February 7, 2014

Surrounding yourself with beauty

While I was antiquing yesterday, I came across these framed antique drawings. 

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the new members of the Jones' clan. 

The Lady Parker 


and Sir Thomas More (or it could be Sir John More. It has both names on it and was hard to decipher).


Aren't they darling? I was trying to see if they work on each side of the antique commode. 

One of my favorite antique stores, All That Jazz, was having a 20% off sale yesterday, so it was a perfect timing for antiquing. If you are local to the area and you're into antiques, I highly recommend this store. For the size of the store, they have good selections and their pricing is great, too. My mother-in-law recently introduced me to this place, and I've been frequenting ever since.

Another purchase at the same antique store: Ironstone bowl (sugar bowl?) with cover and ladle by Red Cliff.

This has light crazing (a web of fine cracks on the finish) all over it, but it doesn't bother me at all. I don't care for chips, but I think light crazing and some discoloring add character to old ironstone pieces.
see the crazing?

I'm going to use this bowl to style my china cabinet with books and some pottery.

In the past few years, I've been working on paring down my possessions. Steve and I had a big garage sale back in May and got rid of all the unnecessary household and decorative items. We had so many things for sale that people who came to our sale thought it was a moving sale!

I only recently started acquiring things again, and I've been very careful with this purchasing process. For me, this is the process of refining and fine tuning my possessions to my likeness. Today, I acquire only things that I truly enjoy, and if any of the new acquisitions end up not fitting my style or lifestyle, I will let them go. My intention is to keep only things that are necessary and things that I believe to be beautiful. 

I want to live a simple life, but I also want to live among beautiful things. I've been trying to find the fine balance between them. When you choose not to have too many things like I do, you want to make sure that all the things you have are beautiful. I believe it's important to bring beauty into life no matter where you live and what stage of life you are in. Beautiful things don't have to be expensive things, and as we already know, truly beautiful things aren't often things. I think it's all in the small details.

Before I go, I wanted to share two blog posts that taught me the importance of finding joy and creating beauty in every day simple moments. They are two very different stories, but both are beautiful and inspiring in their own ways. 

Farmhouse Pancakes by Eddie Ross.

How to Have a Happy Home by the Nester.

Have a lovely weekend!


8 comments:

  1. Great finds! How terrible is it that my first thought was that Sir John was texting?! Haha. That tureen is spectacular. I'm constantly trying to reduce the amount of stuff I have too. Except I seem to acquire two new pieces for every one I give away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He does look like he is texting! You always come up with the best comment that makes me laugh out loud. Do you call that tureen? A lady at the antique shop thought it was a gravy bowl and I concluded it must be a condiment bowl. We were a bit confused because of its small size.

      Delete
    2. Ah I didn't realize it was small. It looks big in the picture. I think maybe a saucier? Or saucerie. Not sure what it's meant to be called. But it's very pretty :)

      Delete
    3. I'd say it's about the size of a gravy boat (but not oval), about 7" high x 6" across (I'm guessing here). A gravy taureen with ladle or something like that???

      Delete
  2. Beautiful treasures! I especially love the gold tone of the frames to compliment the gray walls. I too am trying to simplify our home and with only things useful, or I love but like Stephen, I always find more replacements.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Deni! I think three of us have the same problem. We get rid of things, but end up finding more beautiful things! Have a lovely weekend ox

      Delete
  3. Thanks for sharing those blog posts, really lovely both of them.

    The drawings and tureen are beautiful finds, lucky you! That store sounds like a fun place to snoop around. I used to do a lot of antiquing and I would love the thrill of the hunt. I find over time you get better and better and choosing just the "right"' things for your home. Some things come in and some things go out, it's all part of the fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you are right Gam. The more you go antiquing, the better you become at finding the right pieces. Glad you enjoy the links! ox

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...