And add a layer of butter . . .

Okay, I admit it.  I collect far to many things.  But if you collect small items, they don't make quite so much clutter.

Something I've always been attracted to are butter pats.  They're just so darn cute!  Here's one I found at the Pultneyville Community Sale a couple of weeks ago.

Since I'm a sucker for blue-and-white china, I had to have this.  Cost:  $1.

In case she gets thirsty . . .

One of my favorite coffee-table books is called Extraordinary Touches for an Ordinary Day, by Jo Packham, which is basically about putting together sweet guest rooms.

One of the things mentioned in the above book was adding a small carafe and glass.  I've been looking for one for years and finally found one at the big Pultneyville Community Sale (which seemed to have been put on mostly by people like me; antiques dealers who were no longer in business and selling off their former stock--cheap!)

I found this little hand-painted beauty.

My sister-in-law comes to visit every now and then.  I hope she enjoys our guest room.  I've tried to make it pretty and comfortable.  Now, if she gets thirsty in the night, she won't have to get up in search of water.

A little bit of summer ... all year long

I love church sales.  The beauty of them is ... they happen all year long (but mostly in the summer).

I saw this little urn filled with silk roses at a church sale.  It had a price tag of $2.

Isn't it darling?  I know come winter I'm going to long for my garden ... but with this little beauty, I'll have a touch of summer all year long.

Just for fun

It's the end of the season and the yard sales are drying up.  But as a last hurrah! Pultneyville, NY puts on a community yard sale in mid-September, and that's where my junking buddies and I went this past weekend.

The free boxes were great!  I got a book of New Yorker cat cartoons and a tiny book of walking tours of Scotland with gorgeous photography.  At one sale, they had copies of Mad Magazine for a dime each.  I bought two (with Harry Potter spoofs) and now I wish I'd bought every copy.  I haven't laughed so hard in years.  (I'm getting a subscription!)

One of my purchases was just for fun.  These little quilted cubes.  Aren't they cute?

I'd say that the above picture is about the actual size of the tiny, hand-stitched cubes.  I'm going to hang them on my Christmas tree this December.

They came with a little cross stitched draw-string bag.

This picture is smaller than the actual size of the bag -- but not by much.  It, too, will find its way to my Christmas tree this year.  And the price for these three handmade items?  Twenty-five cents.  Some people just don't value hand-made items.

But aren't they darling?

My biggest purchase

When I was a dealer in an antiques arcade, my bread and butter was "smalls."  For one thing, they didn't cost a lot, and I usually sold enough to make my rent.  Period.  Profit?  If I made one, it was usually less than $10.  I stayed in the business for so long just because I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt.  And I still do.  I just buy a whole lot less these days.

So, what was my biggest purchase this summer?  A pitcher and ewer.  (Did you ever notice how many times the word "ewer" is used in crossword puzzles?)

Anyway, this one is a beauty . . .

. . . or it was.  What you can't see are the cracks in the back side of the pitcher.

So why did I buy such a flawed pitcher?  First of all, I LOVE brown transferware.  I had a yellow pitcher and ewer sitting in the same place in my guest room for years, but it was something someone made in ceramics class.  Mind you, it was pretty nice, and it had yellow flowered decals.  But it wasn't an antique.  I bought it in the hopes that one day I'd have an antique one to put in its place.  The yellow one cost me $4 at a yard sale in Oswego, NY.  This one came from a yard sale in Fair Haven, NY.  The woman was downsizing for a move to Florida and was selling her treasures.  When I saw the price tag on this ($5) I knew I had to have it, cracks and all.  She figured it was at least 150 years old.  I'm not so sure . . . but it's got to be at least 100 years old.

I love it.  How about you?

New for the garden

For years I have begged Mr. Ivy for a burning bush.  I know, I know--why didn't I just buy one myself?  After all, in the spring I wanted hollyhocks and I bought two fine specimens (which REFUSED to grow, no matter how much I watered them or how much Miracle Gro I gave them), and I bought myself a very robust honeysuckle plant, too.  But I didn't think to buy myself a burning bush.

Well, my begging (nagging?) did not go unnoticed and on Tuesday Mr. Ivy presented me with a burning bush. Only it's green.  And it has rained for two days straight and who wants to plant a bush in the rain?

Still, I'm hoping that by next fall my bush will look like this.

What's new in your garden?

Toil, toil, today ... with hot dogs and potato salad on the side