Painted White...

There are so many things I love... one of them is the ocean...I have not been there in a while and I miss it... I also love browsing through the beautiful shops online and meeting the shop~keepers. Another one of my favorites is Painted White... I fell in love instantly when I saw these "Ocean Remnants" bottles Alice had on her site...

I knew I must own one of these beauties, but which one??? Then the little one in the front called out to me... I clicked to enlarge the photo and knew it was meant to be... here is the description that was below it..

".A diamond shaped green glass bottle has been altered into a shrine of the sea. An old sanddollar, adorned with filigree and a rhinestone, is tied around the neck with rope. A vintage scrap that reads, "May 1949" is on one side. A portion of English Lavender, grown in the South of France, fills the bottom along with seashells and offerings from the ocean. Topped off with a cork, antique lace, and a vintage beaded bauble. Stands approx. 5" tall. A truly one-of-a-kind piece... " In less than five minutes, the piece was marked "Sold"... (to Moi!)

I knew it was supposed to be mine when I read that the little vintage scrap on the side said "May 1949", my birth month and year! (Yes, I turned sixty years old in May, might as well tell you that, you can enlarge the picture and see for yourself anyway! But I am "Aging Gratefully" as Naomi Judd talks about in her book, that will be my next post!)... I was sooo excited the day my package arrived. Alice had wrapped it so carefully, in a vintage Butterick pattern, how unique! She also enclosed a lovely handwritten note on the back of one of her vintage inspired postcards and included all kinds of lovely little treasures, as you can see above. There were vintage buttons, vintage receipts,(one was for six towels purchased in May of 1949 for $1.55!) handmade tags, a shabby look "J" piece, and my most favorite of all, an old recipe card dated "6/17/54" for Strawberry Glaze Tarts with French cream filling...Yum! How thoughtful of you Alice to send these treasures picked out just for me!

I must find the perfect spot to display it... for now, it sits on my dresser, next to a picture of me when I was 6 years old... I keep that picture out to remind me I am still that "little girl"... and hope I will always be "young at heart"...

This is Alice, what a precious picture of a charming lady...

These are some of the vintage recipe cards she sells bundled up so pretty in her shop... I must order more of these, I have a collection of vintage recipes and recipe boxes from estate sales... I love how they are usually written on...added ingredients, who's recipe they were... wonderful memories...

I also love the name of her shop "Painted White" and the perfect pink rose in this vignette...(there I go, using the "L" word again, but I do LOVE so many things...)

These are bundles of vintage papers, sheet music, pages out of dictionaries, other wonderful pieces of ephemera all tied up in burlap... next on my wish list! I do hope you will visit Alice and her divine shop Painted White at http://www.paintedwhite.com/. ( Alice graciously allowed me to use these photos from her shop, thank you sweet Alice!)