Sunday Favorites

I am out of town this weekend, so I thought it would be a good time to participate in Sunday Favorites, a great idea hosted by Chari at Happy to Design.
My selection is one of my early posts.

To Obsess or Not to Obsess- That is the Question

It is too bad, I think, that obsession has become a dirty word. What is so wrong with training one's sights on whatever floats your boat? True, I have spent some time in my life on the dark side of all of that, certainly, but it was not all for naught. A little unhealthy thinking goes a long way in prompting one to 'snap out of it'.


So what is acceptable obsessing? Could it be the drive I feel to locate every pair of cropped pants I can find with ties at the hem? How did that one start? Who knows, but I am on a quest.


Was it my search , at one time, for milk glass, particularly milk glass cake pedestals, narrowed down to square milk glass cake pedestals? Or milk glass punch bowls? Really- how many occasions are there to serve punch? My daughter Lauren has extended that search to include turquoise, pink, and black milk glass. Those colors fit her Hollywood Regency esthetic.

Or how about hammered aluminum from the 50's or Waterford Waffle glassware (specifically dessert plates) or Franciscan Hacienda pottery or milk glass dessert sets, or Blue Danube or Blue Italian ,or red octagonal sided goblets? Or Franciscan Platinum Renaissance china (platinum rim, grey rim, and gold rim, take your pick- my daughter Katherine collects the gold rimmed pattern- may I say it is to die for?). How about anything associated with Christmas or home fragrance? Lately I have been stockpiling candles that are on sale.


And then there are the chafing dishes. Oh my. Chafing dishes are self-limiting , however, because storing a large quantity of chafing dishes is like storing wire coat hangers. They lose their lustre pretty quickly (not really).


I even have a chafing dish cookbook , first published in 1950. It includes recipes for Cocktail Cream Puffs with Clam Filling, Sausages in Potato Bathrobes, Sherried Ham and Sweetbreads, and Tongue Burgundy.

On what planet? I can just hear my grandson saying- "that's not my favorite". No kidding. Yet when I saw that cookbook at the flea market, in a box of books, I almost flipped, I was so excited.


And then there are the cookbooks. I am currently weeding out my collection, but I love any cookbook produced by a church group, home economics teachers, a small town, or by Southern Living. My dear friend Mary Jo recently replaced my La Pinata cookbook (my alltime favorite), because she had seen the disreputable condition of my original one. I was storing it in a zip-lock bag because all of the pages were unbound and out of order.

And so what obsessions sometimes create are memories and laughter and the fun I have when someone asks at a party planning meeting, "Does anyone have any punch cups?"

I just giggle and say , "Yes. I have millions."