Garden Bling

I love to garden. There is something very therapeutic about digging in the dirt and listening to the birds chirp while the sun warms my back: complete peace. My garden is a place I love to be, and I have decorated it beyond the beautiful plants I have growing there. A trip to the thrift store can make your garden sparkle in the sunlight and give it a wonderful addition of art and color.

My daughter and I love to thrift shop. We hit second hand stores, pawn shops and antique malls all of the time. We spent many a summer days doing this as she was growing up, and now that she is married it's one of our favorite weekend outings together. I have more clothes than I know what to do with, so the clothing racks have been off limits to me in our later outings. My new obsession? Glassware and art.

When we walk into a store I head straight for the dishes. Plates, glasses, vases and votive cups intrigue me - especially anything hand painted, hand blown or mosaic. It started because I am getting ready to write a cookbook and I am always on the lookout for awesome dishes to do food photography with. One day I happened to be talking to a client of mine, and we got into garden talk. She mentioned that she put bottles and plates in her garden to decorate it. Now, why didn't I think of that?! Brilliant. I was now on a new mission every time I walked into a thrift store.

I have a few treasures that I have found this year, and I love the way it makes my garden look. The glassware gives my young, and not filled in yet, garden color and design. Just one more reason I love being out there!

I found a couple of hand painted plates that I just stuck into the ground. I am thinking I want to go take a ceramics class now.......

Votive cups can be turned upside down (so as to not fill with water) to add bling. I found two mosaic style cups that sparkle in the sun beautifully. The little one I actually put on this awesome holder that I found to make it a little higher up. You can do the same thing with bottles, I just haven't found any that I have fallen in love with yet.

I love this! I am just going to have to make sure my treasures don't outweigh my plants. The last thing I want is for my garden to look like a junk yard, but a little bling here and there adds character and flair.