My Love of Blue-and-White

Yep, I've been playing with my camera, again.  This is a little saucer that I got at a tag sale a couple of years ago.  There were several of these and now I wish I had bought them all! Isn't it a beauty?

Part of what I inherited from my Granny's estate was several pieces of my beloved blue-and-white.  I have always loved blue-and-white pieces and have collected them over the years.  Nothing I have is valuable nor was it expensive.  I would find pieces here and there in antique and consignment shops or even in Hobby Lobby and such places.  I can proudly say that I have never paid full price for a piece and honestly, I don't think I have ever paid over ten dollars for a piece, either.

A small collection that I got from Granny's included several of these Dutch shoes.

I don't know how on earth I wound up with any of the blue-and-white because my Aunt Mary is also a lover and has an extensive collection.  I guess those were just the days that she was not feeling greedy and could give up some of the beauties (You know I'm teasing don't you, Aunt Mary?) feeling ultra-tired and didn't want to take home another piece of Granny's stuff and find a place for it.  (She and Mama said that there were rare times when they would open a cabinet or drawer and it would be empty.  So, they would look heaven-ward and say, "Thank you, Mama!")

The little shoe above lives here on a small table in the master bedroom along with these other blue-and-white treasures.

These little shoes are in various sizes and are trimmed in various ways.  Here are a few of them:

When I first started looking for homes for these little shoes here in our house, Bridgette noticed them when she was visiting one day. I don't believe she really thought I should have them set around like I did because she said, "You know these are ash trays don't you Mama?"

Yes.  Yes, I do know that some were intended to be ash trays but that doesn't mean I have to use them like that.

As you can see, some of them were also intended to be used as planters, I believe.  (What would you put under this to keep it from ruining furniture when the liquid drips out?)

So, I did use some of these Granny Treasures as little planters.  My bucket of succulents needed some dividing.

Some of these little succulents were popped into a couple of the little shoes and another piece of Granny's blue-and-white.  I didn't know if they would take root and grow or not but decided I would give it a try.

This little birdy sits on the kitchen mantel.

As I was working through my after Christmas cleaning, I noticed that one of the succulents had been nudged up under a table beside a basket of magazines in the den.  I decided I would move it out to somewhere else so that it would be lost and when I did...

I saw that indeed the succulents were taking root!

So, I swapped out the one which was obviously growing, putting it in the guest bathroom window and moved the one that was living in the bathroom into the den where that one had stretched out a bit.

We shall see if the placement makes a difference!

By the way, don't you just love how my new camera picks up the differences in light and shadows? This set of photos was taken with Autofocus but I took a risk and tried turning the flash off.  Yep.  I'm getting adventurous!