An Unexpected Gift

Last weekend Mike and I visited one of our very favorite places in the area. It's a wonderful little consignment shop not far from us, where the people are great (friendly, fun and very knowledgeable), and where you can find the kinds of antiques and "vintage" items that are high quality, but not always high priced. There are so many "junky" places around these days, if you know what I mean. Not so many "nicer" ones like this. Especially where we live now. Being from New England, we really miss the many, many wonderful antiques stores and outdoor flea markets and, of course Brimfield! Ever since Mike and I were dating, we would spend weekends "on the hunt". This was one of the things that first attracted us to one another: the love of wonderful, old treasures packed with history!

Now that we live in Southern CA I think we appreciate what we left behind all the more. It's not easy to find shops like they have in the Northeast: the old barns and roadside stores jam packed with things of yesteryear- most which had once been owned by good ole Yankees!:-)

But here at our favorite local store, we come about as close to it as we can here ... and we always have a lot of fun when we visit. Becky is the owner, and she's been there about 30 years, I believe. She sure knows her stuff- and her clients! It's so great how she and her staff get to know you and your taste and what you gravitate towards; and how helpful they are in trying to find just what you are searching for. Richard and Shirley are among our favorites there, too; they always provide stories or tidbits of interesting information for us that we enjoy and often learn from. Maybe it's the fact that Richard is originally from New York, and that Shirley is from New England (New Hampshire, I believe?) that make us relate to them so well, I don't know. But whatever it is, they are great fun! Going to their shop on a weekend afternoon is among our favorite things to do.

We have purchased many wonderful things here, and a couple of weeks ago I went in and fell in love with a beautiful pearl necklace with the most gorgeous diamond clasp. I have thought about this piece of jewelry often since. So, when we went in again this past Saturday, I decided to look at it once more- even try it on this time. As extravagant a gift as it would be, given that I have a birthday in the not-to distant-future, I could not help but entertain the thought of possibly trying to persuade Mike into considering it. But alas, my dreams of the pearls and diamonds were short lived, as I came to find that the necklace had been sold.

"Oh well", as Mike said when he heard the news, "You snooze, you lose!". Nice, huh? But I guess he's right. Even in this economy, you always run the risk of missing an opportunity when you find one-of-a-kind items in places like this.

Maybe that's why, after we left and were sitting in the car about to pull away, Mike got out of the car and left me in the parking lot only to go back into the store and buy me the beautiful silver bowl that had caught my eye as soon as we walked in that day. I kept going back to it, picking it up and admiring it. He said I should "just buy it", to which I replied "No way- it's too much of a splurge!". I just could not justify it. But Mike's feeling was that I didn't need to justify it. Besides, like the necklace, it might not be there if I decided to go back for it. So, he just bought it for me simply "because". Now how sweet is that?! It's kind of like flowers: they are great to get on a special occasion, but to me, I love receiving them even more if it is for "no reason at all". I think that's the best!

After he brought the bowl out to me, I went back in to the shop myself. When I re-entered the store, they all commented on what a great guy Mike is and called him "A keeper". Yes, he certainly is! I asked them if I could take a few pictures, to which Becky said "Sure, take as many as you wish." I knew that I wanted to share this story here on my blog with you all :-) So, I snapped some and then went right back out. This was one of the few times I wanted to leave the store- because my sweet wonderful man was outside waiting ;-)