Monday, November 14, 2005

super weekend

I got so much done! Saturday was awesome. A me day, sort of. I ran errands in the morning, then checked out a new antique store in Columbia called Burning Bridge market. It's an old hardware/general store that new owners have redone. The building was in remarkable condition and had never been redone, so it still had huge display windows, tin ceilings, wide plank wood flooring, original light fixtures, 15 foot ceilings... just beautiful. And to see three floors filled with cool old stuff, I was in heaven. I bought two aprons...one a green and lavendar floral with green piping and the other a rose floral with pink piping and a heart shaped pocket. I picked up a vintage christmas tray and an old 'hothouse tomato' produce box. Oh, and 5 wood quart boxes to use at my tomato stand in the summer. All for $9.00. Woo hoo! This place had the best selection of restored and original chrome dinette sets I've ever seen. I dearly wish I had a breakfast nook, cause there was a canary yellow set that I would have loved to have had.

how cheery for coffee in the morning before work.

My friend and I were at an auction this past spring where a red chrome dinette table in very good condition went for $1. These were quite a bit more than that and I found myself wishing I had strapped that $1 table to the roof of my car and sold it to the dinette people. A nice little profit. Burning Bridge also had great architectural salvage. I saw many styles of old wrought-iron fencing that I might like for the perennial bed at the end of the driveway. Is that a weird thing to ask for as a Christmas gift? By now, my husband shouldn't be at all suprised at the strange things I ask for. Then I went to my old standby antique store down the street...Herrs. There I bought a three sectioned, pottery relish tray with sculptural cherry embellishment to use at thanksgiving and a 4-piece Pyrex nesting bowl set that I've had my eye on for quite some time.


The huge bowl is bright yellow, the next smaller bowl is green, the next is bright red, and the tiny bowl is china blue. I think they are from the 1950s, but I'm not sure. They sure made my day though. I try to be anti-consumption, just buying what I need. But I can't help myself where vintage kitchenware is concerned. I can never have enough. The thought of using these things and touching these things and wondering about all the other hands that have done so and imagining all the meal preparation they were involved in gives me a huge thrill. Maybe they were a wedding gift? Was someone's first birthday cake made in that big yellow bowl? Did little hands make their first cookies in the red bowl? Did someone sit and receive bad news while twisting the hem of the apron that I bought? How many laps of how many Thanksgiving tables did my relish tray make? Does buying old things count as materialism?

Anyway, I digress. Then I went home and made an awesome vegetable soup and homemade corn muffins, and a fig cake, using my 'new'bowls and wearing one of my 'new' aprons. And thats what I'll be eating for every meal for the next week.

Sunday it was in the mid-60s and husband was home, so we got a tone of stuff done outside. I fertilized my fruit trees and wrapped their trunks, thereby tucking them in for the winter. We finished the summer-long project of replacing the front porch ceiling, I painted the laundry room door, I did all the laundry, planted the few stragglers that were left hanging around, made a roast chicken and mashed potatoes And read the the entire Sunday New York Times. A great weekend all around.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love weekends like that--I had same. The Burning Bridge market sounds great! I have to be careful in places like that. Sunday was the day to work outside--I can barely walk today from all I did all day yesterday. Wow, that cookin' & bakin' too! A fun read.

11:56 AM  
Blogger EFB said...

this place sounds great. you'll have to take me there next time i visit.

9:02 AM  
Blogger meresy_g said...

I have to be careful in places like that too. It's easy to get a little crazy, especially when the prices are good. Next time you visit EFB, we will definitely go there. There are a ton of other antique stores in that town, so we could spend a whole day there.

This weather is crazy. The weekend was great for outside work. I wouldn't mind one more like that. Maybe I'll put up my outside Christmas lights or something, so I don'thave to do it when it's freezing.

10:10 AM  
Blogger Susie Sunshine said...

Architectural salvage makes me weak in the knees.

5:09 PM  
Blogger meresy_g said...

haha. Yeah, me too. If I ever changed careers, it would be to an architectural uhhh salvager....oh, old-house-ripper-upper. Only I would probably end up keeping it all and my house would slowly fill to the roof with old glass doorknobs and cast iron register covers and gingerbread trim.

10:09 AM  

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