Vintage Bottle Bud Vases

A couple of months ago we dug up some vintage bottles from our backyard.

Some folks have a garden in their backyard and dig up things like potatoes.

We dig up vintage bottles.

Perhaps we could trade?

Anyway, it’s not that unusual to dig up “garbage” in the backyard of a really old home that existed before a person driving a big truck collected your bins of trash every Friday at 4 a.m. You can complain about a lot of things in modern society, but waste disposal ordinances seem like a good thing to me.

The vintage bottles we found were in surprisingly good shape for having been buried for 50 to 100 years. I didn’t want to recycle them, but I also try to be a tiny bit ruthless about what I decide to keep. There’s a fine line between collecting and hoarding. If I actually use what I keep, then it seems like I can call myself a collector.

At least, that’s what I tell myself.

This leads me to the mammogram.

I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of an elegant segue, so I just smashed into that change of topic.

It is pertinent, I promise.

First, because mammograms are important. Second, because the topic of today’s blog post is vintage bottle bud vases and the mammogram place I go to gives you a bouquet of carnations when you’re finished. I suppose it’s to help take the sting out of the pinch, but I think it’s safe to say, we’d all prefer they invent a better diagnostic test.

But I still take my carnations.

I once saw a woman boldly take two bouquets of carnations even though the sign clearly stated, “Please help yourself to ONE bouquet.” Maybe she thought it was one bouquet per side scanned? As generous as that interpretation is, this is why can’t have nice things, people. Someone always has to break the rules.

Also, carnations aren’t THAT great.

Or are they?

When I finally got my carnations home after hours of sitting on the front seat of my hot car, I figured they could probably use a drink even though they didn’t look too worse for wear. Unlike me, who felt a little flat after a morning of appointments and errands in the middle of a heatwave. It was a bad day to not be allowed to wear deodorant.

My flowers and I needed hydration.

None of my vases looked quite right for the carnations though.

How do you make those flowers look good?

And then my eyes fell to the row of vintage bottles I had lined up neatly on the shelf. I’m not going to say a bright light shone down on them from the heavens as if to say “pick these,” but they were in front of a window.

I trimmed and divided my carnation bouquet and placed them in five separate vintage bottles, and then it was time for the fun to begin.

I know using bottles as bud vases is not a new concept. I also don’t know why I decided to parade my carnations in their vintage bottle bud vases around the house to see where they’d look best, but I do know I was having THE. BEST. TIME. Do you see how cute they are?

One of my kids said to me, “What are you doing?”

I replied, “Having fun!”

Obviously.

To which they replied, “Seems weird.”

Parenting is a hoot, I tell you.

But sometimes your kids bring home art they made in school, and, truthfully, that’s a parenting perk I didn’t know I’d enjoy so much. Free art with a sentimental twist!

My vintage bottle bud vases ended up on the ledge next to the watercolor painting one of my kids made of a tree in our backyard.

The funny part of this story is that I did not recognize this tree in the painting, but Handy Husband did immediately. “Oh, that’s the tree behind the pool.” Wait, what?!?!

Sure enough. It was. It looks better in this painting than in real life, I’ll tell you that. In real life, it’s the ugly duckling of our backyard trees with its multiple tops and wonky branch placement.

Isn’t it amazing how things can be viewed and interpreted through the eyes of an artist? What a gift it is to be able to see, really see, the beauty and humanity in the mundane, broken, discarded, or “ugly” things in our world.

Have you ever dug up bottles from your backyard? How do you feel about carnations? Tell me everything! You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook. I respond to all of your comments and sometimes even in a timely manner!

Happy decorating!

P.S. Go get your mammogram! You’ll be glad you did.

Thank you for letting me tell you a story today. I appreciate you. If you’d like another story to read, I have another one to tell. Try one of these.

The other things we dug out of the ground

6 Flower Monogram Embroidery Ideas

Vintage Toolbox Flower Arrangement