. By now you know I’m a bit of a thrifty person. I love having beautiful things in my home, without breaking the budget. By being inspired by other bloggers to create their version of a designer style, I decided … Continue reading
I was a kid watching Abbott & Costello, when I first Ella Fitzgerald sing this song. Today, as I listened to her sing this kiddie, joyful song of her little yellow basket, it brought me to post about these once used tobacco baskets. The tobacco basket was used until about 1980, to display tobacco taken to market. The crop is grown throughout North Carolina, primarily on family farms. According to the NC Dept. of Agriculture, North Carolina farmers today produce approximately 2/3 of the US crop of flue-cured tobacco.
After sorting and grading, the leaves were tied into “hands.” A hand of tobacco weighed about 1 pound if made of tips or lugs and about 2 – 3 pounds if made from cutters. A hand of tobacco is a group of leaves tied together at the stem end. The end is wrapped in another cured leaf.
The hands were then laid in the tobacco basket in a circle with the stem ends pointing to the outside. The baskets were then loaded and taken to the tobacco warehouse where they were sold at auction. Today these baskets are used for more decorative purposes.
Placed neatly behind this lamp – it makes for the perfect backdrop
Very creative way to display the modern deerhead
The entryway was accented with the basket above the table flanked with candleholders
Here it makes for excellent wall art in this bedroom
A wreath made of cotton is attached to the tobacco basket and hung on the outside of the home
When placed behind the mirror, it gives the mirror more eye appeal
and the perfect accent for a country kitchen
Tobacco baskets are old and some are even broken, but they still offer an array of ways to decorate with them. They may not be the type of basket Ella sings about but, it’s the basket I chose to write about. However, if I found Ella’s basket I’d like to give her this and say “Thank You” for making a beautiful music.
It’s your thrifty girl with yet another $2.00 deal. This was found at the Goodwill store. I went in to look for an old blanket for little Ms. Koko. She’s always cold and just commandeered my blanket – so I wanted to get her another one to use. I found a really nice bean bag that was perfect but the price was $10.00 – wayyyy over priced… I asked how can a bean bag be $10 but a chair is $15.00 – made no sense to me.. but anyway..I did’t get it. Well since I was there, I decided to look around for something else.. besides you never know what you may find There was a man standing there and I really wasn’t paying too much attention to him and he asked “Do you need a nice mirror?” I replied, ” not really” .. but he was persistent.. and said “look at it – it’s a really nice mirror.. I thought pretty girls always like mirrors”.. So he & I both chuckled and I looked at the mirror… hmmm.. it really was a nice mirror.. So I said.. “You’re right, it is a nice mirror” and then he said “here – take it” . I kindly took it from him and figured I’d put it back when he left my sight.. but as I got ready to put it away I gave it a second look.. hmm.. this really is a nice mirror.. I looked at the price..$2.99..(ok – so it was’t exactly $2.00).. I toyed with the mirror trying to figure out what I could do with it.. but no need to ponder with it in the store.. I’ll take it home and deal with it. Here is the mirror – the stranger found for this pretty girl..
Technically I did’t find it. .. but somehow – it found me.. 🙂 Pretty nice huh? I didn’t have a place in mind for it, but I’d figure I’d use it outside come spring time in the chill-out spot. As I walked around the house, I found a little corner area that could use a spruce up.. I’m one to prop a mirror in a space to see how it works then build on it.. Here is the target corner:
I put the mirror behind it to see how it works:
Ok.. it’s starting to look livelier.. let’s add a few more touches to it… I found these rose balls I had around the house and wasn’t using them..
I’m liking it even more… then I remembered one special touch … I bought my bohemian butterfly inside for the winter months.. and decided to show it off here..
I would say this corner is complete.. All spruced up!!
I love how the butterfly adds the special touch of color to the corner area. You really should see the beautiful butterflies created by LindaG.. Click here to visit her website to catch a butterfly for yourself or someone special
