Tea Time, No Golf Clubs Allowed

When I was four years old my Great Grama Gina gave me this little sugar and creamer set.  She had it in the box it came in, a souvenir of her trip from Iowa to Galena, Illinois to President Grant's Home.  I imagine it was some time in the 1940s.  I displayed them on my hutch dresser for years.  The roses are the opposite color on the other side of each piece and the trim says 24 carat gold.  The set is precious to me no matter their material value.

I started thrifting five years ago and developed a unique habit of putting things back together.  It sounds like something from a children's storybook; the two candlesticks that sat on some grandmother's table forever and a day can't be in two different places in the great big thrift store.  They have never been apart their whole lives, they'll have separation anxiety!  I put the candlestick in my cart and 'drive it around' till I find its mate and put them together.  They are happy once again.

This little habit also pairs creamers and sugars in holy matrimony.  'Look, there's a cute little sugar bowl.  I wonder where the creamer is?'  Into the cart, drive up and down the isles.  If I didn't find it, I drive through the whole place looking again (there are about 6 isles with four layers of shelves on both sides).  I am not taking OCD medication, in case you are wondering.  This is the only place I do this, things that were together at some grama's house must REMAIN together.  

  So you see, once they are reunited, they just are so cute, and when you can have both pieces for around $3.00, why shouldn't they come to tea at my house?  They come in pairs, two by two, just like Noah's animals into the ark, I mean into my buffet,  TOGETHER AGAIN.  Only paired sets of creamers and sugars come home.

I did have to bring home the little red Pyrex fridgie without his lid.  I walked through that great big thrift store three times trying to find his mate!  He came home and I'll keep hunting, he's willing to accept a new partner at this stage of the game.  I asked Stephanie at Gilded Junque, my spring swap partner if she put things together too, we are so much alike...sometimes, she does.  Do you?