Thursday, April 16, 2009

Still Recycling


I just can't stop with this trash talk. I wanted to show you one last garbage vignette in my "new" room. This time it is another little shelf thingy that my sister crawled out onto the burn pile to rescue. It spent some time in my New Hampshire basement feeling rejected, but made the cut and was loaded into the moving van when we headed west to New Mexico. 

Good thing, too! Old New England trash like this is considered "antique" out here in the New West, and is hard to find. So, the battered little shelf became shabby chic and ended up as part of a proud display. 

That lusterware plate below the shelf came from--you guessed it--the Swap Shop in my old town in New Hampshire, where I found it down at the bottom of a pile of cracked plates in the kitchen recycling section. Ditto the two little floral plates in the top photo.

That bit of hand work casting the lacy shadow (below) was also someone's discard.

The little ceramic animals were collected when I lived in Canada many years ago. They were made at the Wade Pottery in Burslem, England, and used to be found as premiums in boxes of Red Rose Tea Bags. 

The old bottles and the little creamer were dug out of the ancient dump behind the stone wall at our old colonial home back east. Every spring, we would find different items near the surface, moved there by the frosts of winter--in much the same way that New England farmers and gardeners have a new "crop" of stones every season.

7 comments:

Beth said...

As a trashy woman myself, I've really enjoyed your trash talk, Clair. I think your new room is very pretty, and I've enjoyed hearing the story behind the treasures in it. And, my goodness, that Swap Shop was quite a place---you found some real gems there. Oh, and I absolutely adore the ceramic Welsh Corgi. I would have been willing to drink many, many cups of Red Rose tea to get that! I guess the corgis were in homage to the queen's corgis?

clairz said...

Beth, I'm so glad that you could make out the details in the photos. I can't seem to use my camera with my glasses on and as a result my photos are often out of focus.

You are probably right about the corgi being all about the queen and her dogs. I know that I've always subconsciously thought that the duck was Beatrix Potter's Jemima Puddle-Duck.

You can read more about Wade figurines, also known as Wade Whimsies, at http://www.redrosetea.com/history.aspx. They are still offered in boxes of Red Rose Tea today.

Margie's Musings said...

I frequent garage sales and often find a treasure there that someone else has classified as junk.

Linda said...

Clairz, I've thoroughly enjoyed your stories of turning trash into treasure.

I would love to read New England blogs but don't know where to find them.

I love the New England states.

clairz said...

Linda, I'm sure you would like Letters from a Hill Farm, which is from northern New England. The link is on the right hand side of this blog under "Blogs, Etc."

clairz said...

By the way, Nan's blog (Letters from a Hill Farm) has a list of her favorite New England blogs. Just scroll down her blog and look at the left side.

June Saville said...

NEVER stop talking trash Clair!