Treasures

Treasures come in many forms--those that find us and those that we find.

Over the past few days, I've continued to recover from that nasty cold I had last week, and I'm feeling so much better! A little bit of cough and congestion linger, but it's about what I have when allergies hit--in fact, it may just BE allergies.

At the height of my illness last week, my husband brought a package in for me from the mailbox from my blog-less friend Sandy. I can't tell you how much that package of goodies brightened my spirits!

Sandy sent me a tea pot embroidered apron that I promptly hung on one of the pegs in my kitchen--I think she knows I love tea pots!

The box also contained an assortment of goodies from buttons to fabric to a chicken pincushion! It was such a treat! Thanks so much, Sandy! You are a treasure! I also want to thank the rest of you who took the time to leave me "get well" comments--I appreciate each and every one of you! I'm glad you found me and my little blog.

I was determined last weekend to get out of the house for a little bit on Sunday, and although my hubby and I weren't exactly feeling our best, we decided go out and get some breakfast and do a little thrift store shopping. Our hearts weren't really in it, so we didn't spend a lot of time searching for treasures, but just as we were talking about heading home, I found something that excited me--an embroidered picture!

Some of the attraction of thrift store shopping is in finding things other people have made and treasured themselves, things that are now being passed on for some reason. Do you thrift shop? Do you imagine stories about the items and the people who owned them and why they're no longer treasured? I do--at least with some things. Being a quilter, when I saw the embroidered picture and knew how much time the person who made it had put into it, I had to take it home with me. The frame's not good, but I found another frame today, at yet another thrift store--I'll want to paint it and then see how the flowers look in it. When I get it "fixed up," I'll try to remember to take another photo to show you.

At the thrift store I stopped at tonight on my way home from work, it seemed that quite a few items had been donated from the home of someone who was "into" country decor. I gravitate toward that look myself to some extent and had to restrain myself from picking up a bunch of "bargains" that I wouldn't know what to do with later! There's a blue wooden apple wagon I came home with--you can see it in the photo with the embroidered flowers, near the top of the photo--as well as a wooden shoe form that's also right above the embroidered flowers. The wooden shoe form had a circa-1980s "country" pastel ribbon and some dried flowers glued onto it, but I pulled those off. I'm not sure what I'll do with my "foot," but my grandfather was a shoe repairman, so the shoe form brings back some memories.

From the same "country lady" I think came two bags of wooden blocks, houses, and other decorations. For now, those will go in my craft closet, but I see future possibilities there.

I also "collect" these turquoise/green canning jars and I found three tonight--two are imprinted for the bicentennial, which was kind of interesting.

Besides collecting tea pots that I've mentioned before, I'm kind of nutty about pitchers, and I found this yellow one with a Restoration Hardware imprint on the bottom. I love the bright and cheerful look!

Then various other little "finds." There's a green cabbage bowl there in the upper left that someone made--or glazed, anyway--for her mother for Mother's Day back in the 70s, I believe--it's inscribed on the bottom. I have a larger, white cabbage soup tureen that looks quite similar by Metlox Pottery. Maybe someday I'll have a collection of cabbage pottery! A blue polka dot pot on a yellow polka dot plate. Stacked red, white, and blue star boxes--there's that patriotic theme again! A couple little pictures and frames. The sailing ship is hand painted and not a print--that one's destined for a new frame (maybe the white one it's sitting on after I repaint the frame black) and will go in my son's former bedroom along with a couple other nautical-themed drawings I've found at thrift stores lately.

A few of you mentioned to me that you were getting the itch to visit a thrift shop or two. Have you gone yet? Did you find any treasures? Here in our area, Goodwill is having a HUGE sale on Memorial Day--50% off. I guess you know where hubby and I will be for at least a little bit of the day, right? And there are probably about six Goodwill stores within about a 20 minute drive from our house. Of course, I have a lot of quilting to do too this weekend with two patriotic quilt tops ready to be pinned and quilted, but I'm sure I'll need to get out for a bit and stretch my muscles, right?!