The Winner Is & One Man's Trash

The Winner Is

First a big thank you to all of you who have chosen to follow Mercantile Muse! The support is appreciated. As promised, picked from our first 25 followers, the winner of printable wall art of their choice from Bates Mercantile Co. is Wen Preston of Gottaspoilemgems! Wen makes lovely jewelry and cute little accessories for small animals- check out her shop on etsy.

Perhaps Wen will choose this:

Or maybe one of my favorites, boomerang!

So many choices, so little time. The best part is, Wen will receive the file in her email and all she has to do is print and frame however she likes. Cool beans. Congratulations Wen!

One Man's Trash

Just look at what my brother in law Al scored at the dump the other day. So glad he could see it's potential. It really topped off the 4th of July celebration just right.

Now perhaps you see it with it's original intent..........a votive holder.




Copyright Pamela Bates, 2011

I'm sure it would make a lovely votive holder. But we had other plans.





Copyright Pamela Bates, 2011

The handle was crying out that this thing should be carried and used to serve something!
I mean, how often do you carry a bunch of flaming votives around?

My cousin Gail was nice enough to bring along the fixin's for almond joy martinis. This new dump find was christened the official celebratory party shot glass holder! And it really served it's purpose well.



Copyright Ed Cocciardi, 2011

Seriously, how perfect is this for serving?



Copyright Ed Cocciardi, 2011

Now we may all be looking a little worse for the wear, but it wasn't the almond joys we were about to enjoy.
A wind-driven Thunderstorm had just rolled through and we were all drenched.
But the pay off was Almond Joys. Life is good.

 You have to love 'dump finds' and 'side of the road finds'. Keep your eyes open and be ready to fight for what could be rightfully yours.  If you score a find, celebrate with an Almond Joy. If you don't score the find, drown your sorrows.

Almond Joy Martinis

2 shots Malibu
1 shot Frangelico
1 shot Godiva Chocolate Liqueur

Shake with ice, serve chilled in martini glass or shot glass depending on the occasion.

That's one glass of heaven. Unless you asked our friend Cathryn the morning after.

Happy Friday!

Raindrops on Roses

It’s a gray day here in New Hampshire. I’d prefer sunshine, but at least it means I don’t have to water the vegetable garden or the flower gardens.  And, the way a rose holds raindrops on its petals is one thing to cherish about this kind of gray day in June.

Who can't be happy, despite a gray day, when channeling Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music?

On the subject of gray, I just love it more and more in all sorts of design. How about these dandelion screen printed napkins by Giardino. So lovely-especially paired with bright yellow to balance its muted effects. Just brilliant.



Copyright Giardino

I fell in love with these whimsical cylinder hanging lamps with silvery gray flowers from West Elm- and they were the only ones left. Score one for me. If I remember right they ran me about $25 each. Classic color paired with fun and unexpected floral design. What else could I ask for? I had the perfect spot for them, hanging over our night stands.  I came to love this accent piece even more once they were hung, realizing they gave us a lot more room for books on our bedside tables.



Copyright Pamela J. Bates

Bates Mercantile Co.



One of my own designs is what I would deem ‘elegantly gray’. My ‘96 Step’s design was inspired by the scrolling ironwork on the terrace of the apartment we stayed in while in Rome a few years back. Sitting on that terrace was simply sublime. A dream-come-true.

Copyright Pamela J. Bates

Bates Mercantile Co.

The 96 Steps to get to the ‘penthouse’ apartment, in roasting Rome September weather, perhaps not. I’m lucky Garrett survived coming up those steps after roaming in the Rome heat for close to two hours (I opted to stay put and deadhead the flowers on the terrace, sip espresso and watch our neighbor hang out her laundry). We did learn from his experience however, to leave with all we needed in the morning and not come back until we were done exploring.  My husband's face after that first climb was something similar to this (of course, it may have had something to do with is inability to breathe at that point):

Copyright Pamela J. Bates

Bates Mercantile Co.

But I’ll leave red for another day.

What’s your favorite way to see gray used? Classic style on its own, with another neutral, or with a pop of unexpected color? I’d love to know. I'm not sure I can even pin myself down with a favorite way to use gray, but one of the other reasons I like it is because ‘nothing is black and white’ and gray is the perfect example of that- it’s somewhere in the middle.