Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

At the risk of sounding like Julie Andrews…

These are a few of my favorite things:

This is an antique postcard holder/stand that was placed on top of a counter to hold/display postcards in the early 1900s. Mark surprised me with it and made me cry “happy tears”. I’ve been collecting vintage postcards for over 15 years. Why? Because they take up so much less room than my antique house collection. (Easier to fit in the overhead compartment when I found them treasure hunting while traveling on the road, too.) “I have shoe boxes of them and no way to really display them…” I would complain to my new boyfriend. That little seed planted firmly in my problem-solving man’s head and must have jarred loose some million year old cave-man hunter instincts. He searched high and low for something that would proudly display his “woman’s” collection. (That I had gathered by the way…)

Then he stumbled upon it…literally, it was on the floor of an antique mall and he kicked it across the booth. Good thing it was “exactly what he was looking for” because he had bent the frame. When Mark stood up, he found himself starring straight into the eye of the antique mall security guard {shudder} who was pointing to the “You break it, you buy it!” sign.

The only problem with giving such a “perfect” gift early on in a relationship is that now my husband beats himself up every holiday trying to “one-up” himself and find an even MORE perfect gift. It’s his own fault. He set the bar so high (in his mind) that he has to go shopping with a vaulting pole. He gets frustrated and cranky and I get a 3 day late gift card. One holiday, he made me my own signature scent from essential oils but I’m not allowed to tell you about the “sensitive” things he does because that small neanderthal nugget that’s still somewhere deep down inside his otherwise-evolved, thoughtful brain said, “NUUGGHH!” which made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, so I know it means, “I would rather you didn’t, my chums might use that information as fodder against me in a merry game of jest.

My other favorite thing:

This appeals to all my senses…vintage, gorgeous, useful AND it was a gift from Mark!