Picnic, Anyone?

Yeah, so our house is really small, but that hasn't stopped us from being collectors. One of my obsessions is vintage picnic tins and baskets.  It started when I read an adorable little book by Tereasa Surratt called A Very Modest Cottage. I loved all of the vintage picnic accessories she used when she outfitted a 1920s one-room cabin that she and her husband brought back to life several years ago.

My picnic tin collection got started at a yard sale. A young man barely out of his teens was selling the contents of his grandparents' house. It was late on the second day of the sale, and there wasn't much good stuff left. But I spotted the red tartan plaid tin and asked him what he wanted for it.

He looked a little puzzled. "Well, I was actually trying to sell the stuff in it, but you can have it for $2."

I handed him two wrinkled dollar bills from the pocket of my shorts and gave him back the fishing twine, hardware, and reading glasses tangled up in the bottom of the box.

Since then, I've bought some baskets as well as several more tins.

But I never got another deal that good. Yesterday when I was in an antique store with a friend, I saw the same one for $48, and the color was faded out.

Score.....