Should Have Left It on the Shelf!

First a bit of life…last Sunday I had a Zoom meeting with some girlfriends. It was so delightful seeing everybody and catching up but I regretted not taking more care with my appearance. (I looked disheveled and tired.) So on Wednesday when I visited with another friend (this time in person in her apartment) I was determined to look more put together. I took time with my makeup, wore a pretty shirt and cute boots. I felt so much better…till I was leaving after the visit. A friendly woman in the elevator asked if I was a new resident. The folks in this community are typically 10-30 years older than me. Well, that burst my bubble. 🥺

Anyway on Friday morning I had a slew of errands that included my neighborhood thrift store. The store now opens at 10:00 a.m. instead of 9:00 and there are always a gaggle of folks waiting for the doors to open, which given the rise of Covid-19 in California is a bit off putting. Still for the most part I have been sheltering at home a lot. The riskiest thing I do is collect donated food from neighbors (communicating through Nextdoor.com) and take it to a food bank where I help sort it in a small mobile unit where mask wearing is mandatory, but social distancing is impossible. I’ve been doing this once a week since April and so far so good. None of us have gotten sick. And bonus, this week one of the donors dropped off homemade plum jam with this note on top of one. Thank you Sam!

Alright, back to the thrift store. I hadn’t been for a few days and I was delighted to see the shelves had some new stock. I was excited about this Deruta-style soup tureen made by Holu of Portugal. So fun and fanciful.

I was so excited that I overlooked condition issues, paid too much, and ignored my new rule of “stop buying big, breakable things!”

Drives me nuts when I do this! I kept overriding my logic with “but this is good.” Well it would have been good if it hadn’t been crazed (and therefore unusable for soup) and hadn’t had a chip under the lid and it was half the price I paid. I shouldn’t have bought it, but the store no longer allows exchanges, so I’m stuck. I’ll likely try to sell just the bottom half as it would make a pretty fruit bowl or planter.

Then I picked up two brass pieces by Dirilyte. Turns out they were a mid-century sugar and creamer set.

They were a bit pricey, but the comps seemed to be okay. Then I got them home and noticed the creamed was crooked! Not damaged, just made crooked. Who is going to want a crooked creamer? Drat! How had I missed that???

The only item I bought which I am 100% happy with is the vintage furoshiki or wrapping scarf of two geishas. (I had sold one before, so I knew exactly what this was when I picked it up.) Made of rayon, these Japanese scarves are used to wrap presents, food, etc.