Hello friends! It has been a while since I posted because life got in the way but I am back.
I am not quite, but almost, but not really famous now. Let’s call it famous adjacent. Of course famous is an overstatement but it is probably as close as I will be and here is why:
If you have been with me very long you know that my buddy, The Social Planner (TSP), and I love to explore new places and shop in resale, thrift, antique stores. We took a quick trip to Crockett, Texas one Thursday. I love that we can just take off shopping now that we are retired.
Crockett is awesome, visit if you get a chance. While we were shopping I saw these beautiful vintage Red Wing dishes and immediately thought of one of the people I follow on social media Sara @SimplySouthernCottage. They were mid century, pink, had flowers and butterflies, and were American made.
She is making a difference along with others in her community of Minden, Louisiana. (If you watched the most recent Hometown Takeover on HGTV Minden was one of the cites and she was one of those people working to make her town awesome.)
Sara (Simply Southern Cottage) has her own very inspirational story to tell and I hope you check her out of Facebook, Instagram, or her Blog. I love, love, love her sense of whimsy and how bold her color choices are. Annnywayyy back to my story. Sorry for the digression.
In the thrift store I took a picture of the dishes and thought I sent Sara a message with the photo of the dishes. The message didn’t go through until much later- like not until we were driving home. Sara contacted me later that day to ask if I knew the name of the store because she would like to see if they could be shipped. By then I had TOTALLY forgotten where I saw the dishes so I hustled over to The Social Planner’s house to ask for memory assistance. She couldn’t remember either. (Crockett has lots of cool shops to our defense and we saw lots of things we thought about buying.) Immediately she said let’s go back and get them for her. She even figured out how to rope in our husbands. It involved lunch and a brewery.
I contacted Sara, told her I would go buy them and drop them off in Minden on an upcoming trip to North Carolina. Sara was sweet about us going and told us not to worry if we couldn’t go back but we are always up for a challenge.
The Social Planner, our two husbands, and I headed back to Crockett and started searching for the correct shop. I thought it was one place, but it wasn’t the right one, TSP thought it was another but it wasn’t there either. I did learn something though. You can look at your iPhone photo properties ( just swipe up on your photo) to see the location the picture was taken. Using that after searching a good hour we found them! They were sitting in the exact spot just waiting for us to come back. I think I was a little too excited to find them because the price went up. We negotiated and still got a great deal on the dishes.
The husbands were fine with the shopping trip because they got to eat at an award winning bar b q restaurant and a brewery on the way home. We do love a road trip.
When we headed to North Carolina the weather was terrible and traffic was super slow. We arrived in Minden an hour later than planned so instead of a leisurely lunch at Geaux Fresh with Sara we met up, introduced ourselves, took photos, and handed off the dishes. Sara had food bank food delivery duty. She is that kind of person.
We did eat at Geaux Fresh which was one of the spots featured on HGTV and loved it. We shopped at Paris Design Company. It is a cool shop that sells items from local artists, drove by The Villas, then headed on our way. Sara is so busy I honestly thought that was the last I would hear from her.
Sara let me know a few weeks ago that she used the dishes in a photo shoot for Cottage and Bungalows Magazine and that they would be used in one of her Villas. She is renovating a set of 1930’s Spanish style apartments called The Villas that have been abandoned for more than 20 years. They look a-m-a-z-i-n-g. The colors, mix of patterns, and preservation of the historic charm are unique to her style. The Villas are being featured in Cottages and Bungalows and guess what? Sara told them the dishes story and let me know that they wrote a side note telling about a follower who brought her dishes in an upcoming magazine. I feel like an extra in a movie. Only my friends will know that I am her follower but it is still fun. Check out Cottages and Bungalows February/ March issue. It is out now.
Minden right off Interstate 20 not far from Shreveport. It is a great little town and her short term rentals, including The Villas soon are located at Minden Stays.
I will be signing autographs soon!
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