Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Digging for Treasure

In the spring in New England as the ground thaws and the ice melts magic happens. Myriad treasures start poking their way up out of the rich leaf and granite strewn earth.  I don't just mean the tender ferns or the bold daffodils. Vintage treasures appear.  It was not uncommon to walk between the green briers and over the stone wall in my backyard woods and find old rusty graniteware gleaming in the shaft of sunlight filtered down through the tall oaks and pines. 
Graniteware Blue and White Swirl available here
 My mother said these old metal dish pans, pitchers and buckets had been tossed out by her mother and other earlier woman who had lived in her childhood farmhouse. Bits and pieces of badly worn and often mended housewares that no longer had a useful purpose discarded to the old dump heaps in the woods and edges of fields now grown over. 
My Mother's Childhood Home Scituate, MA
Today I am lucky to still find treasures in the thrift shops, tag sales and estate sales that I haunt. How I would love to time travel back to those woods of my childhood and do some pickin there.
The Edge of The Woods
Scituate, MA
  I reach back in my memory to some of the places I loved to dig. Finding kitchen and farm tools, bits and pieces of broken bisque dolls, blue china dishes sometimes even coins. Lincoln pennies, Buffalo nickels, glass medicine bottles filled with dirt and twigs and moss grown thick around them.  My brothers found arrow heads. I always looked but never did find one of those. We played with these things.  Outfitting the tree houses and forts where our childhoods played themselves out. I guess I was born to dig for treasure.  I sure do love it.

I content myself with my memories and search on Etsy for treasures to share with you. Rusty dusty treasure found in the abandoned farms, corners of thrift shops, backs of yard sales...take a look.


Medicine Bottles from vickiesvintageporch on etsy here

Metal Flower Frogs from BlondiesVintage on Etsy here



Rusty Lantern from APapersPast on Etsy here


Galvanized Watering Can from UniqueChicAndRustics on Etsy Here
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Vintage Rusty Fry Pan from NanNasThings  on Etsy here


I'd have fun finding any of these and gladly grab them, stow them in the back of my car and scurry home with them.  When I get home with a car load of goodies like this they all go into a heap on the dining room table.  There I sort them out and stand back looking at them with pride.  I vow once a week to get the top of that old dining room table cleared off and polished.... just to fill it up again with the next weekends diggings of treasure.
Thanks to my friends on the Rust Dusty Treasury Team at Etsy for display of their pictures and promotion of their lovely shops.  

Anne/ WeeLambieVintage here


7 comments:

Your Invisible Crown said...

The medicine bottles and flower frog are looking lovely.

AnnMarie aka Vintage Junkie aka NaNa said...

We have the same passion for pickin! I love your description of your childhood digging and all the treasures you found. I went digging through an old barn to find that rusty fry pan. Thank you so much for featuring it in this great post! Pinning it to My Favorite Blog Posts board on Pinterest!

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of the treasures I found when I first moved into my old house & began digging in the garden. They are displayed around my house as keepsakes from previous owners! Love the featured items from my Rusty Dusty Treasury Teammates - beautiful! Go team!!!!

Araignee said...

What a lovely post. When the grandparents gave up the family home back in the 60's, the new owners burnt it to the ground still filled with all our treasures in order to build a post office. We were just talking about how stupid a thing that was to do and what we would have given to have the things we knew were left behind.
One man's treasure.....

The Inspired Trader said...

Kindred spirits have gathered here. Boxes of memories in basements, attics and barn join with the spirits of buried yard treasures. Thank you for taking me to your special place. It's much like mine and I haven't visited in a while.

blondiesvintage said...

My husband and I both love to dig for treasures! We just recently found the dump site of an old ghost town not that far from where we live. My husband originally thought it was a privy, but it turned out to be one of the towns dump sites instead. We found numerous old bottles, rusty cans, & bit and pieces of broken china. Lots of fun!
I love your blog and your post "Digging for Treasure"! Thank you so much for featuring our flower frogs in this wonderful post!

Unknown said...

Fantastic posting, Anne! A true journey..thanks for sharing!
xo