thrifting finds and garden treasures

I remember...
my Grandmother filling the bathtub with water and placing the cut flowers from her garden in their 'bath'.
It was her way of soaking out the ants and other bugs that invariably would be lurking in the blossoms.

It's funny how you carry on doing something a certain way because that's the way you learned how to do it.
It's a tradition that you don't even realize you are participating in.

That's me with cut flowers.
I lay them in the tub and give them a quick shower and let the freeloaders float their way out of the blooms.



Two of my greatest loves, and this is no exaggeration, are thrifting and gardening.

Thrift store shopping is something I have been doing since I was a little girl, much to my mothers mortification.
Back then it wasn't really something you did for fun - It was more out of necessity and thus something to be rather ashamed about.
I remember the stigma that came with wearing 'second hand' but I never really let it bother me. I really enjoyed hunting for the unique and special and putting it all together to make an outfit that I felt good in and proud of.
I also adored all the pretty plates and doilies and frippery I came across for pennies.

I think my love for the hunt and eye for quality and detail was honed and sharpened by those many thrift store forays.
I still have treasures in use today that I found when I was ten.



I've been trying to embrace simplicity lately.
Out of necessity more so than a change of lifestyle - "more is more" I always say!

But as my wee house gets overrun by the heaps of collected treasures I've accumulated over lo these many years, I have come to realize that I have allot of stuff.
Too much stuff in fact.

So I find myself digging thru boxes and making tough decisions about what gets to stay and what....doesn't.

It's awful.
I hate it.
So I decided to go and do something that really calms my nerves and makes me super happy.

I went thrifting.

But I can tell you that I went with the purest of intentions - I am in desperate need of more slips to dye and make lovely for the shops.

I have been remiss in my supplying the stores so I am making up for lost time with some heavy attention to the task.



And it was with complete innocence that I wandered thru the housewares section with no thoughts of really looking...till I spied this.

A hobnail milk glass vase.
I also found, with hardly searching at all, it's sister - a hobnail milk glass planter! (which I forgot to photograph for you in all the excitement of washing and filling my new vase with my just-opened-today peony blooms)



Even more shot's of my garden peonies...
In their natural state...



As I said, my two greatest loves are thrifting and gardening, well, last summer I started a garden in the boulevard - I used a discarded wicker rocking chair as part of the vignette.
The seat had long ago fallen out, so in went a rose standard.
I was pretty pleased with my idea and was even more excited when I noticed people stopping to admire it and snap photos.
I know it's horrid for me to say but...well, it was gorgeous.

Imagine my disappointment when a few months later, someone dug up my rose and walked off with it!
A few weeks after that, they stole the chair.

I gave myself some time to mourn.

A new wicker candidate has been found.

It's a vintage child's rocker that was originally intended for Mia...till one of the staff used it as a step ladder.

Sadly it is no longer a suitable rocking chair, but what a great planter!