Cobalt Blue Memories

I was recently dusting my dresser top and thinking I should really trim down the knick-knacks sitting up there so it isn't as cluttered. But as I washed the dust off each item, I knew I wouldn't be putting any of them in the "throw pile." Almost each thing adorning the top of the dresser is there for a reason - the reason being nostalgia.  So this post is a trip down memory lane, by way of my dresser. Spinning memories - without a spinning wheel.

My favorite color is cobalt blue. When we moved to our new home, we got rid of many (that is MANY) things but I don't believe I "got shed" of any of the cobalt blue things I had accumulated for our kitchen and bedroom. I have a lot of the cobalt blue kitchen items still boxed up because we totally changed the color scheme. But the bedroom. Ahhh, the blue bedroom. It is a peaceful refuge. (Blue is considered a serene color. Really.)

So here is the whole dresser top, minus a layer of dust.





Next to the dresser on the wall is a pictured my mother drew back in 1886. She knew the color to use. (I blurred out her name under the little dress - she didn't draw that area the way it appears.)

Under the picture and the stained glass lamp is a little blue dog. It has painted "things" on it and isn't something I would have necessarily bought. But it was a gift to us from some dear friends. We used to dog sit for them - they had a little shit-tzu named Sampi, after the Philippines national flower, sampaguita. Sampi lived to be 16 years old and was one of the smartest dogs I have ever known. She was not, however, cobalt blue. But during one of their trips, they brought us this little glass dog in honor of Sampi.

I have 6 bottles that once had or still have Evening in Paris in them. When I was a little girl, Evening in Paris must have been my mother's favorite perfume because I remember blue bottles sitting on her dresser. Hey, maybe that's why I love cobalt blue! 

I bought these vintage bottles from the 1950's at various antiques stores. And these are exactly like the ones Mom had.

And then in this picture, the 2 on the left are also vintage but the one on the right is a new bottle of Evening in Paris, bought from Vermont Country Store.com. I don't even love the perfume. But it is Evening in Paris, afterall.

The last of the perfume bottles is one that I got on the Island of Maui in 1995. Nothing spectacular about it but it is cobalt and reminds me of our trip to Hawaii.

The blue glass basket is a replica of an antique glass basket, except that the old ones are typically clear glass. I bought this on an airplane trip to Tennessee. I bought it because it was like my mother's clear antique one AND it was cobalt. But I had to fly it back home. Not wanting to risk it being thrown like a rag doll by the baggage people, I opted to put some of my travel items in it, cover it with a towel and use it as a carry-one. It looked so funny moving on the conveyor belt at security and I looked like Little Red Riding Hood...only blue.

The stuffed bear on the top of the mirror was found on our honeymoon. We were traveling to the Smoky Mountains but made a stop in Berea, Kentucky. It was the only thing affordable in that town and it was blue. So we bought him and named him Berea.

And just look at the cutie-patootie in this teeny-weeny little picture frame that hangs from the switch on the lamp.

Finally, I couldn't feature items in my blue bedroom without showing a wonderful gift from my husband. He bought it for me when we were still in the log house up on the hill. When we were moving, I was looking up at the fan and swooning that I thought I was going to have to make him take it down and move it. He didn't really want to go through the process of taking it down, putting up something new and then putting the old one up at the new house. So he looked for a replacement for our new house. When he bought it, it wasn't the same. It was cobalt blue and would have been fine. But it wasn't the one he had given me as a surprise. So, because he is so nice to me, he put the newly purchased one up at the old house and moved the older one to the new house. I often look up at it and smile because it is so beautiful - if you like cobalt blue.

Well, this ends the tour of my dresser. I'm quite sure I got much more enjoyment from the trip down memory lane than anyone else. Which is why I didn't get rid of anything up there!