Fiddle-Dee-Dee Fun

A bargain is something you can't use

at a price you can't resist.
-Franklin Jones

Ahhh, it's good to sit down! After a delightful weekend of theatre watching, book browsing, cafe eating, and antique shopping, I'm glad to be home! Wow, did we ever have a blast!

I can't think of the last time I enjoyed myself this much. First off, in an effort to "upgrade" my life, I made a decision a few weeks ago to forgo movies in favor of live theatre. (Read about it here.) It was definitely the right decision. We guffawed and slapped our knees and roared with laughter as Moonlight and Magnolias played out on the stage before us. (To be sure, the play is about the making of the movie script for Gone With the Wind. The trouble was, Ben Hecht, the screenplay writer, hadn't read the book, so the producer and the studio exec locked themselves in an office for five straight days and acted out the scenes for Hecht so he could crank out a script.) It was the funniest thing ever. Fiddle-dee-dee. [Grin.]

Although I'm skipping over a dozen equally fun things, I'll get on to the shopping. I went to Canton this weekend hoping to find three things: a music stand (to hold my violin music), a wooden ladder to lean against the wall (to use as a shoe rack for my pretty, high-heeled shoes), and a cabinet for the bathroom (to store... well, likely you know.) Ha! I didn't buy a single one of those things. How could I, when there were so many other bargains out there? Things like...

... amazing wooden cutting boards, rolling pins, egg beaters, and wooden dough bowls (huge ones for $12!!) with so much character. I loaded up. Literally. And...

...herb and flower pot stacker-things, so I can create sculptural, focal-point garden pieces out of terra cotta pots this spring. (Isn't this fun?!) Oh! And....

... screened-in doors that I couldn't think of any use for, but were so great I had to stop. And of course....

... heavy, rusted old letters to spell fun names and words. At the end of the day, I unloaded many, many treasures, also including an antique German flower watering can, some quilted pillow shams, a handmade doll, and some New Mexico-grown-and-dried organic roses, which are so breathtaking I will have to show you at some point.

You know, the thing about browsing antique and junk and flea-market stops is you never know what you'll find. But isn't that also what makes it so enjoyable? The knowing you paid $20 for an enormous German watering can that you'll use in your garden for many, many springs to come?

As for the bargains I didn't find or couldn't afford, I think I've decided to do this all over again in May. Maybe then I'll find my music stand. If not, perhaps I'll at least think to get that cute sign. You know, the one that said: I have a woman's furniture problem. My chest is in my drawers.

[Laugh.] Fiddle-dee-dee!