Friday, January 30, 2009

Mrs. Smucker Sets the Trend

I take a perverse pride in not following the current decorating fashions. If I tried, I would find it endlessly frustrating, so I might as well take pride in being behind the times. I never had geese with blue bows around their necks; I wanted blue in my living room long after everyone else had moved on to taupe and black, and I still love my mauve and hunter green quilt.

And I don't have any vinyl cut-out words on my walls.

However, I recently discovered that in one small area I am way ahead of the curve. It all began several years ago when I found out that Paul's brother John and his wife Laura, who live in Poland, like to collect old hardcover books, so I pulled some off our shelves and gave them to John and Laura.

They were very grateful and wanted to pay me. I said no. However, they had told me about an area of Poland where the people make interesting pottery, so I told them they can get me an equivalent-value piece of pottery sometime, something to hold my wooden spoons and such in.

So the next time a nephew went to visit, they sent me this:

I have loved that pitcher ever since.

Now, fast forward a few years, and I was at Costco before Christmas and something caught my eye: a large display of Polish pottery! A young man stood there explaining how it comes from this one area of Poland, it's such high quality, it's hand painted, it's the Next Big Thing in kitchenware, etc etc.

Then I was at the Dayton Farmers Market in Virginia and again a display of Polish pottery caught my eye, this time in a little shop full of all manner of the kinds of cute and funky things that I buy ten years later at garage sales.

And of course on both occasions I smiled smugly at the thought of my lovely Polish pitcher at home and how, for once, I had been at the very cutting edge of home fashions.

Next thing you know, silver egg salt and pepper shakers from Yemen will be all the rage.

Quote of the Day:
"I don't know if they're engaged in the broad sense of the word or the narrow sense of the word."
--a friend of mine, about some modern young people

3 comments:

  1. When I left the Winter's dairy, as a going away present, they gave me a lovely green and brown pitcher with a relief of a cow under a tree in. I have treasured that pitcher. When I got it I told my husband that I was afraid to use it because I might break it. So he set it in a safe place on the counter and filled it with wooden spoons. Well, in the meantime, our wooden spoon/spatula/ladle collection has outgrown the pither (and we have NO drawer space) and so my husband crafted a lovely wooden holder for the utensils, and our cow pitcher has graduated to holding dishwasher tabs.

    John always had Brachs mix candy in the milking parlor and I always had a piece or two (or three) and obviously they took notice, so the pitcher was filled with my favorite Brachs candies when they gave it to me.

    John and Vivan are/were such good people. They were such a blessing in our lives, and both were like grandparents to our daughter, who rode on the tractor with John and helped him feed calves. Precious memories in her book as well.

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  2. I have a blue pitcher I inherited from my sister. It says,Made in Italy. Foreign made besides China counts a lot.

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  3. I just noticed a peach and teal colored bedset on todays ad for Kohls..... who ever thought that combination would make it back in fashion so soon. Oh, wait, I guess it's been a good 20 years.:)Now if only I'd kept that decor I finally got rid of a few years ago I'd be 'in' again. SuEllen

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