babybloomr

Ok, so recently I’ve been wasting untold hours browsing around the intrawebs enjoying this whole genre of home decoration-type blogs that feature something they’re calling ‘tablescaping.’ Now where I come from it’s known by a less fancy-schmancy name– it’s called ’setting the dang table.’ But ooh gentle readers, it is fun to look at these blogs! It appeals to everything girly and decorator-ish and housewife-y in me! (And let’s be honest– I really don’t have all that much ‘housewife-y’ in me.) Here’s the gist of what these bloggers do: apparently they spend years scavenging antique stores and ebay and Hobby Lobby and thrift stores, etc., collecting all kinds of things like tons of different sets of dishes, vintage serving pieces, random artsy little trinkets and stuff like that. Then they set, arrange and decorate their dining room tables with a theme of some sort– holiday, springtime, black and white, afternoon tea… You get the picture. And speaking of pictures– they take about 40 frillion phototgraphs of their tablescape, from every possible angle and they post it on their blog.

(Stay with me here, it’s actually a lot more interesting than it sounds. And if you want to accuse me of needing to get a life, now would be an appropriate time.)

Of course I do understand that looking at untold pictures of some  stranger’s dining room table all tricked out like a circus pony may not exactly make your socks roll up and down. But if you happen to be an addict who wants to buy every set of dishes she sees an appreciator of antique silver and fine English china like myself, then occasionally perusing lovely photographs of beautifully set tables can be rather enjoyable.

OK, the truth is I really do have a thing about dishes. I love all kinds of them… soup tureens, serving pieces, elegant sets of formal china for 12 all the way down to purposely mismatched colorful everyday salad plates. My sister Carolyn is at least as hooked as I am, and sometimes when we talk about some wonderfully obscure English pattern from the 1930’s that we both discovered on eBay, I swear we almost get a little misty. I don’t actually *own* tons of dishes, though I will admit to having my share– lately I’ve been going with some solid colors like white square plates or Fiesta ware that I can then add all kinds of different salad plates to, and change things up. I did go through an extended period of collecting those vintage souvenir state plates, you know the ones with the gilt around the edges and all kinds of wonderfully cheesy representations of each state’s attractions? Yeah those. At first I only collected ones from the Southern states, but eventually I branched out to include a few from states I particularly like to visit……

HEY!!! ALL YOU GUYS WHO STARTED OUT READING THIS!!!! WAKE UP!!!! (Just checking.)

Anyway, let me  give you a little taste. I’m gonna wait right here while you go check out a couple of links that will show you what I’m talking about. Now, DON’T get all swept away in the links at the bottom of their pages right now, because don’t forget I’m over here drumming my fingers and looking at my watch. (But seriously? When you have an hour or six you might want to click on a few…)

OK, here’s a GREAT one– her blog header is right underneath the link, isn’t it pretty?

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2010/03/welcome-to-80th-tablescape-thursday.html

SEE???!!! I wasn’t lying! OK, one more, another of my favorites:

http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

As you can tell, these blogs aren’t just about tablescaping, they also have recipes and giveaways and do-it-yourself projects… aw, who am I kidding, it’s really ALL ABOUT THE DISHES!  dishesdishesdishes…. nom nom nom…. *falls down in a dead faint at the sheer beauty of all the DISHES*

Anyway. Here’s the thing– as much as I would happily hock Russ’ car and/or sell a kidney in order to acquire all of the myriad sets of dishes I covet, apparently we need that money for other things like, oh, I don’t know, food and shelter. So while I live vicariously through all of the pages of those lovely blogs, I also perked up and noticed that a lot of those tablescapers repeatedly talk about all of the great finds that they routinely come across at….. wait for it… GOODWILL STORES! See, if I’m being honest here, it’s not just about the possession, it’s about the hunt. Women, can you give me a high five on that? Anybody? *waiting with hand up in the air*   I know that technically men are supposed to be the hunter/gatherers, but I gotta tell you, at the risk of  perpetuating stereotypes here, most women I know do love a good bargain hunt.

So in the spirit of frugality, yesterday I ventured out to the big honkin’ Goodwill store in Franklin, TN. It has been years since I’ve poked around in a thrift store, I usually skip straight to the antique malls, but after seeing all of the finds people were coming up with on those blogs, I decided I was going to start doing some digging around. I didn’t have a specific agenda, or anything I was really looking for, I just wanted to get a feel for it. I DID recently paint my kitchen in the kind of French/Italian/Mediterranean colors that I particularly love– I took it from two subtle shades of sage-y green into a much brighter combination of a soft yellowish-gold and that deep, middle-of-the-ocean Mediterranean blue that you see in French kitchens and also Mexican talavera tile. So I did kind of have my eye open for any dishes/vases/serving bowls that had that particular shade of blue in them that I could use as accent pieces.

It was fun! I made a beeline for the back of the store where I could see the shelves full of glassware and pots and pans, and started poking around. I was determined NOT to buy something just because it was cheap, but to only purchase something I knew I had a purpose for, and would actually use right now. I am not a compulsive shopper by any means, but I am kind of bad about seeing something marked way down and thinking, “Ooh, I might need that some time…” My challenge to myself was to BREAK that pattern– it’s all about the frugality, remember? (Plus, I’m going to have the Mother of All Garage Sales sometime this spring to get rid of years worth of stuff “I might need sometime” that I haven’t even unpacked from our move– FOUR YEARS AGO!) So after slooooooowly cruising down the three aisles, picking up a couple of things and putting them in my cart only to talk myself out of it and set them back down, I walked away with two, count ‘em TWO items. I won’t be using them to ’scape my table, but I will be using them. I found a lovely little Mexican talavera pitcher that will be perfect as a vase on the small black table in my kitchen and a just-the-right-sized-because-my-other-one-is-too-small-to-hold-all-of-the-fruit-this-family-eats ‘Made in Italy’ bowl that will look great sitting out on my counter. They both have the color blue I was looking for, and I spent a grand total of… $7!! I couldn’t wait to get them home!

