My Little Piece of Nostalgia

The deputy and I went to the Iowa Machine Shed restaurant recently to celebrate his birthday.  He totally LOVES this restaurant.  They are truly a farmstyle restaurant.  But don't think fresh and local...think overalls and gravy and ham.  Think butter, rolls, fried, and gingham.  If that's your thing, then great for you.  But if you're trying to lose weight...then it is kind of scary place.  I used to love going there when I was younger and I didn't care about calories.  They have a fantastic baked potato soup.

So anyways, my favorite part of going there is spending some time in their shop.  They sell all kinds of cool cooking and decorating stuff, as well as LOTS of pretty smelling stuff.  This time, they had these cool seed baskets up on a top shelf. 

They were all slightly different.  I made my, "ooooo", sound and went over to look.  The deputy came over and said, "You know what these are?  These are the things they used to have on the table. "  I realized he was right.  They used to keep these on the table to keep the water pitcher and various sugars and such in.  I also realized I HAD to have one.  We spent quite a while looking for one that had all the elements I wanted.  First, it is red, white, and blue...which I have a lot of things in this color scheme.

Also, it had a chicken on it.  I don't have chickens, but I really WANT chickens.  I also have really wanted to change up my table decoration for a while.  I had a tray there holding napkins and all that, but it's been there a while.  

The basket also had the word 'seed' on it.  It was a done deal.  A piece of local history for only 10 dollars. You can see I have already made it at home on my dining room table.

They also had the corresponding 'silo' salt and pepper shakers.  My son had never seen this type before.  I had to explain to him about the 's' being for salt and the 'p' for pepper.  In all, I was very pleased with my purchases.  It's not too often I can decorate with something that fits into the seed/gardening/chickens decor category that the deputy also likes.  A  win/win situation. 

My son just wanted me to take his picture since I had the camera out.  I very rarely get a true smile out of him, so I had to include this picture.  Isn't he turning into a good-looking young man?  I think so, but I'm a little biased.