Simply Charming

Throughout my lifetime I have gone through series after series of collections. Of course, they all depend on the age I am at the time, and what I where my interests lie. For example, when I was 10 I collected Barbies....of course I really did not COLLECT them...I got them to play with. Yes, even though I was a TomBoy....I was also a closet Barbie Doll player. Later in life it was music prints, glass apples, lighthouses, angels,...as a matter of fact, I told my mom one year that I was no longer collecting lighthouses any more. She seemed shocked and asked me what I was going to collect? Like...you MUST collect SOMETHING....so I said, "One hundred dollar bills." She did not think that was too funny. I, on the other hand, thought it was a scream. I quit collecting when it becomes not fun anymore. I started collecting lighthouses by getting a small statue every time I went to a lighthouse...BUT, then the world started giving me lighthouses...and it no longer meant the same thing. When I was in high school my mom worked for Yetta Oakes Antiques in Palm Beach....I would go and help uncrate stuff and put it out for display. I loved the smell of the antique store...and I loved the stories I would invent for the different pieces of collectibles we unwrapped. For graduation...Yetta gave me a set of four gold rimmed glasses. I remember the day they came in from an estate sale in upstate New York...I loved them then...I love them now...but that is a different story....One day, in a rag-tag box...came in a plate, salad plate, and cup...it was Christmas green....and square! I loved it. I asked Yetta about it and found out it was called Charm. It was not anything pricy...but it was pretty. My paycheck that week brought the square stuff home with me. I am not an avid collector of Forest Green Charm....but I have a solid selection of the stuff. If I find a piece, and it is within my budget, I add it to my collection.

Years later I would discover Forst Green Bupee and Bupee Swirl glasses. They really do make a pretty tablescape and with my 10.00 Family Dollar store Christmas dishes...they make my inexpensive offering...on a table look like something straight out of Martha Stewart Living. I love it! It is especially beautiful...with some green candlesticks, not Forest Green, I found at a Thrift Store, and the green footed punch bowl, complete with 12 cups, my mom found in Tyler, Texas. I do so love to set tables up.

I think the Charm is simply Chah - ming...don't you? I have often thought about adding the Ruby Red dishes to the green....but then...I think....Nope...I am a Forest Green kindagirl and would not have it any other way! Happy Antiquing!