Saturday bliss.

Saturday happiness turned into Saturday bliss after an excursion with my daughter Kate to a handful of antique/resale shops near our home.  Just look at the bonanza of beautiousness I carried home.

A tablecloth, an embroidered dish towel, a green-striped bowl, a cake stand and two flower frogs.  I can’t remember the last time I found this many lovely things in one haul.

I’m a sucker for anything that’s green or has a green accent.  The $3 bowl caught my eye in the corner of a dusty flea market and I knew it would look lovely on my counter filled with limes.

My drink of choice is club soda with lime, so I’ve always got a dozen or so on hand and this bowl is the perfect place to corral them.

And how about the lovely sea-green color of this dish towel? As a young girl and college student, I embroidered regularly. I haven’t done it in years, but I’m a sucker for anything hand stitched. The work on this one is particularly well done.

I’ve been looking for flower frogs for well over a year, ever since I read an article about them in a magazine and realized how much easier they’d make my life. I regularly buy fresh stems for my dining table and kitchen island, but I’m always fussing over the stems because they won’t stand exactly like I want them to. A flower frog solves that problem.

By the way, flower frogs went out of fashion not long after floral foam was invented. I hate to sound like a Luddite, but the original solution is far superior. (Like most things, I suppose.) I mean, who keeps a supply of floral foam in their drawers?  Besides, flower frogs are reusable and don’t end up in landfills. Mine are well used, but they are made of iron and will last forever. At $5 each, they are the thrifty choice.

And isn’t the color of my tablecloth a real day-brightener? It’s rather petite at 36 inches square, but I’ll get plenty of use out of it at outdoor parties (on a card table) or as a topper on my dining room table. And who could resist it at $5?

And finally — the piece de resistance.  The loveliest cake stand I’ve spied in a month of Sundays in the prettiest, palest shade of pink.

One of these days I’ve got to stop buying cake stands (I’m up to a dozen), but I’m having trouble convincing myself on that one.

I also picked up a $4 bamboo cane for my umbrella stand, a $1 floral pitcher that is the perfect size to hold my paintbrushes, and a bright yellow $3 souvenir juice glass from my home state of Oklahoma. (I was feeling nostalgic.)

So, dear reader, now you know what makes me tick.  What about you? What sets your heart aflutter when you shop?