I filled the vase with two small bunches of flowers that Kroger had marked down to $1.99 each, and I filled the bowl with those little Cutie tangerines that were on special– that’s right, who’s the Queen of Frugal? ME! Here they are:

I did good!

OK, now I want to hear from you guys. Do you have any memorable Goodwill finds you want to share with the class? Do you identify with my obsession with dishes, or do you have some other kind of item that you collect or lust after? (With Russ, it’s vintage guitars but he ain’t gonna be finding any of those for 7 bucks at Goodwill!) Feel free to send me pictures and I’ll post them!

(tori@babybloomr.com)

Many of you regular readers are familiar with Betty, aka themema, either in person or from this blog. As you know, she has recently had a very serious operation. There have been many, many prayers wafting up from the Taff household for this incredible woman. I ‘met’ her originally on the old Gaithernet site, where her political opinions and outspokenness were forever getting her in trouble with the powers-that-be there (I’m sorry, but I kinda loved that!) By the time we finally met in person, it felt like we’d known each other forever. She is smart and funny and has a heart as big as all outdoors. She is fiercely loyal and loving to her friends, as Momma Lloyd and LindaB can also attest. She has ‘been there’ for Russ and I in so many ways over the last few years.

She has always been a strong shoulder to lean on, full of advice, lovingly bossing me around and always telling me things are going to be just fine. She has a strong faith in God, and she faced this life and death surgery with her usual low-key pragmatism.

I can’t begin to tell you how courageous and strong my sweet friend is.

Here, in her own words, is a little bit of her medical history and you’ll see what I mean– she wrote this right before her surgery:

In 1958 I was diagnosed with Hodgkins. Between then and the mid 70’s a received 7000 rads of radiation to the chest area. This has caused damage to the heart valves which my cardiologist has been monitoring for about 10 years.

The time has come that 3 of the valves need to be replaced. In testing for this, it has been discovered that I will also need one bypass. However, the biggest concern it that my aorta is calcified, which greatly increases the possibility of my stroking out during surgery.

On Dec 3rd, I went into surgery. In inserting the 4 part Port, my lung lining was knicked and the procedure had to be aborted, thankfully before the sternum had been cracked open. Ispent 2 days in the hospital, and then returned home.

The surgery has been rescheduled for Thursday January 7th. I am very confident in the skill and wisdom of my surgeon, Dr. Philpott, and in my anesthesiologist Dr. Dickinson. Dr. Dickinson says that he will probably keep me in a coma for 3 days, and Dr. Philpott says that I will probably be in the hospital for 14 days. Sadly, I can’t drive for probably 8 weeks. :>( lol.

My friend Kak, and son Dwight will update this site as their is progress to report.

I ask your prayers for the skill and wisdom of my entire surgical and care team.

So much has happened since Betty posted this on CarePages! The surgery was successful, thank God, but her recovery has been harrowing. There have been countless twists and turns– sometimes it seemed like things were crawling along at a snail’s pace, and then sometimes it felt like things were changing every hour or so. Her family has very kindly  and conscientiously kept us updated, and I know they have appreciated knowing that we were praying for her. I haven’t spoken to her yet (the family has gently let us know that her strength is very limited right now) but Russ called her and talked for a few minutes before he left for the Faroe Islands last week, and I have gotten one email from her so far. A few days ago she even posted to the CarePages site– it is obvious she is off her game, because her spelling and punctuation are usually impeccable!

it is I

Posted Feb 28, 2010 11:08pm

thanks so much for all the prayers and spport for my family. it

is sometimes hard to grasp how successful the heart suurgery was,

and how many. unexpected problems I have had to handle. Thank you,

God for such talente doctors, my faithfl family and friends. The

biggest unknown and hurdle now is the kidney failure.

As of yessterday, I am enjoying reading on my laptop, but I will

turn the posting back to Robyn, as I shkake so badly tat typing is

stressul and tiring.

love betty

…

The latest reports are continuing to be positive, but I wanted to let you all know that there is still something very specific we can pray about: Betty’s kidneys have taken a beating because of the extreme nature of this complicated procedure and she has been put on dialysis. The doctors can’t say for absolute sure at this time whether or not that will be a permanent situation, but the dialysis is very rough on her. Betty is a very private person, and I didn’t check with her first to see if this was OK, but I just wanted to post this today to ask all of you if you would please join with Russ and I to ask God to please intervene in this last huge hurdle. He has been so faithful, and Betty has come so far. I know it would be a comfort for her to know that she is being lifted up by all of us here at the ‘bloomr, so hopefully she won’t fuss at me for drawing such ‘unseemly’ attention to her!  And if you could maybe leave some love and encouragement for her in the comments, I will make sure that she gets them.

This is yet another way that this community can come together to help one of our own. Betty has a long way to go, but she is such a fighter! I truly appreciate your kindness towards her, and thanks so much in advance for your prayers.