The polishing begins...

Tonight a wine cup and a cake knife:

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

This weekend was interesting. Saturday was filled with an adventure in Montreal with I-330. We went “antiquing” as it were. It's a very gentrified sport. She wanted to go to what I call 'antique alley'; a stretch of Notre Dame here in Montreal that is rife with antique stores.

It was an interesting, varied, and at times rainy experience.

Highlight 1: right off the bat we found a great shop that does custom furniture. It looks to be of exceptional quality and they are so flexible that it seems you can design any piece you want.

Drawback: they work with pine, a soft wood. One would need to accept that over the years the material will attain a certain patina because of its nature.

Conclusion: we definitely neeed to go back and explore the possibilities that are entailed with this opportunity. Their prices, for what they offer seemed quite reasonable as well. I figure that we can use some negotiation skills to further get a great piece at a fair price. If that's what's wanted in the end.

Highlight 2: the first incredibly expensive antique shop.

Notable moment: seeing a 'partner desk' that cost $30 000.00!

Conclusion: we were definitely in rarified air at this point. Everything was stunningly beautiful but each piece was worth more than each car of each person I work with it seemed. The person working there was suitably indifferent, as we didn't pull up in a Rolls.

Saucy Thought: It would have been interesting to see if we could have gotten some attention from the 'staff' person by putting a coffee on a table.

Final Analysis: Beautiful things for those that have very wide budgets

Highlight 3: the other incredibly expensive antique shop where it seems I was deemed a potential thief

Notable moment: The woman working there told me it would be 'easier for me' if I left my back pack/man purse with her at the front desk. This is after having to be buzzed in the secure door.

Reaction: I was rather dumbfounded but aquiesced as it seemed so ridiculous that first of all I looked shady, and second it would be possible to fit a 400kg armoire in a small back pack.

Notable thought: For a place that has so many chandeliers that evidently cost more than $15 000.00 they should certainly hang them higher. I spent most of the time ducking and weaving under these things. In such a circumstance, if you hit and cut your head on their stock, it falls and is destroyed... do you buy it? Do you sue for shopping in danger?

Who knows.

Conclusion: An exceptionally surreal and bizarrre experience.

Highlight 4: the desks

Notable moment: I-330 apparently losing her mastery of the decimal system

Causational factor: the fact that these nice desks from an old refurb of the Ritz Carlton are a veritible steal

Notable thought: Must go back and follow up with more questions and examine the construction of these pieces. They were truly a fraction of what we'd seen

Conclusion: To be determined

So, that was the first half of the day. It involved walking quite a bit, and was very enjoyable. The latter half of the day was reflected by us trying to make pierogi from scratch. The whole kit and kaboodle.

This didn't turn out as perfectly as hoped for by either of us, but in retrospect turned out quite well.

It turned out well because we enjoyed doing it together and we learned all sorts of things about what to not do the next time. It was also really nice to see how we have evolved in the sense that we can identify when the other is getting frustrated and work around it to make things good.

This is more about me getting annoyed at dough making, but it seems a good idea to make it inclusionary.

The Creative Idea That Came From All of This

After seeing all of these antique bits and bobs, it occurred to me that I've been storing some family silver for a while. Exhumed it tonight. Turns out to be enough to totally cover my dining room table. The current project is to photograph the pieces all together. Then next to clean each one, and do a before and after of each piece. This will hopefully serve as a record of our family silver (at least what I have) for relatives.

The end goal being that each piece will have it's own sheet of paper to reflect research that I did about the manufacturer, date and place of sale, plus any other salient facts or family anecdotes that can be gathered.

So:

Something Old – Antique shop items

Something New – The custom furniture place

Something Borrowed – Not so much

Something Blue – The glass lining of the silver salt and pepper shakers that were unwrapped tonight