Captivated by Leaves

When I started collecting pictures a few years ago to ascertain my design preferences, I discovered that I liked botanical motifs. Since moving to my condo and doing some decorating, I have gravitated to a leaf motif. The primary leaf addition has been the area rug.

When my husband requested that we add something to the sheers on the sidelight windows so someone standing at the front door could not peer in, I wasn’t thinking “leaves”. I had seen some velcro strips at Walmart that had adhesive. I could attach that to the window frame above the sheers and sew the accompanying non-adhesive strip to some fabric. That would mean no holes in the frame and honor the retirement village’s request not to make holes in any woodwork. (As it turned out, the frame is not wood but metal thus we ended up using magnetic rods for the sheers, but we didn’t know that at the time I made the overhanging curtain. It looked like painted wood.) Since I don’t have a sewing machine, I decided cutting a table runner in half and ironing a hem  on the cut edge using stitch witchery tape, then hand sewing the velcro to the hem would work.
I found no runners in the stores that appealed to me. Headed to ebay and saw several possibilities. The one that grabbed my attention was based on the Pfaltzgraf Yorktowne pattern. I had seen the dishes in the past and liked them. I bought two small fruit bowls in this pattern in an antique mall in Richmond, Indiana the previous year even though I had no other pieces. This pattern is similar to leaves, don’t you think? And it had my favorite color combination of blue and white.

                        I recently added a pitcher with this pattern to display in my kitchen, too. Purchased that at Alley Cats Antiques in Leesburg. 

From an earlier post, you know about my lamp with metal leaves and its newly-covered lampshade with leafy fabric.

 I have been captivated by leaves. Even the copper teapot I bought this spring at a garage sale fits in.

And several years ago God saw how much I liked the Lenox Poppies on Blue pattern and made it affordable to me in a special way. The china was out of my budget range and I had looked at it longingly for years as I passed the store displays, but the company came out with a barnyard accessories line that used this pattern. Not only that, it went on sale plus I could use the department store’s additional 20 per cent off coupon. While some might think it silly not to buy what I loved when I first saw it, I had determined in my heart not to get caught up in material consumption that might lead to debt accrual. The Lenox brand of china is definitely not in my financial budget. Has God given you the desire of your heart even in superficial objects by providing it in an affordable way?