Counting My Chickens

So…every day I look at this:

It is a make-shift shadowbox I made from an old Coca-Cola bottle tray. I use the term “made” loosely because all I did was dust it off (it had been in my in-law’s garage for God only knows how many years and I simply claimed it when they moved) and tell Mr. Always Random where to hang it on the wall.

Tah-dah!

Anyway…as any good shadow box does, it holds some lovely little treasures. Just to give you a little tour (because I’m certain that you wanted one but you were simply too shy to ask), the silver things are boxes which hold little crafty do-dads (the official term…don’t judge) and buttons.  All for card-making. Again...no judging.

And then the other things (which may or may not be slightly more obvious) are part of my salt and pepper shaker collection.

Yes, I have a decent sized collection, begun by my grandma when she split her collection between me and my cousins.

So clearly this is not my entire collection (I’ll address that at another time…you’re on the edge of your seat, right?), but just a small piece of it.

And you may have noticed that there are a few which do not have matches; if not, I won’t judge you and will simply point them out for you: the pitcher, the black & white rooster, the yellow rooster, the fire hydrant and the bowling pin.

Again, you are certainly wondering but were too shy to ask so I shall tell you: some of them came to me by way of my grandma that way, but others I purchased like that.

You see, I had a whole “rooster thing” going for a while (in my humble opinion, it was not too over the top but still…noticeable that I had a penchant for roosters) and I purchased a lot (meaning “a set sold together,” not “many”) from Ebay which had a couple matched pairs and a couple individual roosters.

Translation: “one broke and this is all we have; take them or leave them” kind of thing. So I took them, vowing that one day I would FIND THOSE MATES!

OK, not really. I bought them thinking, “Oh those are cute even without mates” and frankly never gave it another thought.

But, like I said: I look at these every.single.day. as they are right above my computer.

So fast-forward to yesterday. My 12yo is in a soccer tournament about an hour plus a few minutes away.

No, I did not suddenly take a sharp turn at crazy-town…I will get to my point. It’s the scenic route.

So…between games, we went to an antique store. Two of them, in fact. Oh yes…we know how to LIVE.IT.UP.

My 12yo was especially excited because we had one of his teammates with us for the afternoon…and what 12yo boy wouldn’t want to spend his time wandering around an antique mall?

But I digress…

In the first place we walked into….within the first 5 minutes…I saw this:

Yes, it's a little blurry...I was just a touch excited...quit judging.

WOW! I was FREAKING OUT! It was “THE MATCH!”

But did I buy it? Nope. Because I’m crazy.

Actually, it was because I could not remember with 100% certainty whether or not that was one of my singles or not. And because I like to add additional errands to my life.

I knew that I was going to be returning to the same area the next day so better to SAVE the $3.15 (which would be the total with tax) than to risk having THREE of the same set.

How gauche would that be?!?

When I got home I checked my shadowbox and saw this (yes, same photo as earlier…no need to compare).

Clearly a single. Booyah!

After today’s game, back to the antique mall we went. Needless to say, the PBA were over the moon about it.

But I do need to pause and give some accolades to my sweet 11yo. He had his wallet and he bought that rooster for me: “It’s for Teacher Appreciation Day, Mom”.  My little Eddie Haskell never ceases to surprise me.

For the record, we are finished with the school year so it’s not even like he’s buttering me up for that. God only knows what he was buttering me up for…

Obviously I was excited to get my rooster home to roost (see what I did there? It’s ok…feel free to laugh) I pulled the original one out so I could compare them in the light.

So…now I have six salt and pepper shakers who are looking for a match…

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