Find of the Season

I dropped Olivia off at her summer violin class this morning. Since it is only an hour long, and I hate to drive home and be in the house for about 25-30 minutes before I have to leave again I decided to hit a few rummages. I found the most wonderful item for an awesome price. Before I tell you what my little treasure is I have to tell a little story of why I have (and LOVE) this collection.

In January of 2005, Bob's great aunt passed away. His great uncle passed away before we were married, and I never met him. She was a wonderful lady and from what I hear Uncle Bill was just as wonderful. They never had any children and always treated Bob's mom like their own. Bob and his brother were treated (read spoiled...lol) like grandchildren. When she passed away, they left most everything to Bob & Jim.

So last summer when we went down to Florida to clean out her house and get it ready to put on the market. We walk in to her home and there is this darling little curio. It's about the size of a sofa table with just one glass shelf and of course the bottom. It is filled with Murano glass and Capodimonte. It was sitting right next to her chair. I knew by the way those items were displayed that she loved them. There was no way I was going to leave that curio for the person who bought her home. I wanted to be home and in the family. We had so much stuff to bring back home it just wouldn't fit on that first trip. Knowing that bummed me out, but thankfully we needed to make a second trip to finish getting her home ready to put on the market. On the second trip we had plenty of room for the curio. YEAH!! I knew didn't know much about Murano glass or Capodimonte, but I knew enough to know that some of the pieces were probably brought back from when she and Uncle Bill visited Italy while he was station over in Europe.

We brought the Murano and Capo home on the first trip so we knew it was safe. Bob's brother and his wife have the Murano and we kept the Capo. It has that shabby chic look I LOVE. The curio has a spot in the entry of our home and it is filled with her Capodimonte and the one piece I already had. On top is a her small Capo basket. It is the only thing on top of the curio and I knew it need more on it. I could just never find that right things to put there.

Well, I am sure can see where this is going. At a rummage, I ran across a much larger Capodimonte basket, It could be the fraternal twin of the one that we already had. I practically ran over to the table it was sitting on to grab it and check the tag. When I looked at the tag, I think I let out an audible gasp. Not because it was high, but because it was FIVE dollars. I cannot find anything on the web similar to it right now, but I know back when we brought her things home last year there a small one (the one I already had) on eBay that went for $105.00. There are a couple chips on two of the roses, but those will be facing the wall.

I still call it Aunt Vi's collection and I was SO thrilled to add to it for her today.

We love you and miss you Aunt Vi!