Old Things, Regret and Peppers

Simple and old. Those are the things that appeal to me. The longer I hang around, the deeper it runs or perhaps the more in touch with this need for well-loved, traditional unpretentious things I get.

The 2Peas challenge for yesterday was to write about an emotion you've felt. I'm choosing the very ugly, very annoying emotion of *regret*.

I goofed up at a garage sale last weekend and I've been regretting it all week. One of those subversive, slightly nagging things that kinda pricks my mind when there's nothing else to think about. If there's such a thing as a mental kick-in-the-pants, I've been doing it all week. I passed up a 3-piece set of old Pyrex dishes (similar to these I found on ebay) and an obviously-old wooden rolling pin--all four items for $20. I was a wimp. I have a hard time spending large bills at garage sales, even when it's a really good buy. I don't want to spend my money all in one place. Wimp. Even as we were walking down the driveway, away from the garage sale, I told Deborah "that will be my next garage sale regret for the next week". I should learn to trust myself more than this.

Old kitchen stuff is just so "right" to me. I'd rather have old stuff then new. Vintage, retro, junktique--whatever you want to call it...I like it.



My mother and grandmother have been using these dishes for as long as I can remember. It's a tradition I like. It's funny--I see a certain size and style of dish and I can tell you what signature dish my mother makes and always serves in this dish.

Having someone to go to garage sales with is definately more fun than going alone. Deborah and I left home last Saturday at just after 7 am and we had a wonderful morning. We decided that our favorite stops are church garage sales, preferrably the one in outlying small towns. She found a JAG Season 2 DVD set for $5. I found some abandoned antique photos to rescue and a tatted handkerchief (no idea how to spell that). And a mini-muffin tin. And a small yellow 1.5 cup Pyrex bowl with lid from 1960 for a quarter.



Later in the week I adopted a frog at the Bellevue junque store--no not a green slimey frog--a steel one used in floral arranging. I'm pretty sure when I saw it there was an audible rapid intake of air. It demanded to come home with me. Jenni Bowlin started this...paper thing in a frog bit. Repurposing impresses me like nothing else. :)

Most floral companies use ugly plastic frogs now...and they don't work all that well. In my life before children I spent a significant amount of time working in a flower shop. I will never forget the day one of our oldest clients brought in her huge heavy very-old steel frog and asked me to use it in the bottom of a vase of flowers for her dining room. When she gave it to me, I had no clue what it was or what I was supposed to do with it. And I had no idea how heavy it was. Boy, was I in for an eye-opening experience! :)



And finally, the science project known as growing peppers has sprouted. Did I mention that no one in our family actually eats peppers? I let the boys pick the seed packet and apparently, the bright colors attracted their attention. They selected peppers. I decided to just go with it. I wonder if my neighbors like peppers?

May you have no regrets about today and may all your frogs be made of steel.