Once A Collector, Always A Collector

Sometimes I forget where I am and try to explain myself. I'm a collector, and anybody who visits me here after all this time needs no explanation.

I'm not strictly in the "business" anymore. Vintage, I mean. But who out there can just turn off the love? Am I right??

It's been more than a year since I visited any local markets until now. Some of the prices are unbelievable. You all know that I personally do not need one more ironstone pitcher, but look at this cutie! Fifteen bucks! What a lovely vessel with which to give away a bouquet of flowers.

Cut glass is another weakness of mine, and I look at this beautiful compote as another way to wrap up something (anything from cookies to soap) as a nice gift. Seven dollars.

This scrumptious old tea pot with the exquisite detail was ten dollars.

But it was finding this little set of Staffordshire dogs that keeps me driven to the hunt. I have been on the lookout for tiny figures for many, many years. I know you can buy the small ones for real money online any day of the week, but I would rather find a set for a tiny price to match. Wouldn't you?

I am showing them with the smallest dogs that I had collected so far. (Those are actually more common to find online.) How many ways are there to say "THRILLED"!? I don't think I have stopped squealing inside.

Here is the contrast with the bigger boys that are seven and a half inches tall.

And well, you all know of my linen obsession. I don't collect linen anymore. Except when I do. (Grinning here....) Few people want it or use it anymore. It is a lost art, so I treat it that way, often just hanging it around to be seen and appreciated. Mostly by me. It's one of my happy things to surround myself with.

I like to hang it like art.

What else can you do with a crocheted doily with an lovely linen insert in my favorite ivory color?

I do occasionally use this linen runner on a table or dresser.

The piece underneath is my most recent pillowcase find. A wonderful antique linen that shows better layered on the wall than on a bed. Though I will use it that way too.

This pair of napkins came from a thrift store jaunt with my granddaughter. (You KNOW she was raised right!)

I found the tablecloth at the fleamarket, and I'm actually pretty sure I sold this myself in a moment of weakness a couple of years ago! Glad to have it back. Looks like my sort of thing doesn't it?

This gorgeous all linen and lace runner is lovely, long, and oh so soft. Thrift store too.

This is a small crocheted curtain. Ready to hang or lay on a table.

This one found right beside it with a bit different detail. These are all over Europe hanging in cheery windows.

So I think I have scratched that itch for the next little while. It sure was fun!

I hope you are all finding your own cures for all the madness. We are having the most surprising mild summer, though a crazy hard rain flooded the kitchen and called for a new roof. I consider myself lucky.

Also, I am so glad to see that the sidebar thumbnail photos are back when you post! Bravo! I thought they were gone forever! Unless I learn a solution, your email notifications when I post are soon gone from your email though. (sad face)

 Take good care of yourselves out there!

Jacqueline

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Armchair Travel & Magic in the Moonlight

Aren't spring blossoms the cheeriest?

 The surest sign of spring.

Not much else is happening outdoors yet, but the trees are beginning to leaf and the grass is greening up. I'm so glad that we are in the hopeful time of year in our part of the world.

This is the lovely second year bloom of my cast off paperwhites. I tossed the spent plant into the nearest flower bed right after Christmas two years ago and it surprisingly came up again in the spring. My kind of plant! 

To express my appreciation I have set up a little fairy garden set beside the solitary bloom.

The rest of the yard still lies in suspended animation.

Vinca

Something that has me enthused about gardening this season was stumbling across a mention of the film Magic in the Moolight set on the French Riviera in the 1920's. Need I say more? I had not seen it before but have now watched it a dozen times, often with the sound off. But the music is great too.

It's a perfect film for an armchair traveler. Released in 2014, PG-13, about three stars. The sets are luscious, the gardens divine. The lavish costumes are all vintage and gorgeous. The architecture and landscape are a main feature of the film. Lots of container plantings and dreamy verandas. We are going to do more garden pots this year because of the gorgeous scenes in this movie.

Oddly, I found the story more amusing when I read the subtitles with the sound off.

Magic in the Moonlight

Closer to home... rose buds are coming on.

And the little boxwood made it through another winter!

And lilac. (Unfortunately just a few this year.)

I was asked about the swarm of bees poem in my last post (a sketch from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady), so here it is in full.

"A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay,

A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon,

A swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly."

... a proverbial bee-keepers' saying, mid 17th century; meaning that the later in the year it is, the less time there will be for bees to collect pollen from flowers in blossom.

Finally, it's national poetry month. Did you know? So if you're needing a little mental stimulation you might google "April is the cruelest month" and you will get a list of material to choose from starting with the text of The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot. Move on to questions to ponder like "Why is April the cruelest month?" and other discussions. Darkly thoughtful, and not as cheery as bee proverbs.

"The best way to understand the poem’s endless allusions — obscure in some places, impenetrable in others — is to have both the text and a glossary to hand. However, it’s also possible to appreciate the poem on a more basic level: its lyrical flow, jarring juxtapositions, and surprising images." From the National Review

Click here for the rest of the interesting current article.

Thanks so much for coming by!

 Your visit cheers my day like cherry blossoms.

Jacqueline

Familiar Things For a Winter's Day

Hello Friends! It's almost Valentines Day and so I am sending you all the love!

It has been a long while since I checked in here, but as you will soon see, not much has changed.

I think I mentioned that I have a new camera, so this is a very experimental post. I always want things to be simpler than is possible, and I don't want to spend the time it takes to learn new gadgets. But things finally reached critical mass and I think I made a breakthrough!

I just started with what is right in front a me as a subject, but there are always one or two new things of course.

 I am so proud that after two years my Oxalis shamrock is still alive! It went completely dormant, wilted, and lost all it's growth just before Christmas. I panicked! But I read up and learned that due to conditions that this is kind of normal. I repotted, got it a sunny window, and you wouldn't believe how fast it all came back. I'm just so pleased!!

This little embroidered runner is new to me and makes me almost as happy as my resurrected plant.

I use my few seed sacks in a ton of different ways, and always have them ready nearby too.

And a couple of mustard pots still line the shelves.

And pitchers in a row. (I would need detailed instructions on how to live without those...)

There have been so many dark days that I decided to leave my lighted birch trees up a while longer. I brought them home from the shop and still couldn't find the heart to put them away. There have been so many houseguests of late that I find they are a lovely way to light the way in an unfamiliar place. A gentle night light emanating from the center of the whole house. 

There are only small changes to the top cupboard shelf. Sometimes I just want to look at something different!

These little brown baby boots are new here and cheery as all get out! And after a very long time of longing I managed to get a few sprigs of tallow berry to decorate with. They are not native here, but I love the way they look in vignettes.

The days whiz by. Folks come and go. Before we have a chance to look up we have turned another year older. I find that I don't change things up as often as I used to, and love the sameness of things more. At least in the wintertime. . . .

I hope that this finds you surrounded by all that you love too!

Cheery days ahead to you!

Love,

 Jacqueline

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