Rainy Sunday afternoons are made for browsing antique malls so last Sunday I headed over to Grandaddy’s Antiques in Burlington. If you haven’t been to Grandaddy’s, it’s a treasure trove of anything vintage from teacups to linens to comic books to furniture. Different vendors have spaces or booths in this revamped department store and that means you can find different prices on the same stuff. But, like most antique stores, there’s some bargaining room if you talk to the right person. This time I didn’t try to negotiate because I bought things that were already marked down but the last time I was there, I bought a set of china at a substantial savings.

You could spend all day there but I was on a mission – to buy a few special salad plates for Ashley’s wedding. I found some plates and – you guessed it – a couple of other things that are now part of our inventory at Southern Vintage Table.

The two gorgeous teacups pictured above were one of my first finds.  Not exactly salad plates, but they definitely caught my eye!  There’s no mark on the bottom and they didn’t have saucers but I found some on our shelf that look perfect. Aren’t they beautiful?  Update!  Mary Jane Pearson Baker of Springbranch Landscapes just told me these are “Forget-Me-Not” flowers. I should have picked up on that since I wrote a blog post on a china pattern featuring this lovely, blue flower. I’ll not forget this next time!

I also found this Fire King planter – I had never seen anything like this and, maybe more importantly, it was in the half-price booth.  As I was trying to arrange the camellia blooms in the planter I realized I needed something to anchor the stems. Guess what I used?  Wine corks! They float to the top of the water and hold the stems in place.  Pretty neat trick, I’d say.

The camellias look lovely in this vintage vase, too.  I love the creamy color, the shape and the quaint flower bouquet.  Sweet!

Picking blackberries when I was growing up is one of my favorite memories. There were bushes alongside the roadway and, if we picked enough, mom would make her delicious blackberry cobbler for us. We were lucky to make it home with a bowl full because we loved picking and eating. Washing them before popping them into our mouths never even crossed our minds. This artistic plate made by Homer Laughlin brings back those sweet, carefree memories.
The last treasure is an incredible retro casserole dish called Blue Diamonds by Iroquois. I didn’t get this at Grandaddy’s – it would have been priced too high. I found it at a nearby thrift store on the bottom shelf and immediately loved it. Produced from 1958-68, the blue color, squat shape and the handle on the lid are amazing. This pattern was part of a series called Informal and was created by industrial designer, Ben Siebel.  Definitely dig this look!

What a terrific set of eclectic treasures if I must say so myself!  From elegant to retro, Southern Vintage Table has the vintage style to fit your gathering!

So where are the salad plates I went to find?  Well, I forgot to take a photo before packing them up for Ashley’s wedding.  I’ll be sure to point them out In next week’s blog!

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