Happy Anniversary!

First off, I have to say Happy Anniversary to my husband. We were married 6 years ago today!

When we started off our lives together, neither one of us had much of a vision of how we wanted to decorate & furnish our home. Each of us had hodge-podgy mismatched pieces, some hand-me-downs, and tons of assemble-it-yourself Walmart-y fare. We dovetailed the mixture, made ourselves comfortable, and then never really got around to changing much.

This slowly began changing about two years ago. We'd driven past a store that was part used furniture, part antique store, for 4 whole years, always commenting that we should stop there, but never did.

So, of course, the first time we went in, we bought something. Something HUGE, and 100% off the map of anything we'd ever dream of buying. What we ended up with was a 1942 Marsh Hoosier-style cabinet! And thanks to the very kind, wonderful folks at Marsh (who is still in business), we have a original catalog scan, showing it exactly as it was originally, details and price point. How cool is that? One of these days I really need to a post specifically about it. There's some really great images & details!

For a couple of silly kids who have nothing but Walmart furniture and family hand-me-downs, a Hoosier cabinet was a very interesting addition, to say the least. (I don't think I had EVER stepped foot in an antique store before!) But this single piece of furniture was almost a ridiculously accurate bit of foreshadowing to the love of junk, vintage, & thrift that we've developed over just this last year.

Fast forward another year. My grandmother (who just recently passed away) had begun clearing out some excess kitchen items. Some of these included my great-grandmother's Pyrex loaf pan, which I cherish. There was Fire King, Pyrex, Hazel Atlas - all the GOOD stuff! Only, I had NO IDEA at the time that it was the good stuff!

But I did, however, have the internet. And when I started looking up my new treasures, that was it. IT. Capital I, capital T. The almost-indifference I had had towards home stuff & decor was gone. I knew what I wanted in my home. I knew what would make me happy to look at and use. It was like a void had been filled in me, a void that I didn't actually know was there. I was happy enough with the serviceable, functional things in my house, that much was true. But I just had yet to find out that I could really, really LOVE the functional, serviceable items in my home!

It's going to be slow-going replacing furniture & other large items. Finding what we're looking for take a certain kind of magic - being at the right place at the right time to find it at the right price. But we are hitting up thrift stores, auctions, and making a point to stop at mom-and-pop places we never would have looked at before, so I know we will.

But what I'd really like to do here the most is take a moment here to speak directly to my wonderful husband, on our 6th Anniversary:

Thank you, babe. With you, I've had some of the biggest, brightest, happiest, most wonderful adventures of my life. Thank you for accepting me and loving me as I am, no matter how much (or how unexpectedly) this "me" evolves. As ever, you are my complimentary opposite. Calm & cool when I'm crazy & uptight. Ready & optimistic when I'm feeling blue or doubtful. I ask a lot of you, and sometimes treat it as par-for-the-course, and I just don't believe I thank you as much as I should. Truth is, I love you dearly, and I wouldn't be the same without you. Not by half. I love you so!

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Mushy stuff over, lol. We went out yesterday, hit some antique stores and scored some tasty swag that I will be posting about soon. But today I'm spending with hubs <3