Girly Stuff

A while back I told you my unique habit of reuniting separated pieces at the thrift store; candlesticks, creamers and sugars, cups and saucers all make their way into my cart while I 'drive' them up and down the isles looking for their lost mate.  I even did it with a vintage boxed Knickerbocker Raggedy Andy this week!  I walked up to a woman holding the boxed Raggedy Ann and said, "Oh!  There she is!"  She handed Ann to me and I confessed, that I was just putting them together.  She said, "Oh, I'll take him then, my sister loves Raggedy Ann."  

Two weeks ago I walked around at the thrift store looking for the mate for this little bone china creamer, I couldn't find the sugar so I placed it on the shelf where I put the loners.  On Friday I went on my weekly field trip and saw a sugar bowl,  picking it up I thought it looked familiar.  I walked to the loner shelf and low and behold!  The creamer from the first trip was the lost mate!  Into my cart they both go, together again, happily ever after. How many of you are now walking through your thrift store restoring couples to their original state?  I make pairs all the time regardless of wanting to buy them!

I think I have about six sets of these little creamer and sugar sets now.  I use them for High Tea parties but I'm thinking with this many of them I might need to think up a little display to put them out and look at them all for a while.  This is my first in the purple color scheme.  For $ 3.75 for the pair, would you leave them?

When it comes to decorating, I think I gravitate toward the softer side at least in the bedrooms.  This little leather coin purse belonged to 'Big Grama', that one was a school teacher.  I filled the purse with my favorite flowers.  I love the fragrance and the petite little bell flowers, the cake at our wedding was decorated with silk Lily of the Valley even though I was married in August, not May the month when they bloom.

Gloves are part of my ensemble when I wear vintage dresses and drive the '57.  Being a tall girl, my glove size is 7, not typical for the 5'2" average woman of the 1950s.  I frequently use gloves in vignettes to layer things on.

I love handbags and hats too, eat your heart out Bette Page, mine are really vintage! I picked up the little white purse (which had never been used) for $1.00 at a flea market a couple years ago.

Over the headboard, a collection of girly soft colors, 3D hydrangeas, a floral from the 1950s and a pastel toned plate are hung along with four Skeleton keys.  I love to look at these vintage pieces tucked here and there, connections with the past make me happy in the present.

His Excuse for Everything!

Part II

August 5th, 1978 to August 5th, 2012:  Thirty four years of mostly happily ever after.  On this anniversary we celebrate by going to brunch at a historic hotel dining room and then will attend Roman Holiday at the Guthrie Theater.  The ticket for the play was a gift from our son for Christmas and my birthday 18 months ago, I was saving it for something special; this qualifies!  Yup, I'm HIGH MAINTENANCE!  I want our  anniversary the focus of life on this day each year!

Ten years ago I had the great idea that we should take turns planning the anniversary date.  He said, "Okay, but I don't want this to turn into some kind of contest each year."  At 24 years I said, "Oh no, I planned a trip to Door County, Wisconsin."  The next year, our Silver Wedding Anniversary, became HIS year to plan.  He shooed me out of the house for a month or so in the evenings telling me he was working on a project.  I believed him.

My 1957 Chevy Bel Air

On our anniversary morning I had an appointment and when I came home he said, "I need some help with the garage door."  Still oblivious, I followed him out of the house barefooted.  Our next door neighbor was outside but I dutifully watched as Mr. Wonderful pushed the garage door opener.  In  the middle of the garage was the car we had looked at but couldn't afford 18 months earlier!  I said, "Did you rent it for us for the day?!"  He handed me a silver engraved key ring and said, "It's yours!"  In the back seat a vintage radio was playing (wait for it) "Tammy's in Love." 

Now, I confessed, I'm high maintenance but not THAT HIGH!  He is romantic, but not THAT ROMANTIC!  The car I had wanted from the time I was in high school was the ultimate gift, next came a photo album with the first 25 years of our life together chronicled inside.  I got in the car and he took me to a park for lunch on silver rimmed china, silver rimmed crystal goblets!  Driving home again he told me that we were going to a Bed & Breakfast for the night!  Yup, 25 years of romance in ONE day.  Yes, I renewed his contract for the next 25 years.

It was an amazing anniversary, and completely shocking to me.  My beloved had purchased the car over a year before, stored it and waited through my having a job I hated, our son going through Basic Training and me being a train wreck waiting for his graduation, and a few other life issues that were not all that pleasant.  He told me that many times he almost weakened and thought about giving me the car before the 25th Anniversary.  I"m glad he waited.

So on this day and any other day, what is 'His Excuse for Everything'?  

 "I gave you a car once!"

Known by my Heart

I can't resist these little couples when I find them at the thrift store!

August 5th, 1978 I married my beloved and my friend in a beautiful old chapel with stained glass windows and marble walls and bridesmaids and groomsmen wearing pastel green gowns and tuxes (it was the '70s, OK?!)  The picture on the right was taken on our honeymoon, the one next to it was taken six years later with our first two children!

The day of the wedding dawned clear and we were relieved because the photos were being taken inside and outside on the beautiful campus of Northwestern College in St. Paul. The Christian college where we met  was once a seminary for Catholic priests, situated on a secluded wooded campus with a lake, the chapel was a beautiful setting for our vows.

My mother's wedding pearls hang on the angel tree topper

 My wedding gown was sleeveless, which was a blessing.  The temperature went to the upper 80s on that day and there wasn't any air conditioning in the historic campus building where we dressed or in the chapel.  

Little Grampa had an Old Spice bottle like this, I combed antique stores to find it!

Mr. Wonderful was, and still is, the man of my dreams.  He was silly and could make me laugh, he was a believer, he was tall (I am 5' 9"!), I wanted to spend my life with him and he was heading to seminary in another state after finishing his undergrad!  I didn't want him to go without me and so I got married when I was not quite 21.  As I tell my daughters now, "I would ALWAYS marry Daddy, I wouldn't get married that young!"  Daughter number one married at 22, daughter number two is 26 and still single.  Good listeners!

Our wedding garters are in the vintage planter, his is the black and white one complete with ball and chain, mine is barely blue anymore.  The cake topper sits in the middle of the table and the silver album on the left is filled with the story of our first 25 years, my husband created it for our silver anniversary nine years ago.

I hear the cottonwoods whisperin' above,

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy's in love.

The ushers escorted our two mothers down the isle to that organ tune at our wedding ceremony.  A friend told me at the reception, "I heard that song and started to cry!"  Thirty four years later, and I'm still in love.

Stay tuned for part two...