Day 72 – Purple Elegance

This stunning purple pitcher was my Grandma Bertha’s. She LOVED purple and we have very little from her, but we have this : )

It’s been warm, and I’ve been tired so I wanted something peaceful and a little elegant.

Purple simplicity

 Lots of purple stuff! At one time I wanted all purple dishes to eat on and looked and looked…but I was too late! I think I found the large glass plates and bowls at Cost Plus but by the time I had this great idea they were clearanced and I could only get a few pieces.The glasses came from Pottery Barn and are a really good color match to the pitcher especially since they were made 60 years apart! The little picture frame on the table holds a picture of my Grandma Bertha, it sits on the shelf near her purple pitcher.

The large purple glass plate acts like a charger, the dinner plate is the lilac Fiesta. The silverware is my actual silver, Chantilly by Gorham. My mom decided we all needed silverware back in the late 70′s and we had a family friend who knew someone who dealt in wholesale silver and gold. People would sell things like the family silver for the price-per-ounce (similar to those ads we see now for turning your ‘unwanted or unused’ gold to cash) so when something very pretty was turned over he would show the family friend who would tell my mom whether is was worth it or not. Got all that?!

Bottom line – it was a lot cheaper than retail and that’s what counts : )

Cute napkins!

These adorable little napkins are from my OTHER grandmother, Grandma Lola. She gave me these with a little note:

“These napkins were a gift to me when I graduated from High School – 1937 – by my 8th grade teacher (an old maid) for my HOPE CHEST! HA.”

I’m not quite sure why the “HA” since she got married two years later and had my mother a year after that. Clearly something worked : ) I do like the note about the teacher being an old maid…and I love the fact that my grandmother is labeling things and telling us their stories. I don’t love the fact that she’s ‘tidying up’ and even though I’ve been telling my daughter for YEARS that ‘this could be the last holiday we have with her’…she turns 92 soon and it really COULD be true someday soon.

Not today though.

Today we have purple dishes, the ‘good’ silver and gorgeous flowers out of Sue’s yard.

Butterfly bush and lavender

These smell CRAZY good to me! I tried to get a shot of the bees coming to visit but those suckers are fast, kept the cats away too : )

Take a moment, pull out the good silverware and watch the bees.

Tomorrow – If its turquoise…

294 days to go!!