tacky gifts.
Actually the hard and fast rule with our friends and ourselves: no gifts. Cook a dinner, invite us over to share the stories and photos of your holiday. This also translates into Christmas as well as birthdays. No tacky souvenirs, no gifts that you really don't need, just great dinners with friends.