Thrifting ... Canadian Finds

Another week and we're into April already, and I'm still waiting for the weather to improve just a bit to drag out the patio furniture.  The snow is all but gone from this area near Lake Ontario now, but my yard isn't all that inviting yet ... and it's just not warm enough to sit out there comfortably ...

 

Inside, the house plants are doing fairly well.  I don't normally have a lot of house plants, but I'm glad they've been around this winter.  I'm really pleased with my little green shamrock.  I asked at our local nursery what's the best thing for a shamrock since mine is surviving, but it's not thriving.  She told me they like bright light, but not direct sunlight, liquid plant fertilizer, cool temperatures and to water it by placing it in a pot of water and let the plant draw up what it needs.  I was already providing everything but the bottom watering system, and within a week my little shamrock had filled out really well.  The centre of the plant was very sparse, but now there are lots of new leaves filling in that area.

 

 

 

This week I decided to drop into our thrift store for a little browsing again.  There've been a couple of things I've been looking for.  One being a small night table for my daughter's bedroom when she comes home from university town (she took most of her bedroom furniture with her).  I was happy to find a perfect little table and will show it once I get it cleaned up a bit.

 

Since I was already in the thrift store, I of course toured around to see what else I could spy.  I found this big beauty of a tea pot right away ...

 

 

My parents had this exact tea pot when I was growing up.  I think it must've got broken not long before they moved their house (maybe it got broken during the move, I don't know).  It's nothing fancy, and the only writing on the bottom is "Canada", but it's just so familiar to me, that I picked it up off the shelf with a sort of reverence.  It could easily have been their very own tea pot, and I really, really like it.  More and more I'm noticing that I have a lot of brown in my décor.  I keep picking up brown dishes and now another brown tea pot.  I also have to admit that I officially do have a tea pot collection.  But I swear, this is where it's going to stop.  I don't have many ... four brown tea pots and one stainless steel, but I don't have the desire to have any more than that (and I honestly use them all).

 

Now this little mug is only a couple of inches high, and it has a little story.  My mother's grandfather was a potter, and his family also owned a tile company in Hamilton.  They made clay tiles and even supplied a famous house in Hamilton (Dundurn Castle) with sewer tiles.  I have a couple of pieces made by my great grandfather which are very special to me.  I believe my mother grew up with a fondness for pottery because of her close association with her grandfather. 

 

This little mug was made by a company called "Blue Mountain Pottery" from Collingwood.  There used to be a potter's store in Dundas where I lived when I was very young called "Dundas Pottery".  My mother, being very fond of pottery, used to take us kids into the store and we were allowed to choose something from the "seconds" shelf (pieces that had small imperfections and were cheaper), and they carried Blue Mountain pottery.  This is the mug that I chose many years ago.  Not much good for anything, but it was cute.  Blue Mountain Pottery is apparently now defunct, but you see this stuff everywhere here.  Because it's so common, I've always thought it was kind of tacky looking.  But in clearing out my parents' home, I came across a couple of nice pieces that I brought home with me ... a vase and another mug.

 

"BMP" Blue Mountain Pottery

I notice that the thrift store is under the impression this stuff is a collector's item, and maybe it is, so they price it a little higher than the other china.  Anyway, I found this stylish little jug in the thrift store which I will use as a bud vase ...

 

 

The glaze used on this pottery is always the same.  Apparently, the original potters developed this glaze as it reminded them of the colours in Blue Mountain.  Surprisingly, there are some Blue Mountain pottery pieces at the Royal Ontario Museum in the Canadian display with a write up about the pottery.  So now, without even trying, I have a collection of Blue Mountain pottery too.  I don't see myself expanding this collection as it really only holds sentimental interest to me ... I still feel it's sort of tacky.

 

 

I also found a nice wicker basket, and I have a problem with letting these nice baskets remain on the shelf ...

 

 

... and it came in handy for carrying all the stuff home with me that day (in the rain).  Now it's holding my latest knitting project.

 

 

The project is only in the planning stages.  I'm not sure if I'll even finish it (or frankly, start it!), and usually I don't like to say "I'm going to make [this]" because I feel rotten if I don't complete it.  I'm going to attempt to make a man's vest for my dad.  I'm already off to a bad start.  The pattern is old, from the 60s, and it calls for "double knit" yarn(?).  I tried a swatch with "worsted" weight, and have already gone down five needle sizes and knitted five swatches trying to get the gauge right.  The swatch is still too large and I'm quickly getting discouraged.  I'm at a size 2 needle now, but I am not going to knit worsted on these teeny tiny needles.  So no promises.  I might try it with a lighter weight yarn, but I've already bought two skeins of yarn to experiment with, and really don't want to waste money on a third.  Sometimes I still hate knitting.

 

Well, that's it for me.  I hope you've all had a nice weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to my British friends!!  We "celebrate" ours in May. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy



  

Hoping for more of this soon!